Gwendolyn Alexander Tedeschi
714 Saint Nicholas Avenue #1
Gwendolyn.Tedeschi@gmail.com
(917) 797 – 3857
Education
Ph.D. Economics,
Dissertation: Essays on the Dynamics of Microfinance
M.A. Economics,
Fields:
Development Economics, International Trade, Industrial Organization
B.A. Economics
and International Studies,
Graduated summa cum laude with Research
Honors
Professional
Experience
Assistant Professor of
Economics,
Consultant, Stratecon,
January 2002. Assist team in developing
a constrained linear programming model to estimate the minimal and optimal
number of participants in government purchase card program.
Consultant, The World Bank, June
1999-July 2000. Team project on Credit Information Systems in developing
countries. Wrote surveys for credit
bureaus, central banks and private banks.
Cleaned and analyzed data and maintained dataset. Helped organize international conference.
Instructor,
Teaching Assistant,
Intern, Foreign Service Institute, US
Department of State, May 1996-August 1996.
Assist in course on spreadsheet skills.
Develop case study on CFA Franc Zone.
Papers
“Here Today, Gone
Tomorrow: Can Dynamic Incentives Make
Microfinance More Flexible?” Journal
of Development Economics 80 (2006)
84 – 105.
This
paper presents a model of microfinance lending to individuals that uses dynamic
incentives, in the form of access to additional loans, to discourage borrowers
from strategic default, or the unwillingness to repay a loan once a positive
outcome is realized. We propose an improvement on contracts currently used by
microfinance institutions (MFIs) by endogenizing the default penalty, while
constraining the MFI to maintain sustainable lending operations. Furthermore, accounting for the risks that
the poor face by including a negative economic shock, we show that under
certain circumstances, the punishment for default need not be a lifetime without
loans.
“Overcoming Selection Bias in Microcredit
Impact Assessments: A case study from Peru.”
Journal of Development Studies. Anticipated publication in Vol. 44, No.4
(April 2008).
There are several potential
sources of bias in microfinance impact assessments. This paper uses a panel data set from a
Peruvian MFI to test for impact of credit on microenterprise profits, while
controlling for these biases. We find
that those who will eventually become borrowers have significantly higher
incomes than those who will not become borrowers, implying that selection into
the lending program is a substantial problem.
After controlling for this selection, we find that an average
microentrepreneur who borrows earns significantly higher enterprise profits
than one who does not borrow, and that naïve models, which do not control for
selection, overestimate this impact.
Fixed-effect estimates give roughly the same results as the
quasi-experimental cross section analysis.
“Cross
Sectional Impact: Bias from Dropouts” with
Dean Karlan, Yale University.
Forthcoming in Perspectives on
Technology and Development.
Several microfinance organizations have
begun using a management tool, developed by Assessing the Impact of
Microenterprise Services (AIMS) at the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID), to assess impact. This tool recommends comparing veteran
members to new members of a microcredit program, and attributes any difference
to the impact of the program. The tool introduces a potential source of bias
into estimates of impact by not instructing organizations to include program
dropouts in their calculations. This paper uses data from a longitudinal study
in Peru of Mibanco borrowers and non-borrowers to quantify some, but not all,
of the biases in the cross-sectional approach. In these data, not including
dropouts overestimates the impact of the credit program. Furthermore, we find
that the sample composition shifted over the two years, introducing further
bias into a cross-sectional impact assessment.
“Drug Markets: A
Classroom Experiment” American Economist, LI (1): 75 – 83.
Experiments are becoming increasingly
popular in economics principles classes as a way to gain student interest in a
rather abstract subject. This
experiment examines the market for illegal drugs, such as marijuana, and the
effects of loosening government intervention on it. While the media tends to focus on the
‘normative’ aspects of drug legislation, students explore the ‘positive’
effects that such legislation would produce.
This paper contains detailed instructions on the experiment, including a
discussion of decriminalization and legalization, and ends with empirical
research on the drug market, a discussion of sin taxes, and the economic costs
associated with drug use.
“Beyond the Subsidy: Coyotes, Credit and Fair Trade Coffee.” with Julie Carlson DeCourcy, Federal Trade
Commission.
Instead of paying farmers the market
price for the good that they produce, fairtrade imposes a price floor on
products sold under the Fairtrade label.
The standard economic analysis of price floors concludes that fairtrade
is nothing more than an inefficient subsidy.
However, the standard analysis of price floors relies on perfectly
competitive markets – which are unlikely for the small coffee producers that fairtrade
targets. By severing the interlinkage
between credit and coffee purchase by local coyotes (trader-lenders), Fairtrade
contracts may improve the outcome of the imperfectly competitive market. In this paper, three mathematical models of
coffee production are examined. We
consider coffee production as if it were perfectly competitive, as it exists in
the absence of fairtrade, and in the presence of fairtrade. In comparing the outcomes, fairtrade may not
lead to the quantity distortions expected from a subsidy, particularly when
world coffee prices or the demand for fairtrade coffee is low. Furthermore, fairtrade always improves the
farmer’s profit relative to the coyote equilibrium, the very outcome that
fairtrade aims to achieve.
“Essays on the Dynamics of Microfinance” Ph.D. Dissertation,
Presentations
Southern Economic Association Annual Meeting,
Eastern Economic Association Annual Meeting,
American Economic Association Annual Meeting,
Southern Economic Association Annual Meeting,
SEDESOL (Ministry of Social Development),
Universidad Iberoamericana, Department of Economics,
Northeast Universities Development Conference (NEUDC), October 2000,
2001.
Workshop on Theoretical and Empirical Research in Microfinance (
LACEA/WB/IDB Network on Inequality and Poverty meetings, October 2000.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND ASSOCIATIONS
Editorial Advisory Board, Lahore Journal of Economics, 2005 - present
American Economic Association Member, 2000 – Present
Council on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP)
Member, 2004 – Present
Discussant, GSAS/UNDP Seminar Series on Gender and Povery, January 2007
Referee, Journal of Development
Studies, 2006
Referee, American Economist,
2005, 2006
Referee, Journal of the European
Economic Association, 2004
Discussant, Workshop on Theoretical and Empirical Research in
Microfinance (
UNIVERSITY
SERVICE
Chair, Development Search Sub-Committee, 2004 – 2005
Faculty
Reader, Honors Thesis in Economics:
Elena Agueenko (2004), Stephen Casil (2003)
Reader, Ph.D. Dissertation: Dina DiCenso (Ph.D., 2005), Noel DeGuzman
(Ph.D., 2005), Dexter Gittens (Ph.D., 2006)
Economics Major Advisor, 2002 – present
Sophomore Advisor, 2003 – 2005
Freshman Advisor, 2002 – 2005
Presentation in Tierney Hall, “AIDS in
Participant, Faculty and Staff Spring Reflection Series, 2002
Honors AND Awards
Faculty Research Grant, Fall 2006
Faculty Fellowship, Spring 2006
CSWEP Regional Mentoring Program,
Jacob K. Goldhaber Travel Grant,
Nominated for Brookings Fellowship in Economics, 2000
Outstanding Senior,
State Farm Exceptional Student Fellowship, 1995 & 1996