Craig McIntosh

Craig McIntosh is an American development economist, currently a professor of economics at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego, California. He also serves as a co-director of the Policy Design and Evaluation Lab (since 2013.)

His main research interest is the design of institutions that promote the provision of financial services to micro-entrepreneurs, and he has conducted field evaluations of innovative anti-poverty policies in Mexico, Guatemala, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania.

McIntosh obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, California, in 1993. Later, he attended the University of California, Berkeley, California, and received his MA in Agricultural and Resource Economics (1999,) and Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics (2003).

After completing his education, McIntosh joined UC San Diego's International Development and Non-Profit Management Career Track, GPS as director (2003–).

Since 2013, he is a professor of economics at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego, California, teaching MA and Ph.D. courses. He also serves as a co-director of the Policy Design and Evaluation Lab.

In 2010-2013, McIntosh served as Associate Editor at American Journal of Agricultural Economics. In 2012-13, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

He has also held consulting positions at such institutions as World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank/Sedesol (Mexican Government), Hewlett Foundation, Grameen Foundation, Grameen Technology Center, FINCA, IFAD, and Wireless Reach/Qualcomm. In addition, he is an advisory board member with Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI), Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), BASIS/USAID CRSP, Working Group on African Political Economy (WGAPE), and Experiments in Governance and Politics (EGAP).

After getting his M.A. and before earning his Ph.D., he did aid work in Somalia with the International Rescue Committee and spent a year on a Fulbright grant as a research director at FINCA/Uganda.

