This research project is motivated from three observations regarding recent trends in empirical economics using micro-level data. First, researchers are increasingly aware of the trade-off between credibility and the strength of the assumptions maintained, eloquently termed as the law of decreasing credibility by Charles F. Manski. This trend has led to recent intensive research in partial identification. Second, applied empirical research is increasingly based on data collected for study by individual researchers, quite often through laboratory or field experiments. Third, high-dimensional data are more readily available than ever before, and have received growing attention in economics. In view of these observations, there is a call for research to improve standard econometric practice by facing identification problems upfront, by providing econometrically sound guidelines for data collection, and by making use of the increasing availability of high-dimensional data without sacrificing the credibility of econometric methods. This research project aims to contribute to advances in microeconometrics by considering the issues of identification, data collection, and high-dimensional data carefully. The proposed research builds on semiparametric and nonparametric approaches to increase the credibility of proposed econometric methods. In particular, the proposed research will: (1) develop identification results of practical value and characterize optimal data collection for applied researchers; (2) make advances in estimation, inference, and testing in a variety of microeconometric models; (3) produce credible evidence in applied microeconometric research; (4) develop computer software that implements newly available microeconometric techniques.

The proposed research aims to improve our understanding of individual choices over which foods to purchase. The research aims to make fundamental contributions to models of choice and preference formation, and the outputs will inform the development of policy interventions that seek to improve nutritional outcomes. Our particular interest will be to better understand: (i) the importance of the foods available at home in childhood in influencing choices that young adults make over which foods to eat, (ii) the relevance of temptation and self-control in explaining poor nutritional food choices, and the ways that advertising might influence these behaviours, and (iii) the important interactions that exist between the ways that people spend their time (for example work and physical activity) and the food choices that they make and how this determines nutritional outcomes. A proper understanding of the way that preferences are formed, and the ways that they might be influenced, is key to the design of effective public policy. The food market is a good place to study these questions for a number of reasons. First, people make decisions with high frequency and in different economic conditions, which helps provide variation needed for identification of key parameters of interest. Second, we observe the same individuals making choices both for immediate consumption and for future consumption, which will also help us with identification. Third, the food industry is of considerable policy interest. People in developed countries are getting fatter at an alarming rate. To the extent that people do not take account of the effects of this on themselves in the future and on others then they are making suboptimal decisions; they and society could potentially be made better off by policy intervention, but it is important that we have a good understanding of what impact these interventions are likely to have.

We propose to study the process of human capital accumulation during the early years of life in developing countries. The research is motivated by the importance of early years to human development, both because of the long run consequences of events during that period and because of high malleability across key developmental domains during that period, making it particularly salient for policy interventions. The research is organized into three parts. First, we need to understand the process of formation of human capital, what economists refer to as the production function of human capital. Human capital is understood as a multidimensional object whose components (cognition and intelligence, socio-emotional skills, health) evolve in a complex way interacting with a variety of inputs and environmental factors. Disentangling the role played by different factors and inputs (including initial conditions, environmental shocks, parental inputs, centre based care) is important for our understanding of the process and for policy analysis. Second, we need to understand parental behaviour, as parents choose many of the investments in human capital development. Many questions are open: what are the constraints (resources, information, beliefs and attitudes) that parents face in making investment choices? Do parents make optimal choices? Do parents reinforce or compensate shocks? How are resources allocated across children of different gender and/or ability? Who makes decisions within the family? Third, measurement and the design of measurement tools is central to our research. We need to examine the performance of existing measurement tools and propose, design and validate new ones. The research, led by an economist, is interdisciplinary, using inputs from psychologists, child development specialists, geneticists, anthropologists and is organized around a unified framework, whereupon parents make choices taking into account the production function and a number of constraints