We present evidence on how farmers' decisions to adopt a new crop relate to the adoption choices of their network of family and friends. We find the relationship to be inverse-U shaped, suggesting ...social effects are positive when there are few adopters in the network, and negative when there are many. We also find the adoption decisions of farmers who have better information about the new crop are less sensitive to the adoption choices of others. Finally, we find that adoption decisions are more correlated within family and friends than religion-based networks, and uncorrelated among individuals of different religions.
We design a labor market experiment to compare demand-and supply-side policies to tackle youth unemployment, a key issue in low-income countries. The experiment tracks 1700 workers and 1500 firms ...over four years to compare the effect of offering workers either vocational training (VT) or firm-provided training (FT) for six months in a common setting where youth unemployment is above 60%. Relative to control workers, we find that, averaged over three post-intervention years, FT and VT workers: (i) enjoy large and similar upticks in sector-specific skills, (ii) significantly improve their employment rates, and (iii) experience marked improvements in an index of labor market outcomes. These averages, however, mask differences in dynamics: FT gains materialize quickly but fade over time, while VT gains emerge slowly but are longlasting, leading VT worker employment and earning profiles to rise above those of FT workers. Estimating a job ladder model of worker search reveals the key reason for this: VT workers receive significantly higher rates of job offers when unemployed, thus hastening their movement back into work. This likely stems from the fact that the skills of VT workers are certified and therefore can be demonstrated to potential employers. Tackling youth unemployment by skilling youth using vocational training pre-labor market entry therefore appears to be more effective than incentivizing firms through wage subsidies to hire and train young labor market entrants.
We study how women’s choices over labor activities in village economies correlate with poverty and whether enabling the poorest women to take on the activities of their richer counterparts can set ...them on a sustainable trajectory out of poverty. To do this we conduct a large-scale randomized control trial, covering over 21,000 households in 1,309 villages surveyed four times over a seven-year period, to evaluate a nationwide program in Bangladesh that transfers livestock assets and skills to the poorest women. At baseline, the poorest women mostly engage in low return and seasonal casual wage labor while wealthier women solely engage in livestock rearing. The program enables poor women to start engaging in livestock rearing, increasing their aggregate labor supply and earnings. This leads to asset accumulation (livestock, land, and business assets) and poverty reduction, both sustained after four and seven years. These gains do not crowd out the livestock businesses of noneligible households while the wages these receive for casual jobs increase as the poor reduce their labor supply. Our results show that (i) the poor are able to take on the work activities of the nonpoor but face barriers to doing so, and, (ii) one-off interventions that remove these barriers lead to sustainable poverty reduction.
Women’s Empowerment in Action Bandiera, Oriana; Buehren, Niklas; Burgess, Robin ...
American economic journal. Applied economics,
01/2020, Letnik:
12, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We evaluate a multifaceted policy intervention attempting to jump-start adolescent women’s empowerment in Uganda by simultaneously providing them vocational training and information on sex, ...reproduction, and marriage. We find that four years postintervention, adolescent girls in treated communities are more likely to be self-employed. Teen pregnancy, early entry into marriage/cohabitation, and the share of girls reporting sex against their will fall sharply. The results highlight the potential of a multifaceted program that provides skills transfers as a viable and cost-effective policy intervention to improve the economic and social empowerment of adolescent girls over a four-year horizon.
Using administrative records from a UK university, we present evidence on the effects of class size on students' test scores. We estimate non‐linear class size effects controlling for unobserved ...heterogen‐eity of students and faculty. We find that: (i) at the average class size, the effect size is −0.108; (ii) the effect size is negative and significant only for the smallest and largest ranges of class sizes and zero in intermediate class sizes; (iii) students at the top of the test score distribution are more affected by changes in class size, especially when class sizes are very large.
Social Incentives in Organizations Ashraf, Nava; Bandiera, Oriana
Annual review of economics,
01/2018, Letnik:
10, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We review the evidence on social incentives, namely on how social interactions with colleagues, subordinates, bosses, customers, and others shape agents' effort choices in organizations. We propose a ...two-way taxonomy based on (
a
) whether the social group is horizontal (peers at the same level of the hierarchy) or vertical (individuals at different levels within or outside of the organization) and (
b
) whether the agent's effort creates externalities for the other members of their social group. We show settings in which social incentives improve productivity and settings in which they reduce it. In most cases, the size of the effect is approximately 10%, which is half of the typical effect of performance pay. We also show that social incentives can interfere with financial incentives, making them ineffective or even detrimental. We conclude that social incentives are a powerful motivator that must be taken into account in the design of organizational policies and that more research is needed to understand how policies can shape the preferences that underpin these incentives.
CEO Behavior and Firm Performance Bandiera, Oriana; Prat, Andrea; Hansen, Stephen ...
The Journal of political economy,
04/2020, Letnik:
128, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We develop a new method to measure CEO behavior in large samples via a survey that collects high-frequency, high-dimensional diary data and a machine learning algorithm that estimates behavioral ...types. Applying this method to 1,114 CEOs in six countries reveals two types: “leaders,” who do multifunction, high-level meetings, and “managers,” who do individual meetings with core functions. Firms that hire leaders perform better, and it takes three years for a new CEO to make a difference. Structural estimates indicate that productivity differentials are due to mismatches rather than to leaders being better for all firms.
We conduct a field experiment to evaluate the effect of extrinsic rewards, both financial and non-financial, on the performance of agents recruited by a public health organization to promote HIV ...prevention and sell condoms. In this setting: (i) non-financial rewards are effective at improving performance; (ii) the effect of both types of rewards is stronger for pro-socially motivated agents; and (iii) both types of rewards are effective when their relative value is high. The findings illustrate that extrinsic rewards can improve the performance of agents engaged in public service delivery, and that non-financial rewards can be effective in settings where the power of financial incentives is limited.
•Evaluate financial and non-financial rewards for HIV prevention and selling condoms.•Field experiment randomized across Lusaka, Zambia.•Non-financial rewards more effective than either financial rewards or volunteering.•Both financial and non-financial incentives complement pro-social motivation.•Response to both types of incentives is stronger when the relative value is higher.
Social Incentives in the Workplace BANDIERA, ORIANA; BARANKAY, IWAN; RASUL, IMRAN
The Review of economic studies,
04/2010, Letnik:
77, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We present evidence on social incentives in the workplace, namely on whether workers' behaviour is affected by the presence of those they are socially tied to, even in settings where there are no ...externalities among workers due to either the production technology or the compensation scheme in place. To do so, we combine data on individual worker productivity from a firm's personnel records with information on each worker's social network of friends in the firm. We find that compared to when she has no social ties with her co-workers, a given worker's productivity is significantly higher when she works alongside friends who are more able than her, and significantly lower when she works with friends who are less able than her. As workers are paid piece rates based on individual productivity, social incentives can be quantified in monetary terms and are such that (i) workers who are more able than their friends are willing to exert less effort and forgo 10% of their earnings; (ii) workers who have at least one friend who is more able than themselves are willing to increase their effort and hence productivity by 10%. The distribution of worker ability is such that the net effect of social incentives on the firm's aggregate performance is positive. The results suggest that firms can exploit social incentives as an alternative to monetary incentives to motivate workers.
PDF
