Robert M. Townsend
Robert M. Townsend is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor 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 risk-sharing practices amongst village members in rural India was awarded the Frisch Medal in 1998.
Townsend, a theorist and specialist on monetary risks, incentive systems and the methods societies use to protect against risk, has been particularly interested in Thailand and has done much of his field work there. He also has studied ways in which immigrants and other minority groups develop capital for business ventures in the United States. His current work looks at entrepreneurship and financial constraints in Thailand, Mexico and other countries, as well as other topics. Townsend is the founder of the Enterprise Initiative, which examines entrepreneurship as a means of wealth creation in the developing world.
Joseph Kaboski and Robert M. Townsend. Econometrica, forthcoming.
Kaboski and Townsend use a structural model to understand, predict, and evaluate the impact of an exogenous microcredit intervention program, the Thai Million Baht Village Fund. They model household decisions in the face of borrowing constraints, income...
Robert M. Townsend and Anan Pawasutipaisit. Journal of Econometrics. 161(1), March 2011: 56-81.
Townsend and Pawasutipaisit use detailed income, balance sheet, and cash flow statements constructed for households in a long monthly panel in an emerging market economy, as well as contributions in economic theory, to document and better understand the...
Robert M. Townsend. Annual Review of Economics. Ed. Kenneth Arrow and Timothy Bresnahan. Vol. 2, 2010: 507-546.
This review provides a common framework for researchers thinking about the next generation of micro-founded macro models of growth, inequality, and financial deepening, as well as direction for policy makers targeting microfinance programs to alleviate...
Robert M. Townsend and Kenichi Ueda. International Economic Review 51(3), August 2010: 553-597.
In this paper, Townsend and Ueda address the controversial issue of financial liberalization. Using data from Thailand from 1976 to 1996, the authors find sizable welfare gains from liberalization, though the gain in economic growth is ambiguous. They...
Robert M. Townsend. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Unique in its approach and in the variety of methods and data employed, this book is the first of its kind to provide an in-depth evaluation of the financial system of Thailand, a proto-typical Asian developing economy. Using a wealth of primary source...
Krislert Samphantharak and Robert M. Townsend. Econometric Society Monograph Series, No 46. December 2009.
This investigation proposes a conceptual framework for measurement necessary for an analysis of household finance and economic development. Samphantharak and Townsend build on and, where appropriate, modify corporate financial accounts to create balance...
Robert M. Townsend and Sergio Urzua. Macroeconomic Dynamics, September 2009, 13(S2): 268-316.
Townsend and Urzua study the impact that financial intermediation can have on productivity through the alleviation of credit constraints in occupation choice and/or an improved allocation of risk. They bring together both static and dynamic structural...
Hyeok Jeong and Robert M. Townsend. Economic Theory, 2007, 32(1), pp. 179-221.
In this in-depth look at theories of wealth creation, the authors develop a method of growth accounting based on the integrated use of transitional growth models and micro data to explain the sources of total factor productivity (TFP) growth. TFP growth...