Mark M. Pitt is former Director of the Population Studies and Training Center and a Senior Fellow of the Bureau for Research in Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD).  Pitt is a leading economic demographer. He focuses on theoretically informed analysis of demographic and health-related behaviors of households, primarily in the developing world. Issues of gender and intra-household resource allocation are central themes. Pitt’s recent research has focused on the hidden costs of arsenic contaminated water on direct measures of cognitive and physical capabilities as well as on the schooling attainment, occupational structure, entrepreneurship and incomes of the rural Bangladesh population, the effects of targeted micro-credit programs on household resource allocation; spatial and intergenerational mobility in rural Bangladesh; the household division of labor and health; and the effects of investments in children on their outcomes as adults.  

Email:  Mark_Pitt@brown.edu

SELECTED PAPERS (available for download)

Health, Fertility, and Behavior in Households

Pitt, Mark M., Mark R. Rosenzweig and Nazmul Hassan. “Identifying the Hidden Costs of a Public Health Success:  Arsenic Well Water Contamination and Productivity in Bangladesh,” Review of Economic Studies (2021) 88, 2479–2526

Pitt, Mark M., Mark R. Rosenzweig, and Nazmul Hassan.   Human Capital Investment and the Gender Division of Labor in a Brawn-Based Economy, The American Economic Review, 2012 (Dec.), 102(7): 3531–3560.

Pitt, Mark M. Estimating the Determinants of Child Health When Fertilty and Mortality are Selective . Journal of Human Resources, Winter 1997, 127-158.

Pitt, Mark M., Mark R. Rosenzweig, and Md. Nazmul Hassan. “Productivity, Health and Inequality in the Intra-household Distribution of Food in Low-Income Countries ,”  American Economic Review, December 1990, 1139-1156.

Rosenzweig, Mark R., Lung-Fei Lee, and Mark M. Pitt. “The Effects of Improved Nutrition, Sanitation and Water Purity on Child Health in High-Mortality Populations.” Journal of Econometrics, 1997, 201-235.

Pitt, Mark M., Mark R. Rosenzweig, and Nazmul Hassan. Short- and Long-Term Health Effects of Burning Biomass in the Home in Low-Income Countries , manuscript Dec 2010.

Pitt, Mark M., and Mark R. Rosenzweig. “Health and Nutrient Consumption Across and Within Farm Households.” The Review of Economics and Statistics, LXVII, No. 2 (May 1985), 212-223.

Pitt, Mark M. “Food Preferences and Nutrition in Rural Bangladesh ,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, LXV, 1983, 105-114, Spanish translation in Desarollo Rural en Las Americas.

Pitt, Mark M. and Wendy Sigle. “Seasonality, Weather Shocks and the Timing of Births and Child Mortality in Senegal“,  manuscript January 1998 .

Pitt, Mark M. “The Specification and Estimation of the Demand for Goods Within the Household,” in Harold Alderman and Lawrence Haddad (eds.), Intrahousehold Resource Allocation:  Policy Issues and Research Methods, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997, 19-38

Pitt, Mark M., and Mark R. Rosenzweig. “Estimating the Intrafamily Incidence of Illness: Child Health and Gender Inequality in the Allocation of Time in Indonesia.” International Economic Review, November 1990, 969-989.

Pitt, Mark M., and Mark R. Rosenzweig. “Agricultural Prices, Food Consumption and the Health and Productivity of Indonesian Farmers.” In Inderjit Singh, Lyn Squire and John Strauss (eds.), Agricultural Household Models: Extensions, Applications and Policy, Johns Hopkins University Press (1986), 153-182.

Microfinance

Pitt, Mark M., Shahidur R. Khandker, and Jennifer Cartwright. Empowering Women with Micro-finance: Evidence from Bangladesh. Economic Development and Cultural Change, July 2006, 791-831.

Pitt, Mark M., Shahidur R. Khandker, Omar Haider Chowdhury, and Daniel Millimet. Credit Programs for the Poor and the Health Status of Children in Rural Bangladesh. International Economic Review, 44:1, February 2003, 87-118.

Pitt, Mark Pitt, Mark M. and Shahidur R. Khandker. Credit Programs for the Poor and Seasonality in Rural Bangladesh.  Journal of Development Studies, 39:2, Dec. 2002, 1-24.

Pitt, Mark M.  The Effect of Nonagricultural Self-Employment Credit on Contractual Relations and Employment in Agriculture: The Case of Microcredit Programs in Bangladesh , Bangladesh Development Studies, June-Sept 2000, 15-48.

Pitt, Mark M., S. Khandker, S-M. McKernan, and M. A. Latif. “Credit Programs for the Poor and Reproductive Behavior in Low Income Countries: Are the Reported Causal Relationships the Result of Heterogeneity Bias? ” Demography, February 1999, 1-21.

Pitt, Mark M. and Shahidur Khandker. The Impact of Group-Based Credit on Poor Households in Bangladesh: Does the Gender of Participants Matter? Journal of Political Economy, October 1998, 958-996.

