Benjamin N. Roth

Ben Roth is an assistant professor of business administration in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit, teaching The Entrepreneurial Manager to MBA students. 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

• Lowe, Matt, G.V. Nadhanael, and Benjamin N. Roth. "India's Food Supply Chain during the Pandemic." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-070, December 2020. (Revised July 2021. Forthcoming at Food Policy.) 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. 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

• 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

• Cole, Shawn A., Leslie Jeng, Josh Lerner, Natalia Rigol, and Benjamin N. Roth. "What Do Impact Investors Do Differently?" Working Paper, September 2022. 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. View Details
• Banerjee, Abhijit, Greg Fischer, Dean Karlan, Matt Lowe, and Benjamin N. Roth. "Does the Invisible Hand Efficiently Guide Entry and Exit? Evidence from a Vegetable Market Experiment in India." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-006, July 2022. View Details
• Rigol, Natalia, and Benjamin N. Roth. "Loan Officers Impede Graduation from Microfinance: Strategic Disclosure in a Large Microfinance Institution." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 29427, October 2021. View Details
• Green, Daniel, and Benjamin N. Roth. "The Allocation of Socially Responsible Capital." Working Paper, July 2021. (Revised November 2021.) 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

• Bussgang, Jeffrey J., Benjamin N. Roth, and Michael Norris. "A Close Shave at Squire." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 822-055, January 2022. 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

• Curriculum Vitae

Areas of Interest

• economic development
• entrepreneurship
• social entrepreneurship