Genicot's research focuses on risk-sharing, intra-household bargaining, informal credit markets, social networks, and inequality. Her highly cited work on group formation and networks focuses on how the interplay of personal incentives and group or network incentives impact economic outcomes and has applications in a variety of fields within economics, such as economic development, conflict, and labor economics. Her work with her Ph.D. advisor,
Kaushik Basu and Nobel-winning economist
Joseph Stiglitz studies the responsiveness of labor supply to wages, an idea that is central to the classical theory of economics. They argue that at low wage levels, households are financially insecure and would, therefore, be willing to supply more labor to hedge themselves against economic shocks. This is called the “added labor effect” and has important implications for the ongoing minimum wage debate. Her work on aspirations and inequality with
Debraj Ray shows that aspirations can inspire but also frustrate. Their work shows the discouraging impact of aspirations that are too far from a person's situation. This study has wide implications in developing policy, especially in terms of education investments. In Aspirations and Economic Behavior, the same authors provide a review of the literature on aspirations and apply their model to important development issues such as fertility choice and conflict. Another important focus of Genicot's research revolves around gender issues. In work with
Siwan Anderson, she shows that increased property rights for women did increase the suicides rates and the incidence of wife-beating in India. Improvements in property rights for women can overall benefit women. At the same time, these improvements, by giving more voice and more decision power to women, can also be a source of conflict within families. This article was featured in an article in Ideas for India. In recent work with Maria Henandez-de-Benito, she shows how patriarchal norms persist and affect women's right to land in Tanzania. Her work on Tolerance and Compromise in Social Network models how people may want to compromise on their identity to make friends and "belong"(See Twitter tread). In this important work, she shows how relatively intolerant individuals are key bridges in social networks. As a result, having systematically less tolerance at the extremes lead to the absence of reciprocal compromise and polarization. While intolerance among moderates helps cohesion. Sense has a recent profile of some of Genicot's work in a podcast. == Editorial Work ==