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Can information about jobs improve the effectiveness of vocational training? Experimental evidence from India J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-03-07 Bhaskar Chakravorty, Wiji Arulampalam, Apurav Yash Bhatiya, Clément Imbert, Roland Rathelot
We use a randomized experiment to evaluate the impact of providing richer information about prospective jobs to vocational trainees on their employment outcomes. The setting of the study is the vocational training program DDU-GKY in India. We find that including in the training two information sessions about placement opportunities make trainees 18% more likely to stay in the jobs in which they are
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Market timing, farmer expectations, and liquidity constraints J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Rui Albuquerque, Bruno de Araujo, Luis Brandao-Marques, Gerivasia Mosse, Pippy de Vletter, Helder Zavale
We use data on price expectations from a survey of randomly sampled smallholder farmers in Mozambique. Across all crops, farmers report selling on average within three weeks of harvest, at lower prices than expected later in the season. Liquidity constrained farmers sell their harvest 50% faster than unconstrained farmers, but they increase their storage time in response to higher expected future prices
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Improving smallholder agriculture via video-based group extension J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-02-18 Tushi Baul, Dean Karlan, Kentaro Toyama, Kathryn Vasilaky
Providing agricultural advice at scale poses operational challenges. Technology may help if repeating content reinforces learning for recipients and thus improves adoption, but risks reducing efficacy given limited customization and human interaction. We tested videos shared with female farmers in India as a supplement to standard human-provided extension services promoting a climate-smart practice
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The agricultural wage gap within rural villages J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-02-17 Ceren Baysan, Manzoor H. Dar, Kyle Emerick, Zhimin Li, Elisabeth Sadoulet
We use unique data on daily labor-market outcomes for Indian casual workers to study labor reallocation between agricultural and non-agricultural activities within rural areas. Controlling for both individual time-invariant attributes and time-varying shocks, we find that workers who switch sectors across years or even within a week can obtain 23% higher wages by taking non-agricultural jobs. We then
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Contracting, market access and deforestation J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-02-16 Ryan Abman, Clark Lundberg
We study the impacts of market access on forest loss in Ghana through a program designed to increase smallholder participation in oil palm commodity markets. Improved market access is facilitated through production contracts in which smallholders receive credit to establish production, a guaranteed price and quantity for the contract duration, and output pickup at the village. Using a variety of d
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Keeping refugee children in school and out of work: Evidence from the world's largest humanitarian cash transfer program J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-02-11 Aysun Hızıroğlu Aygün, Murat Güray Kırdar, Murat Koyuncu, Quentin Stoeffler
This paper investigates whether unconditional cash transfers can keep refugee children in school and out of work. We raise this question in the unique context of Turkey, which hosts the world's largest refugee population (including 3.6 million Syrians). Refugees in Turkey are supported by the world's largest cash transfer program for refugees, the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN). We exploit a program
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Breaking the silence – Group discussions and the adoption of menstrual health technologies J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Silvia Castro, Clarissa Mang
Stigma can hinder the adoption of beneficial and affordable technologies, par-ticularly in sensitive health areas. Menstruation is a heavily stigmatized biological process, and managing menstruation with dignity and hygiene is a challenge in low-income settings. In this study, we conducted a randomized control trial to explore the impact of discussion-based interventions on breaking the silence around
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A mother’s voice: Impacts of spousal communication training on child health investments J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-02-03 Martina Björkman Nyqvist, Seema Jayachandran, Céline Zipfel
This study evaluates a communication training program for mothers in Uganda, motivated by prior evidence suggesting that mothers often prioritize children’s needs more than fathers. The program aims to enable women to effectively communicate their knowledge and preferences about child health to their husbands, thereby increasing investments in children’s health. Using a randomized experiment, we find
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Whom to ask? Testing respondent effects in household surveys J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Lise Masselus, Nathan Fiala
Household questionnaires typically survey the most knowledgeable household member, but this can lead to inaccurate data if they have limited information. Using data from survey experiments with 4,100 households in Paraguay and Uganda, we investigate whether there are discrepancies in intra-household reporting when multiple household members are interviewed. We randomly vary who responds to a survey
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Time for tea: Measuring discounting for money and consumption without the utility confound J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-02-01 Mohammed Abdellaoui, Emmanuel Kemel, Amma Panin, Ferdinand M. Vieider
We present a novel method—called risk equivalents—that uses a single measure to elicit discount rates while avoiding concerns about the shape of the utility function. The method is valid under discounted expected utility (DEU), and also under several of its behavioral extensions including more general models that account for a biased perception of time and risk (such as time- or likelihood-insensitivity)