Pitt, Mark M. “Re-Re-Reply to “The Impact of Microcredit on the Poor in Bangladesh: Revisiting the Evidence“, World Bank Policy Research Paper 6801, March 2014.  (This is the long version of   Pitt, Mark M. “Response to ‘The Impact of Microcredit on the Poor in Bangladesh: Revisiting the Evidence’,” Journal of Development Studies, 2014, Vol. 50, No. 4, 605-610

Pitt, Mark M. “Replicating Replication:  Due Diligence in Roodman and Morduch’s Replication of Pitt and Khandker (1998),” World Bank Working Paper No. 6273, November 2012

Pitt, Mark M.   “Gunfight at the NOT OK Corral: Reply to “High Noon for Microfinance” by Duvendack and Palmer-Jones (Uncut version)” , July 2012

Pitt, Mark M.   “Gunfight at the NOT OK Corral: Reply to “High Noon for Microfinance” by Duvendack and Palmer-Jones (Short version)” , The Journal of Development Studies,Vol. 48, No. 12, 1886–1891, December 2012

Pitt, Mark M., “Overidentification Tests and Causality:  A Second Response to Roodman and Morduch”  April 8, 2011 (do and dta files)

Pitt, Mark M., Response to Roodman and Morduch’s “The Impact of Microcredit on the Poor in Bangladesh:  Revisiting the Evidence” March 2011.  Stata do and dta files used in this response are found here (zip file)

“Reply to Jonathan Morduch’s “Does Microfinance Really Help the Poor? New Evidence from Flagship Programs in Bangladesh“, October 14, 1999. (Stata do file from appendix)

Pitt, Mark M.  2014. “Re-Re-Reply to ‘The Impact of Microcredit on the Poor in Bangladesh:  Revisiting the Evidence’“, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper
6801

McKernan, Signe-Mary, Mark M. Pitt, and David Moskowitz. “Use of the Formal  and Informal Financial Sectors: Does Gender Matter? Empirical Evidence from Rural Bangladesh” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3491, January 2005

Program Evaluation and Econometric Methods

Pitt, Mark M. and Nidhiya Menon.  Spatial Decentralization and Program Evaluation: Theory and an Example from Indonesia, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 2019, Vol. 81, Issue 3, pp. 511-539.

Pitt, Mark M. Estimating the Determinants of Child Health When Fertilty and Mortality are Selective . Journal of Human Resources, Winter 1997, 127-158.

Rosenzweig, Mark R., Lung-Fei Lee, and Mark M. Pitt. “The Effects of Improved Nutrition, Sanitation and Water Purity on Child Health in High-Mortality Populations.” Journal of Econometrics, 1997, 201-235.

Lee, Lung-Fei and Mark M. Pitt. “Microeconometric Demand Systems with Binding Non-Negativity Constraints: The Dual Approach, Econometrica: 54:5 (1986), 1237-1242.

Lee, Lung-Fei, and Mark M. Pitt.  “The Econometrics of Rationing, Imperfect Markets and Binding Non-Negativity Constraints.” Journal of Econometrics 36 (1987), 89-110.

Pitt, Mark M. and Lung-Fei Lee. “The Measurement and Sources of Technical Inefficiency in the Indonesian Weaving Industry,” Journal of Development Economics, 9 (1981), 43-64.

Pitt, Mark M., and Gunawan Sumodinigrat. “Risk, Schooling and the Choice of Seed Technology in Developing Countries: A Meta-Profit Function Approach.” International Economic Review, May 1991, 457-473

Pitt, Mark M. “Farm-Level Fertilizer Demand in Java:  A Meta-Production Function Approach.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 65 (1983), 502-508.

Pitt, Mark M. “The Specification and Estimation of the Demand for Goods Within the Household,” in Harold Alderman and Lawrence Haddad (eds.), Intrahousehold Resource Allocation:  Policy Issues and Research Methods, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997, 19-38

Pitt, Mark M., Mark R. Rosenzweig, and Donna M. Gibbons. “The Determinants and Consequences of the Placement of Government Programs in Indonesia,” World Bank Economic Review, September 1993.  Reprinted in Dominique van de Walle and Kimberly Nead (eds.), Public Spending and the Poor: Theory and Evidence, Baltimore and London, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, 114-149

Kao, Chihwa, Lung-Fei Lee, and Mark M. Pitt. “Simulated Maximum Likelihood Estimation of the Linear Expenditure System with Binding Non-negativity Constraints.” Annals of Economics and Finance, 2001, 203-223.

Energy

Chen, Joyce J. and Mark M. Pitt. 2017. Sources of Change in the Demand for Energy by Indonesian Households: 1980-2002. Energy Economics. 61, 147-161.

Pitt, Mark M. “Equity, Externalities and Energy Subsidies: The Case of Kerosene in Indonesia ,” Journal of Development Economics, 17 (1985), 201-217.

Pitt, Mark M. “Estimating Industrial Energy Demand with Firm-Level Data: The Case of Indonesia,” Energy Journal 6, No. 2 (1985), 25-39

Trade and Development

Pitt, Mark M. Smuggling and Price Disparity, Journal of International Economics, 11 (1981), 447-458.

Pitt, Mark M. 1980. “Alternative Trade Strategies and Employment in Indonesia” in Anne O. Krueger, Hal B. Lary, Terry Monson, and Narongchai Akrasanee, eds. Trade and Employment in Developing Countries, Volume 1:  Individual Studies,  181 – 238

Pitt, Mark M. “Smuggling and the Black Market for Foreign Exchange.” Journal of International Economics, 14 (1984), 243-257

Other

Pitt, Mark M., and Gunawan Sumodinigrat. “Risk, Schooling and the Choice of Seed Technology in Developing Countries: A Meta-Profit Function Approach.” International Economic Review, May 1991, 457-473

Pitt, Mark M., and Joel Slemrod. “The Compliance Cost of Itemizing Deductions:  Evidence from Individual Tax Returns.” American Economic Review, 1989, 1224-1232

Replications of Pitt and Khandker (1998) 

Papers, Data, and Code are here