MIT Department of Economics

Prof. Townsend is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at MIT. Prior to that, he was the Charles E. Merriam Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago where he remains a Research Professor. His contributions in theory include the revelation principle, costly state verification, optimal multiperiod contracts, decentralization with private information, money with spatially separated agents, financial structure and growth, and forecasting the forecasts of others. His contributions in econometrics include the study of risk and insurance in developing countries. His work on village India was awarded the Frisch Medal in 1998.

• "Welfare Gains from Financial Liberalization" with Kenichi Ueda. International Economic Review, forthcoming.

• "Financial Systems in Developing Economies: Growth, Inequality, and Policy Evaluation in Thailand." Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2010.[LINK]

• "Households as Corporate Firms: An Analysis of Household Finance Using Integrated Household Surveys and Corporate Financial Accounting" with Krislert Samphantharak. Econometric Society Monograph Series No. 46, December 2009. [LINK]

• "Measuring the Impact of Financial Intermediation: Linking Contract Theory to Econometric Policy Evaluation" with Sergio Urzua. Macroeconomic Dynamics 13(S2), September 2009: 268-316.

• "Impact of Climate Change on Rice Production in Thailand" with John Felkner and Kamilya Tazhibayeva. American Economic Review 99(2), May 2009: 1-10.

• "Patterns of Rainfall Insurance Participation in Rural India," with Xavier Gine and James Vickery. World Bank Economic Review 22(3), November 2008: 539-566.

• "Endogenous Groups and Dynamic Selection in Mechanism Design," with Gabriel Madeira. Journal of Economic Theory 142(1), September 2008: 259-93. [LINK]

• "Growth and Inequality: Model Evaluation Based on an Estimation-Calibration Strategy," with Hyeok Jeong. Macroeconomic Dynamics Special Issue on Inequality 12; Supplement S2, September 2008: 231-84. [LINK]

• "Introduction to Macroeconomic Dynamics Special Issue: Inequality." Macroeconomic Dynamics 12; Supplement S2, September 2008: 149-53.

• "Statistical Analysis of Rainfall Insurance Payouts in Southern India," with Xavier Giné and James Vickery. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 89(5), December 2007: 1248–1254. [LINK]