2026 Robert M. Townsend: Economics and Finance Researcher – H-Index, Publications & Awards

Discipline name	D-Index	World Ranking	Current World Ranking	National Ranking	Current National Ranking	Publications	Citations
Economics and Finance	57	926	828	581	507	349	25260

Research.com Recognitions

2021 - Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association
2012 - Member of the National Academy of Sciences
1994 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1985 - Fellows of the Econometric Society

Overview

Robert M. Townsend is affiliated with MIT in the United States. Their research spans across economics, econometrics, finance, business, management, and accounting. The scientist has contributed extensively to multiple subfields, including economics and econometrics, finance, accounting, strategy and management, and management science and operations research.

Their body of work addresses a variety of topics:

Banking stability, regulation, efficiency
Microfinance and financial inclusion
Economic theories and models
Auction theory and applications
Monetary policy and economic impact
Agricultural risk and resilience
Corporate finance and governance

In terms of publications, Robert M. Townsend has authored numerous papers. Selected recent papers include:

"Distinguishing constraints on financial inclusion and their impact on GDP, TFP, and the distribution of income," 2020, Journal of Monetary Economics
"Curbing Shocks to Corporate Liquidity: The Role of Trade Credit," 2020, Journal of Political Economy
"Resource Allocation in Bank Supervision: Trade-Offs and Outcomes," 2022, The Journal of Finance
"Dynamic Bank Expansion: Spatial Growth, Financial Access, and Inequality," 2023, Journal of Political Economy
"A Multi-Currency Exchange and Contracting Platform," 2022, IMF Working Paper

Frequent publication venues include:

SSRN Electronic Journal
Journal of Political Economy
Harvard Dataverse
Journal of Monetary Economics
Staff reports

The scientist has coauthored multiple works with several collaborators, notably:

Antoine Martin
Songyuan Teng
Cynthia Kinnan
Krislert Samphantharak
Michael Lee

Among their scholarly contributions, Robert M. Townsend has also published books. One notable publication with The MIT Press is:

Distributed Ledgers, 2020

Throughout their career, Townsend has received a number of distinctions, including:

Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, 2021
Member of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1994
Fellow of the Econometric Society, 1985

Best Publications

Optimal Contracts and Competitive Markets with Costly State Verification

Robert M Townsend

4578
Citations
Risk and Insurance In Village India

Robert M. Townsend

3378
Citations
Risk and Insurance in Village India

Unknown

1595
Citations
Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India

Shawn A. Cole;Xavier Gine;Jeremy Tobacman;Petia Topalova

1184
Citations
Consumption Insurance: An Evaluation of Risk-Bearing Systems in Low-Income Economies

Robert M. Townsend

923
Citations
Patterns of rainfall insurance participation in rural India

Xavier Giné;Robert Townsend;James Vickery

811
Citations
Pareto Optima and Competitive Equilibria With Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard

Edward C Prescott;Robert M Townsend

765
Citations
PARETO OPTIMA AND COMPETITIVE EQUILIBRIA WITH ADVERSE SELECTION AND MORAL HAZARD

Edward C. Prescott;Robert M. Townsend

765
Citations
Resource Allocation Under Asymmetric Information

Milton Harris;Robert M. Townsend

753
Citations
Forecasting the Forecasts of Others

Robert M. Townsend

668
Citations
Entrepreneurship and financial constraints in Thailand

Anna L Paulson;Robert Townsend;Robert Townsend

515
Citations
Using Repayment Data to Test Across Models of Joint Liability Lending

Christian Ahlin;Robert M. Townsend

499
Citations
Computing Multi-Period, Information Constrained Optima

Christopher Phelan;Robert M Townsend

461
Citations
Computing Multi-Period, Information-Constrained Optima

Christopher Phelan;Robert M. Townsend

461
Citations
The Impact of Credit on Village Economies

Joseph Paul Kaboski;Robert M. Townsend

441
Citations
Optimal Multiperiod Contracts and the Gain from Enduring Relationships under Private Information

Robert M. Townsend

402
Citations
Financial Deepening, Inequality, and Growth: A Model-Based Quantitative Evaluation

Robert M. Townsend;Kenichi Ueda

400
Citations
A Structural Evaluation of a Large-Scale Quasi-Experimental Microfinance Initiative

Joseph Paul Kaboski;Robert M. Townsend

400
Citations
Sources of TFP growth: occupational choice and financial deepening

Hyeok Jeong;Robert M. Townsend

396
Citations
Evaluation of financial liberalization : a general equilibrium model with constrained occupation choice

Xavier Giné;Robert M. Townsend

341
Citations
GENERAL COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS IN AN ECONOMY WITH PRIVATE INFORMATION

Robert M. Townsend;Edward C. Prescott

305
Citations
POLICIES AND IMPACT: AN ANALYSIS OF VILLAGE-LEVEL MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS

Joseph P. Kaboski;Robert M. Townsend

302
Citations
Barriers to Household Risk Management : Evidence from India

Robert M. Townsend;Shawn Cole;Jeremy Tobacman;Xavier Gine

48
Citations

Frequent Co-Authors

Xavier Giné World Bank

Matthias Doepke Northwestern University

Jonathan Gruber MIT

Daniel Aaronson Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Petia Topalova International Monetary Fund

Edward C. Prescott Arizona State University

Shawn Cole Harvard University

Pierre-André Chiappori Columbia University

Neil Wallace Pennsylvania State University

Jesús Saurina Bank of Spain

External Links

Wikipedia of Robert M. Townsend Personal website of Robert M. Townsend

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