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Shipwrecked by rents J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-01-30 Fernando Arteaga, Desiree Desierto, Mark Koyama
The trade route between Manila and Mexico was a monopoly of the Spanish Crown for more than 250 years. The ships that sailed this route — the Manila Galleons, were “the richest ships in all the oceans”, but much of the wealth sank at sea and remains undiscovered. We introduce a newly constructed dataset of all of the ships that traveled this route, and construct a model showing how monopoly rents that
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Driving while hungry: The effect of fasting on traffic accidents J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-01-18 Ahmet Gulek
I study the impact of hunger on traffic accidents by exploiting the fasting that is religiously mandated during the month of Ramadan. Identification comes from working hours not being adjusted during Ramadan in Turkey. I find that driving while fasting at rush hour is associated with a significant increase in road traffic accidents. Using existing survey evidence on fasting rates in Turkey, I conclude
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Gains from market integration: Welfare effects of new rural roads in Ethiopia J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Hundanol A. Kebede
This paper estimates the welfare gains from the construction of rural roads that connect agricultural villages to market centers. I take theoretical predictions from Ricardian trade models to a rich high spatial resolution micro data on agricultural production from Ethiopia, which coincides with a period of extensive rural road construction. I estimate that the road construction resulted in an approximately
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Wealth and charitable giving – Evidence from an Ethiopian lottery J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2024-01-02 Andreas Kotsadam, Vincent Somville
Does wealth make people more selfish or more generous? While this question has been at the center stage of the research on charitable giving, causal evidence is lacking. We offer winners and losers of a large Ethiopian housing lottery the opportunity to give to charities. Winners experience a very large increase in wealth, yet they are not more likely to donate money. They give slightly higher amounts
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Attenuating measurement errors in agricultural productivity analysis by combining objective and self-reported survey data J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-27 Ismael Yacoubou Djima, Talip Kilic
This paper exploits unique survey data from Mali to validate an alternative approach to estimate the relationship between crop yields and inputs. The estimation relies on predicted objective crop yields that stem from a machine learning model trained on a random subsample of surveyed plots, for which crop cutting and self-reported sorghum yield estimates are both available. The analysis demonstrates
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Persistent effects of colonial land tenure institutions: Village-level evidence from India J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-24 Vigyan D. Ratnoo
This paper estimates the causal impact of land revenue institutions on long run rural development using a Spatial Regression Discontinuity framework on a new village level data set from colonial India. An early 19th century historical quirk meant that villages in close geographical proximity were assigned to different property rights systems — some falling under landlords and others under the government
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Thermal stress and financial distress: Extreme temperatures and firms’ loan defaults in Mexico J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-23 Sandra Aguilar-Gomez, Emilio Gutierrez, David Heres, David Jaume, Martin Tobal
The frequency and intensity of extreme temperature events are likely to increase with climate change. Using a detailed dataset containing information on the universe of loans extended by commercial banks to private firms in Mexico, we examine the relationship between extreme temperatures and credit performance. We find that unusually hot days increase delinquency rates, primarily affecting the agricultural
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Latin American pride: Labor market outcomes of sexual minorities in Brazil J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-15 João Tampellini
In the first study using self-identified information on sexual orientation from a large, nationally representative survey from Brazil, I study the relationship between sexual orientation and a range of labor market outcomes. I find large wage premiums for lesbian women relative to heterosexual women and no wage premiums or penalties for gay men and bisexual individuals relative to their heterosexual
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Property rights, factor allocation and household welfare: Experimental evidence from a land titling program in India J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-20 Arjunan Subramanian, Parmod Kumar
Increasing evidence shows the significance of de jure land ownership in determining agricultural productivity, yet the causal evidence of the effectiveness of land rights is scarce. We leverage experimental variation induced by nudging Indian farmers to obtain formal land titles. We find that titling increases agricultural investments, crop productivity, and paddy profits. We identify the tenancy security
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Does electrification cause industrial development? Grid expansion and firm turnover in Indonesia J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-19 Dana Kassem
I ask whether electrification causes industrial development. I combine newly digitized data from the Indonesian state electricity company with rich manufacturing census data. To understand how electrification can cause industrial development, I shed light on an important economic mechanism — firm turnover. In particular, I study the effect of the extensive margin of electrification (grid expansion)
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Employment effects of minimum wages in a dual economy: Evidence from Thailand J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-18 Saisawat Samutpradit
This study employs both theoretical insights and empirical techniques to investigate the impact of a minimum wage increase on employment when minimum wage coverage is incomplete. Previous empirical studies on this topic have found conflicting results: while some find the share of the covered sector decreases, some find it increases. In the theoretical part, we extended the classic two-sector model
