Abstract
Impact evaluations can help to inform policy decisions, but they are rooted in particular contexts and to what extent they generalize is an open question. I exploit a new data set of impact ...evaluation results and find a large amount of effect heterogeneity. Effect sizes vary systematically with study characteristics, with government-implemented programs having smaller effect sizes than academic or non-governmental organization-implemented programs, even controlling for sample size. I show that treatment effect heterogeneity can be appreciably reduced by taking study characteristics into account.
We outline a framework for the empirical analysis of signaling games based on three features: sorting, incentive compatibility, and beliefs. We apply it to document cheap-talk signaling in the use of ...round-number offers during negotiations. Using millions of online bargaining interactions, we show that items listed at multiples of $100 receive offers that are 8–12 percent lower but are 15–25 percent more likely to sell, demonstrating the trade-off requisite for incentive compatibility. Those same sellers are more likely to accept a similar offer, and buyers are more likely to investigate their listings, consistent with seller sorting and buyer belief updating.
LEMON TECHNOLOGIES AND ADOPTION Bold, Tessa; Kaizzi, Kayuki C.; Svensson, Jakob ...
The Quarterly journal of economics,
08/2017, Letnik:
132, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
To reduce poverty and food insecurity in Africa requires raising productivity in agriculture. Systematic use of fertilizer and hybrid seed is a pathway to increased productivity, but adoption of ...these technologies remains low. We investigate whether the quality of agricultural inputs can help explain low take-up. Testing modern products purchased in local markets, we find that 30% of nutrient is missing in fertilizer, and hybrid maize seed is estimated to contain less than 50% authentic seeds. We document that such low quality results in low average returns. If authentic technologies replaced these low-quality products, however, average returns are high. To rationalize the findings, we calibrate a learning model using data from our agricultural trials. Because agricultural yields are noisy, farmers’ ability to learn about quality is limited and this can help explain the low quality equilibrium we observe, but also why the market has not fully collapsed.
Moral Suasion and Economic Incentives Ito, Koichiro; Ida, Takanori; Tanaka, Makoto
American economic journal. Economic policy,
02/2018, Letnik:
10, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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Firms and governments often use moral suasion and economic incentives to influence intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for economic activities. To investigate persistence of such interventions, we ...randomly assign households to moral suasion and dynamic pricing that stimulate energy conservation during peak-demand hours. We find significant habituation and dishabituation for moral suasion—the treatment effect diminishes after repeated interventions but can be restored to the original level by a sufficient time interval between interventions. Economic incentives induce larger treatment effects, little habituation, and significant habit formation. Our results suggest moral suasion and economic incentives produce substantially different short-run and long-run policy impacts.
Abstract
A growing literature has concluded that terrorism affects the economy, yet less is known about its impact on individual welfare. This article estimates the impact of the 2013 Boston marathon ...bombing on well-being, exploiting representative daily data from the American Time Use Survey and Well-Being Supplement. Using a combined regression discontinuity and differences-in-differences design, with the 2012 Boston marathon as a counterfactual, we find an immediate reduction in well-being of a third of a standard deviation. In particular, happiness declined sharply and negative emotions rose significantly. While the effects do not persist beyond one week, they may entail adverse health and economic consequences.
Abstract
Teacher's aides are used worldwide, in various school systems, although, there is no strong evidence of their impact on student outcomes. We use a randomized trial to challenge this state of ...evidence. We randomly allocate 105 schools to two types of treatments—aides with or without a teaching degree—compared to a control group. Both types of aides have positive impacts on test scores and the effects are persistent over time for disadvantaged students. Exploratory analyses of mechanisms suggest that a teacher's aide is not just a class-size reduction, but especially impactful when sharing instructional responsibility for the classroom.
This paper demonstrates the acute sensitivity of education program effectiveness to the choices of inputs and outcome measures, using a randomized evaluation of a mother-tongue literacy program. The ...program raises reading scores by 0.64 SD and writing scores by 0.45 SD. A reduced-cost version instead yields statistically insignificant reading gains and some large negative effects (−0.33 SDs) on advanced writing. We combine a conceptual model of education production with detailed classroom observations to examine the mechanisms driving the results; we show they could be driven by the program initially lowering productivity before raising it, and potentially by missing complementary inputs in the reduced-cost version.
TELL ME SOMETHING I DON’T ALREADY KNOW Byrne, David P.; La Nauze, Andrea; Martin, Leslie A.
The review of economics and statistics,
07/2018, Letnik:
100, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We document how imperfect information generates heterogeneous effects in information treatments with personalized high-frequency feedback and peer comparisons. In our field experiment in retail ...electricity, we find that high- and low-energy users symmetrically underestimate and overestimate their relative energy use pretreatment. Responses to personalized feedback, however, are asymmetric. Households that overestimate their relative use and low users both respond by consuming more. These boomerang effects provide evidence that peer-comparison information programs, even those coupled with normative comparisons, are not guaranteed to lead to increases in prosocial behavior.
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