• "How Rising Competition among Microfinance Institutions Affects Incumbent Lenders", with Alain de Janvry, and Elisabeth Sadoulet, The Economic Journal 115, October 2005, pp. 987-1004.
• "Competition and Microfinance" McIntosh, Craig and Bruce Wydick, Journal of Development Economics 78, December 2005, pp. 271-298.
• "Credit Information Systems in Less-Developed Countries: A Test with Microfinance in Guatemala", with Jill Luoto, Craig McIntosh, and Bruce Wydick, Economic Development and Cultural Change, January 2007
• "The Effectiveness of Listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act: An Econometric Analysis Using Matching Methods", with Paul Ferraro and Monica Ospina. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol 24, 2007.
• "Estimating Treatment Effects from Spatial Policy Experiments: An Application to Ugandan Microfinance". Review of Economics and Statistics, 90(1), February 2008.
• "Using the Error in Pre-Election Polls to Test for the Presence of Pork", with Jacob Allen. The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, Contributions, Vol 9, Issue 1, 2009.
• "The Demography of Mexican Migration to the United States", with Gordon Hanson. American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings, Vol. 99, Issue 2, May 2009.
• "Tracking the Introduction of the Village Phone Product in Rwanda", with Michael Futch. Information Technologies in International Development 5(9). 2009.
• "The Short Term Impacts of a CCT Program for Schooling on the Sexual Behavior of Young Women", with Sarah Baird, Ephraim Chirwa, and Berk Özler. Health Economics (19), 2010.
• "The Great Mexican Emigration", with Gordon Hanson, NBER Working Paper 13675. Review of Economics and Statistics 92(4), November 2010.
• "The Supply and Demand Side Impacts of Credit Market Information", with Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet. Journal of Development Economics 93(2), 2010.
• "Cash or Condition? Evidence from a Randomized Cash Transfer Program", with Sarah Baird and Berk Özler. Quarterly Journal of Economics (126), 2011.
• "Microfinance and Home Improvement: Using Retrospective Panel Data to Measure Program Effects on Fundamental Events", with Gonzalo Villaran and Bruce Wydick. World Development 39(6), 2011.
• "Monitoring Repayment in Online Peer-to-Peer Lending", in Peter Gourevitch, David A. Lake, and Janice Stein, eds., Beyond Virtue: Evaluating the Credibility of Non-Governmental Organizations (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012).
• "Impact of a Cash Transfer Program for Schooling on Prevalence of HIV and HSV-2 in Malawi: A Cluster Randomized Trial." With Sarah Baird, Richard Garfein, and Berk Özler. Lancet, February 2012.
• "Birth Rates and Border Crossing: Latin American Emigration to the US, Canada, Spain, and the UK", with Gordon Hanson. The Economic Journal, 122(561), 707-726.
• "Reputation in a Public Goods Game: Taking the Design of Credit Bureaus to the Lab", with Steven Buck, Tomas Rosada, and Elisabeth Sadoulet. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 95, 270-285.
• "The Ecological Footprint of Poverty Alleviation: Evidence from Mexico's Oportunidades Program", with Jennifer Alix-Garcia, Kate Sims, and Jarrod Welch. 2013, Review of Economics and Statistics. Vol. 95, No. 2. Pp 417-435.
• "Prompting Microfinance Borrowers to Save: A Field Experiment from Guatemala", with Jesse Atkinson, Alain de Janvry, and Elisabeth Sadoulet. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 62(1), 21-64
• "Productivity, Credit, Risk, and the Demand for Weather Index Insurance in Smallholder Agriculture in Ethiopia", with Alexander Sarris and Fotis Papadopoulos, Agricultural Economics (44), 2013.
• "Deposit Collecting: Unbundling the Role of Frequency, Salience, and Habit Formation in Generating Savings", with Suresh de Mel and Christopher Woodruff. American Economic Review, Papers & Proceedings, May 2013.
• "The Regressive Demands of Demand-Driven Development", with Sarah Baird and Berk Özler. Journal of Public Economics. 106 (2013): 27-41.
• "The Heterogeneous Effects of HIV Testing", with Sarah Baird, Erick Gong, and Berk Özler. Journal of Health Economics 37 (2014): 98-112.
• "Alcances e Impactos del Programa Hábitat en Cominidades Pobres Urbanas de México", with Tito Alegria, Gerardo Ordonez, and Rene Zenteno. Papeles de Poblacion, 19.77 (2013): 231-267.
• "Fair Trade and Free Entry: Can a Disequilibrium Market Serve as a Development Tool?" with Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet. Review of Economics and Statistics, 97(3), 567-573.
• "Is the Mediterranean the New Rio Grande? US and EU Immigration Pressures in the Long Run", with Gordon Hanson, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(4), 57-81.
• "Optimal Design of Experiments in the Presence of Interference", with Sarah Baird, Aislinn Bohren, and Berk Ozler. Forthcoming, Review of Economics and Statistics.
• "The Neighborhood Impacts of Local Infrastructure Investment: Evidence from Urban Mexico", with Tito Alegría, Gerardo Ordóñez, and René Zenteno. Forthcoming, American Economic Journal: Applied.
• "The Rise and Fall of U.S. Low-Skilled Immigration", with Gordon Hanson and Chen Liu. Forthcoming, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.
• "The Double-Edged Sword of Mobilizing Citizens via Mobile Phone in Developing Countries", with Aaron Ehrlich, Danielle Jung, and James Long. Forthcoming, Development Engineering.
• "Utility, Risk, and Demand for Incomplete Insurance: Lab Experiments with Guatemalan Cooperatives," with Felix Povel and Elisabeth Sadoulet. Forthcoming, Economic Journal.
• "What Are the Headwaters of Formal Savings? Experimental Evidence from Sri Lanka," with Michael Callen, Suresh de Mel, and Christopher Woodruff. Forthcoming, Review of Economic Studies.
• "Voter Information Campaigns and Political Accountability", with Thad Dunning et al. Forthcoming, Science Advances.
• "Information, Accountability, and Cumulative Learning", with Thad Dunning, Guy Grossman, Macartan Humphreys, Susan D. Hyde, and Gareth Nellis. Forthcoming, Cambridge University Press.
• "Designing and Evolving an Electronic Agricultural Marketplace in Uganda", with Neil Newman, Lauren Bergquist, Nicole Immorlica, Kevin Leyton-Brown, Brendan Lucier, John Quinn, and Richard Ssekibuule. COMPASS ACM

• Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award, GPS, UCSD. 2017, 2016, 2015, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2005.
• Distinguished Teaching Award for an Academic Senate Member, UCSD 2012.
• Excellence in Teaching a Graduate Field Course, UCSD Ph.D. Economics, 2008 and 2010.
• Co-Winner, Private Sector Impact Assessment Contest, USAID, December 2006.
• Visiting Research Fellow, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, UCSD, 2005-6.
• Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, University of California Berkeley, 2002.
• Fulbright IIE Scholarship, Uganda, 2000-01.
• Berkeley Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 1997-2002