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Behavioral consequences of religious schooling J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-14 Abu Siddique
I investigate how long-term exposure to religious schooling affects economic behavior of children. To identify the effect of religious schooling, I study residential schools for orphans in Bangladesh that differ in terms of religious curriculum and social environment, limit transmission of beliefs and preferences from parents to children following being orphaned, make social learning by children limited
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Is the phone mightier than the virus? Cellphone access and epidemic containment efforts J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-14 Robert Gonzalez, Elisa M. Maffioli
This paper examines the impact of cellphone access on the containment of an epidemic. We study this question in the context of the 2014 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Liberia. Combining novel data on cellphone towers and EVD cases, we estimate a high-resolution radio-wave propagation model that uses variations in terrain topography and the spatial distribution of cellphone towers to predict
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Does labor composition impact the transmission of monetary policy to output? J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Raja Reddy Bujunoori, Nithin Mannil, Prasanna Tantri
We ask whether the presence of contract workers influences the sensitivity of firm output to monetary policy shocks. We use a judgment of the Supreme Court of India that facilitated the hiring of contract workers as a setting that exogenously increased their presence, especially in states with stringent labor laws. Difference-in-differences and triple-difference tests show that the sensitivity of output
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Discrimination against migrants and its determinants: Evidence from a Multi-Purpose Field Experiment in the Housing Rental Market J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Wladimir Zanoni, Lina Díaz
The increasing number of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, which now exceeds 2.9 million, has raised concerns about their potential discrimination and socioeconomic integration. We propose a novel approach to studying discrimination in the housing rental market by conducting a multi-purpose field experiment with 574 real estate agents to, not only measure the extent of discrimination but also to explore
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Corporate Social Responsibility along the global value chain J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-09 Philipp Herkenhoff, Sebastian Krautheim, Finn Ole Semrau, Frauke Steglich
Locating substantial parts of the production process in developing and emerging economies, many firms face an increasing demand by stakeholders for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) along their value chains. Contractual incompleteness between firms and their suppliers at different stages of production can exacerbate the ability to meet these demands. We analyze a model of sequential production
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Better together? Student's benefits of educational market integration J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-07 Claudio Allende, Juan Diego Luksic, Nicolas Navarrete H
Educational market integration have become a common practice in various countries, changing potentially student's application and enrollment behavior. We implement a difference-indifference estimation exploiting student's geographic exposure to market integration in Chile to understand student's gain and losses from this process. Using administrative data, we show that the market integration process
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Cash transfers and micro-enterprise performance: Theory and quasi-experimental evidence from Kenya J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-06 Antonia Delius, Olivier Sterck
Theoretically, the welfare effects of cash-based assistance depend on how businesses respond to the demand shock and on resulting effects on prices. Such market effects have been largely overlooked in the literature. In this study, we examine the business and price effects of cash-based assistance to refugees in Kenya. Monthly restricted cash transfers worth 3 to 13 dollars were provided to 400,000
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Jobs! Electricity shortages and unemployment in Africa J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-02 Justice Tei Mensah
To what extent does unreliable electricity provision pervasive in many African countries affect job creation in the region? I address this question by assembling household and firm-level data from 29 African countries along with unique project-level data on foreign direct investment (FDI). Leveraging several quasi-experimental approaches, I find that outages have a non-trivial negative impact on employment
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Mothers at peace: International peacebuilding and post-conflict fertility J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-12-02 Vincenzo Bove, Jessica Di Salvatore, Leandro Elia, Roberto Nisticò
A considerable body of empirical evidence indicates that conflict affects reproductive behaviour, often resulting in an increased fertility rate due to higher child mortality and limited access to healthcare services. However, we know much less about the effect of peace in a post-conflict setting. This study explores how the external provision of security affects fertility by focusing on the UN intervention
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Human capital affects religious identity: Causal evidence from Kenya J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-11-27 Livia Alfonsi, Michal Bauer, Julie Chytilová, Edward Miguel
We study how human capital and economic conditions causally affect the choice of religious denomination. We utilize a longitudinal dataset monitoring the religious history of more than 5000 Kenyans over twenty years, in tandem with a randomized experiment (deworming) that has exogenously boosted education and living standards. The main finding is that the program reduces the likelihood of membership
