My research focuses primarily on how to design, target, and deliver financial products to the poor, and, in particular, how financial inclusion can improve the socio-economic position of women. My projects have analyzed how the design and delivery of microfinance products can enhance business growth; how to utilize mechanism design to elicit and aggregate community information to target high-growth entrepreneurs; the importance of peer support in conjunction with financial training in helping women grow their enterprise; and, the value of financial inclusion for improving female labor force participation. I have also tested behavioral models to increase hand washing behavior and habituation. My ongoing work includes studying the interaction between financial inclusion and corruption; the role of intra-household bargaining in resource allocation decisions among entrepreneurs in the household; and, the effect of caste norms on female labor force participation.
Natalia Rigol
Buchanan Associate Professor of Business Administration
Buchanan Associate Professor of Business Administration
Entrepreneurial Management
- Featured Work
- Journal Articles
-
- Field, Erica, Rohini Pande, Natalia Rigol, Simone Schaner, Elena Stacy, and Charity Troyer Moore. "Measuring Time Use in Rural India: Design and Validation of a Low-Cost Survey Module." Journal of Development Economics 164 (September 2023): 103105. View Details
- Agte, Patrick, Arielle Bernhardt, Erica M. Field, Rohini Pande, and Natalia Rigol. "Investing in the Next Generation: The Long-Run Impacts of a Liquidity Shock." American Economic Review 114, no. 9 (September 2024): 2792–2824. View Details
- Rigol, Natalia, Simone Schaner, Rohini Pande, Erica Field, and Charity Troyer Moore. "On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms." American Economic Review 111, no. 7 (July 2021): 2342–2375. View Details
- Hussam, Reshmaan, Atonu Rabbani, Giovanni Reggiani, and Natalia Rigol. "Rational Habit Formation: Experimental Evidence from Handwashing in India." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 14, no. 1 (January 2022): 1–41. (Lead Article.) View Details
- Bernhardt, Arielle, Erica Field, Rohini Pande, Natalia Rigol, Simone Schaner, and Charity Troyer-Moore. "Male Social Status and Women's Work." AEA Papers and Proceedings 108 (May 2018): 363–367. View Details
- Bernhardt, Arielle, Erica Field, Rohini Pande, and Natalia Rigol. "Household Matters: Revisiting the Returns to Capital Among Female Microentrepreneurs." American Economic Review: Insights 1, no. 2 (September 2019): 141–160. View Details
- Rigol, Natalia, Benjamin Feigenberg, Erica Field, Rohini Pande, and Shayak Sarkar. "Do Group Dynamics Influence Social Capital Gains Among Microfinance Clients? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Urban India." Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 33, no. 4 (Fall 2014): 932–949. View Details
- Field, Erica, Rohini Pande, John Papp, and Natalia Rigol. "Does the Classic Microfinance Model Discourage Entrepreneurship Among the Poor? Experimental Evidence from India." American Economic Review 103, no. 6 (October 2013): 2196–2226. View Details
- Field, Erica, Seema Jayachandran, Rohini Pande, and Natalia Rigol. "Friendship at Work: Can Peer Effects Catalyze Female Entrepreneurship?" American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 8, no. 2 (May 2016): 125–153. View Details
- Working Papers
-
- Miron, Jeffrey, and Natalia Rigol. "Bank Failures and Output During the Great Depression." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 19418, August 2013. View Details
- Cole, Shawn, Leslie Jeng, Josh Lerner, Natalia Rigol, and Benjamin N. Roth. "What Do Impact Investors Do Differently?" Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-028, November 2023. (Resubmitted, Journal of Financial Economics.) View Details
- Field, Erica M., Natalia Rigol, Charity M. Troyer Moore, Rohini Pande, and Simone G. Schaner. "Banking on Transparency for the Poor: Experimental Evidence from India." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 30289, July 2022. View Details
- Rigol, Natalia, and Benjamin N. Roth. "Intrinsic Motivation and Referrals Within Firms: Evidence from a Large Microfinance Institution." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 29427, October 2021. (Resubmitted, Econometrica.) View Details
- Rigol, Natalia, Erica Field, Rohini Pande, Simone Schaner, and Charity Troyer-Moore. "On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Affects Labor Supply and Gender Norms." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 26294, September 2019. View Details
- Rigol, Natalia, and Benjamin N. Roth. "Paying for the Truth: The Efficacy of a Peer Prediction Mechanism in the Field." Working Paper, April 2016. View Details
- Rigol, Natalia, Rohini Pande, Erica Field, Simone Schaner, and Charity Troyer Moore. "On Her Account: Can Strengthening Women's Financial Control Boost Female Labor Supply?" Working Paper, November 2016. View Details
- Cases and Teaching Materials
-
- Roth, Benjamin N., Natalia Rigol, and Carla Larangeira. "Fondo Esperanza." Harvard Business School Case 824-156, June 2024. View Details
- Rigol, Natalia, Benjamin N. Roth, Brian Trelstad, and Amram Migdal. "Prime Coalition: Estimating Climate Impact." Harvard Business School Case 824-119, October 2023. View Details
- Shapiro, Jesse M., Natalia Rigol, and Benjamin N. Roth. "Independent Governance of Meta’s Social Spaces: The Oversight Board." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 823-126, May 2023. (Revised June 2023.) View Details
- Shapiro, Jesse M., Natalia Rigol, Benjamin N. Roth, and William R. Kerr. "Independent Governance of Meta’s Social Spaces: The Oversight Board." Harvard Business School Case 823-111, March 2023. (Revised April 2023.) View Details
- Rigol, Natalia, Benjamin N. Roth, Brian Trelstad, and Sarah Mehta. "Year Up: Measuring and Scaling Impact." Harvard Business School Case 823-004, January 2023. View Details
- Rigol, Natalia. "Collab Capital Example Cases." Harvard Business School Spreadsheet Supplement 823-709, March 2023. View Details
- Rigol, Natalia. "Collab Capital." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 823-097, February 2023. View Details
- Roth, Benjamin N., and Natalia Rigol. "Husk Power: Scaling the Venture." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 822-064, November 2021. (Revised March 2022.) View Details
- Rigol, Natalia, Jeffrey J. Bussgang, and Mitchell Weiss. "Collab Capital." Harvard Business School Case 821-067, February 2021. (Revised October 2021.) View Details
- Roth, Benjamin N., Joseph B. Lassiter III, and Natalia Rigol. "Husk Power: Scaling the Venture." Harvard Business School Case 819-069, December 2018. (Revised January 2020.) View Details
- Research Summary
-
My research focuses primarily on how to design, target, and deliver financial products to the poor, and, in particular, how financial inclusion can improve the socio-economic position of women. My projects have analyzed how the design and delivery of microfinance products can enhance business growth; how to utilize mechanism design to elicit and aggregate community information to target high-growth entrepreneurs; the importance of peer support in conjunction with financial training in helping women grow their enterprise; and, the value of financial inclusion for improving female labor force participation. I have also tested behavioral models to increase hand washing behavior and habituation. My ongoing work includes studying the interaction between financial inclusion and corruption; the role of intra-household bargaining in resource allocation decisions among entrepreneurs in the household; and, the effect of caste norms on female labor force participation.
- Awards & Honors
-
Recipient of a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Research and Innovation Fellowship, 2014-2015.Recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2010-2013.Recipient of a Bell Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 2016-2018.
- Additional Information