Maria Porter

Interests

Teaching

microeconomics, econometrics, behavioral and experimental economics, economics of the family, development economics

Research

applied microeconomics, trust, social preferences, risk and time preferences, impact evaluation, intra-household resource allocation

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Chapters

• Porter, M. (2010). Marriage and The Elderly in China. In Aging Asia: The Economic and Social Implications of Rapid Demographic Change in China, Japan, and Korea. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
• King, E., Klasen, S., & Porter, M. (2009). Women and Development. In Global Crises, Global Solutions.

Journals/Publications

• Caputo, V., Kaminski, D., & Porter, M. (2023).

  Dairy workers’ preferences for compensatory benefits: A field choice experiment with U.S. immigrants and students 

  . Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, 2(2), 198-214.
• Farris, J., Porter, M., Jin, S., & Maredia, M. K. (2023). Growing Pains: Timing of In Utero Rainfall Shocks and Child Growth in Rural Rwanda. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 71(2), 793-818. doi:10.1086/714886
• Maredia, M., Porter, M., Nakasone, E., Orega, D. L., & Caputo, V. (2023). Does increasing the availability of a nutritious food produced by a small- and medium-sized enterprise increase its consumption? Evidence from a field experiment in Kenya. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 1-23.
• Kassas, B., Palma, M. A., & Porter, M. (2022). Happy to take some risk: Estimating the effect of induced emotions on risk preferences. Journal of Economic Psychology, 91, 102527.
• Wang, Y., Porter, M., & Jin, S. (2020). The impact of health insurance on healthcare service use and costs: evidence from rural China. China Agricultural Economic Review, 13(2), 418-435. doi:10.1108/caer-06-2020-0148
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  PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the effects of introducing a health insurance program in rural China between 2004 and 2006, the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS).Design/methodology/approachThe authors apply difference in difference and propensity score matching methods (PSM-DID) to a widely used panel dataset, the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS). Findings are robust across several treatment and comparison groups used in previous NCMS studies.FindingsHouseholds who participated in NCMS increased the use of preventive services and western medicine, while lowering the use of traditional Chinese medicine. NCMS also reduced hospital use, out of pocket payments, travel time to healthcare facilities and waiting time to see doctors. The authors estimate that reductions in travel and waiting time saved roughly 52m U.S. dollars in 2006.Research limitations/implicationsPreviously divergent findings on health insurance effects may be due to researchers studying health insurance across different healthcare delivery systems. In addition, in estimating how health insurance access affects healthcare costs, the authors should consider economic costs related to the time needed to access health services.Originality/valueThe authors study how health insurance access affects patients' choice of providers and economic costs to accessing health care services, outcomes that have not received much attention previously. The authors depart from previous NCMS studies by comparing several different approaches to identifying treatment and control groups when applying PSM-DID.
• Porter, M. (2017). Spousal Bargaining Over Care for Elderly Parents in China: Imbalances in Sex Ratios Influence the Allocation of Support.. The journal of development studies, 53(4), 514-529. doi:10.1080/00220388.2016.1156093
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  Using a unique Chinese survey of parents and adult children, this paper examines how married children negotiate with their spouses for time devoted to caring for their own parents. Applying a collective bargaining framework, I show that the sex ratio at marriage shifts household bargaining in favour of the husband's parents when women are less scarce, or against his parents when women are scarcer. Such changing dynamics in the family may potentially reverse the current preference for sons in China, implying that those with sons, rather than daughters, may be increasingly in need of state support.
• Porter, M. (2016). Effects of microcredit and other loans on female empowerment in Bangladesh: the borrower's gender influences intra-household resource allocation. Agricultural Economics, 47(2), 235--245.
• Porter, M. (2016). How do sex ratios in China influence marriage decisions and intra-household resource allocation?. Review of Economics of the Household, 14(2), 337--371.
• Porter, M., & Adams, A. (2016). FOR LOVE OR REWARD? CHARACTERISING PREFERENCES FOR GIVING TO PARENTS IN AN EXPERIMENTAL SETTING.. Economic journal (London, England), 126(598), 2424-2445. doi:10.1111/ecoj.12248
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  Understanding the motivations behind intergenerational transfers is an important and active research area in economics. The existence and responsiveness of familial transfers have consequences for the design of intra and intergenerational redistributive programmes, particularly as such programmes may crowd out private transfers amongst altruistic family members. Yet, despite theoretical and empirical advances in this area, significant gaps in our knowledge remain. In this article, we advance the current literature by shedding light on both the motivation for providing intergenerational transfers, and on the nature of preferences for such giving behaviour, by using experimental techniques and revealed preference methods.
• Porter, M. (2010). Health, Longevity, and the Role of the Family in China. Journal of Population Ageing, 3(3-4), 103--109.