We analyze the interaction of financial development and trade in a small open economy. In a benchmark economy with full financial development, there is no misallocation. When financial development is imperfect, access to borrowing in local currency is expensive. This causes misallocation to arise among the most productive firms. Productive firms with small initial capital access the international credit market by paying a fixed cost. By borrowing in foreign currency, they scale up close to their benchmark size.

Digital job matching platforms can increase labor force participation by reducing job search costs, with potentially greater benefits for women. We implement a cluster RCT in which matched husband-wife pairs residing in urban, low-income neighborhoods in Delhi, India, are offered registration on a hyper-local job aggregator platform that matches them to potential employers (non-network arm). In another treatment arm, both the husband-wife pair and the wife's network are made the same offer (network arm), while no offer is made in the control group.

The literature that studies individual’s retirement planning highlights the importance of providing information that enable agents to make better choices. Using a program that mandates individuals to take free financial advice before changing their pension plan, we study the role of providing financial information on retirement planning. We find that the introduction of the information program changed individuals’ retirement planning decisions in the short run, as a sizable fraction of individuals decided not to change their pension plan.