Benjamin N. Roth
Purnima Puri and Richard Barrera Associate Professor of Business Administration
Purnima Puri and Richard Barrera Associate Professor of Business Administration
Entrepreneurial Management
Ben Roth is the Purnima Puri and Richard Barrera Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit. He is a development economist that employs both economic theory and field experimentation to pursue questions in two overlapping agendas: understanding and relaxing the constraints to small-scale entrepreneurship in the developing world, and understanding how investors should behave when they have both financial and social preferences.
Ben earned a BA in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a PhD in economics from MIT.
- Journal Articles
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- Green, Daniel, and Benjamin N. Roth. "The Allocation of Socially Responsible Capital." Journal of Finance 80, no. 2 (April 2025): 755–781. View Details
- Lowe, Matt, G.V. Nadhanael, and Benjamin N. Roth. "India's Food Supply Chain during the Pandemic." Art. 102162. Food Policy 105 (December 2021). View Details
- Arraiz, Irani, Miriam Bruhn, Benjamin N. Roth, Claudia Ruiz-Ortega, and Rodolfo Stucchi. "Borrower Leakage from Costly Screening: Evidence from SME Lending in Peru." Journal of Development Economics 153 (November 2021). View Details
- Hussam, Reshmaan, Natalia Rigol, and Benjamin N. Roth. "Targeting High Ability Entrepreneurs Using Community Information: Mechanism Design in the Field." American Economic Review 112, no. 3 (March 2022): 861–898.
(Online Appendix with Corrigendum—Thanks to Isabella Masetto, Diego Ubfal, and The Institute for Replication for identifying a minor coding error in the production of Table 4.) View Details - Liu, Ernest, and Benjamin N. Roth. "Contractual Restrictions and Debt Traps." Review of Financial Studies 35, no. 3 (March 2022): 1141–1182. View Details
- Roth, Benjamin N., and Ran I. Shorrer. "Making Marketplaces Safe: Dominant Individual Rationality and Applications to Market Design." Management Science 67, no. 6 (June 2021). View Details
- Karlan, Dean, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Benjamin Roth. "Debt Traps? Market Vendors and Moneylender Debt in India and the Philippines." American Economic Review: Insights 1, no. 1 (June 2019): 27–42. View Details
- Book Chapters
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- Roth, Benjamin N. "Market Design Under Weak Institutions." In More Equal by Design: Economic Design Responses to Inequality, edited by Scott Duke Kominers and Alex Teytelboym. Oxford University Press, forthcoming. View Details
- Working Papers
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- 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. 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. View Details
- Banerjee, Abhijit, Greg Fischer, Dean Karlan, Matt Lowe, and Benjamin N. Roth. "Do Collusive Norms Maximize Profits? Evidence From a Vegetable Market Experiment in India." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-006, July 2022. (Revise and Resubmit, AEJ: Applied.) View Details
- Karlan, Dean, Matt Lowe, Robert Osei, Isaac Osei-Akoto, Benjamin N. Roth, and Christopher Udry. "Social Protection and Social Distancing During the Pandemic: Mobile Money Transfers in Ghana." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-010, July 2022. (Revise and Resubmit, Journal of Development Economics.) View Details
- Roth, Benjamin N. "Impact Investing: A Theory of Financing Social Enterprises." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-078, February 2020. (Revised June 2021.) View Details
- Cases and Teaching Materials
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- Kluender, Ray, Natalia Rigol, Benjamin Roth, and Nicole Tempest Keller. "Core Innovation Capital: Investing in Fintech for Good (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 825-094, December 2024. View Details
- Kluender, Ray, Natalia Rigol, Benjamin Roth, and Nicole Tempest Keller. "Core Innovation Capital: Investing in Fintech for Good." Harvard Business School Case 825-064, December 2024. View Details
- Rigol, Natalia, Benjamin N. Roth, Sarah Mehta, and John Schultz. "GiveDirectly: Can Direct Cash Transfers End Extreme Poverty?" Harvard Business School Case 825-008, March 2025. View Details
- Bussgang, Jeffrey J., Zoë B. Cullen, Benjamin N. Roth, and Michael Norris. "A Close Shave at Squire." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 822-055, January 2022. (Revised March 2024.) View Details
- Roth, Benjamin N., Natalia Rigol, and Carla Larangeira. "Fondo Esperanza." Harvard Business School Case 824-156, June 2024. 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, Benjamin N. Roth, Brian Trelstad, and Amram Migdal. "Prime Coalition: Estimating Climate Impact." Harvard Business School Case 824-119, October 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
- Roth, Benjamin. "Prime Coalition: Catalytic Capital for Climate Innovation." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 822-028, September 2021. (Revised March 2022.) View Details
- Bussgang, Jeffrey J., Zoë B. Cullen, William R. Kerr, Benjamin N. Roth, and Michael Norris. "A Close Shave at Squire." Harvard Business School Case 821-073, July 2021. View Details
- Khanna, Tarun, Ramana Nanda, Benjamin N. Roth, and Brian Trelstad. "Impact Investment, Catalytic Capital and Blended Finance." Harvard Business School Technical Note 321-078, September 2020. (Revised December 2020.) View Details
- Nanda, Ramana, Benjamin N. Roth, and Olivia Hull. "Prime Coalition: Catalytic Capital for Climate Innovation." Harvard Business School Case 820-007, February 2020. (Revised March 2020.) View Details
- Nicholas, Tom, Ramana Nanda, and Benjamin N. Roth. "Masayoshi Son and the Vision Fund." Harvard Business School Case 819-041, October 2018. (Revised February 2018.) 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
- Additional Information
- Areas of Interest