This study examines how lenders’ exposure to high temperatures affects mortgage lending in India. Each additional day with temperatures above 35 °C reduces interest rates by approximately two basis points compared to cooler days (≤ 20 °C). Lower rates are disproportionately offered to male borrowers and those in non-redline areas. The heat-induced lower mortgage rates are primarily explained through a behavioral channel and become more pronounced following a rate scheme transition in India. Higher air conditioning adoption can mitigate this heat effect. 

This paper examines the relationship between kin-based institutions and the state in the modern Chinese economy, exploring how clans may manipulate or influence local governments. Using data from China’s primary land market and a nationwide genealogy dataset, we employ spatial matching to estimate clans’ causal impacts on land parcel prices, which are a crucial source of fiscal revenue for local government. We find that firms linked to local clans obtained 1.3%-3.0% lower prices than those without clanship connections. We show that clan firms get lower prices through collusion with bidders, a process facilitated by local government officials. This patron-client relationship can lead to a decline in economic growth at the county level, while China’s anti-corruption campaign transforms the economic impact from negative to positive.

This study analyzes the aid-politics-conflict nexus by empirically examining aid-related conflict occurrence after the 2021 military coup d'état in Myanmar. By combining aid and conflict data, I construct a village-year-month panel covering over 13,000 villages. Using the Difference-in-Differences design, I find that the military coup triggered 1.2 percentage points (140% in terms of the pre-coup level) higher aid-related conflicts, especially anti-authoritarian movements. The aid-politics-conflict relationship can be explained by relative deprivation and ideologically winning hearts and minds. This study adds to the longstanding debate on aid and conflicts in the context of intense political turmoil.

This study investigates the association between micro-level urban heat and property prices, utilizing the UHI intensity based on sky view factor, air temperature increment due to anthropogenic heat, and transaction-level public housing transactions in Singapore. We disclose that a 1-degree Celsius (℃) increase in ambient temperature is associated with a 1.5% discount in resale public housing prices. We also show that higher wind permeability, higher relative floor level, and more precipitation, which are mitigation strategies to heat stress, can mitigate the association between ambient temperature and property prices in the public housing sector. This study provides a new perspective on household financial behavior and social well-being across housing market segments in the context of urban warming.