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Trust, violence, and coca J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-11-23 Melissa Rubio-Ramos
How does violence affect social capital? I argue that its impact depends on two factors: (i) the ability to identify the perpetrating group, and (ii) the intensity of the violence. These factors help to reconcile the seemingly contradictory effects of violence on social capital presented in the literature. I study this question in the context of Colombia by exploiting changes in violence attributed
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Accountability failure in isolated areas: The cost of remoteness from the capital city J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-11-22 Sandro Provenzano
This paper documents that in Sub-Saharan Africa areas isolated from the capital city are less economically developed and examines potential underlying mechanisms. We apply a boundary-discontinuity design using national borders that divide pre-colonial ethnic homelands to obtain quasi-experimental variation in distance to the national capital city. We find that a one percent increase in distance to
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Tariff overhang and aid: Theory and empirics J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-11-08 Oliver Lorz, Susanna Thede
In this paper, we consider aid payments as a possible explanation for tariff overhangs. We set up a theoretical model in which rich countries use development aid to pay for tariff concessions by poorer countries. The more aid they receive as compensation, the more poor countries reduce the applied tariff below the bound tariff rate. Anticipating this mechanism, countries can negotiate a bound tariff
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Global universal basic skills: Current deficits and implications for world development J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-11-03 Sarah Gust, Eric A. Hanushek, Ludger Woessmann
How far is the world away from ensuring that every child obtains the basic skills needed to be competitive in a modern economy? And what would accomplishing this mean for world development? We provide new approaches for estimating the lack of basic skills that allow mapping achievement across countries of the world onto a common (PISA) scale. We then estimate the share of children not achieving basic
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From wells to wealth? Government transfers and human capital J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-10-31 Julio Acuna, Lenin H. Balza, Nicolas Gomez-Parra
To study the causal impact of oil royalties on human capital, we exploit quasi-experimental variation arising from a law in Ecuador that prescribes an algorithm to assign oil royalties to municipalities regardless of their oil-producing status. We find that royalties increase the likelihood of students completing primary and secondary education. Students reaching high school are also more likely to
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Optimal Infrastructure after Trade Reform in India J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-10-30 Priyam Verma
Lower tariffs typically raise productivity, production, and trade, increasing the benefits from building infrastructure. Infrastructure spending by governments should therefore increase after countries open up to trade. I test this hypothesis empirically using a trade reform in India and find that a 1 percentage point reduction in tariffs increased states’ infrastructure spending by 0.5% between 1991
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Winning and losing the resource lottery: Governance after uncertain oil discoveries J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-10-25 Erik S. Katovich
Natural resource discoveries are often followed by delays and uncertain production outcomes, creating challenges for governments that anticipate resource revenues. I leverage exogenous subnational variation in offshore oil discoveries in Brazil to identify dynamic effects of discovery news and revenue shocks on local public finances, public goods provision, and politics. Municipalities where discoveries
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Providing procedural knowledge: A field experiment to encourage resource conservation in Namibia J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-10-24 Sebastian Tonke
I conduct a large-scale field experiment (N = 14,876) with a public water utility in Namibia to encourage water conservation during a drought. Providing a short list of specific conservation strategies via text message decreases residential water consumption by around 5.3 percent. Other treatment arms that ask individuals to use and develop their own strategies are ineffective, suggesting that individuals
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The dual role of insurance in input use: Mitigating risk versus curtailing incentives J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-10-21 Davide Pietrobon
Insurance can encourage the use of risk-increasing inputs, but it can also decrease people’s incentives to exert effort when the latter is difficult to monitor. This effort reduction can be associated with a decrease in the use of effort-complementary inputs. I study a model of risk-sharing that allows for both effects of insurance on input use and use the latest ICRISAT panel to structurally estimate
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Supporting early childhood development remotely: Experimental evidence from SMS messages J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-10-21 Juan Manuel Hernández-Agramonte, Olga Namen, Emma Näslund-Hadley, Maria Loreto Biehl
Using a randomized field experiment in Costa Rica, we estimate the effect of providing parents of preschool students with regular text messages offering ways to engage their children in educational activities at home. After 15 weeks of intervention, the cognitive skills of children whose families were assigned to the program were 0.11–0.12 standard deviations higher than the control group. We find
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The long-term welfare effects of colonial institutions: Evidence from Central India J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-10-13 Marco Colleoni
In Central India, the Narmada River separates two regions that have been ruled by different types of government only during the colonial period, and for reasons independent of their initial economic development. I implement a spatial RDD on village population in the Nineteenth Century as well as in 1901, and I run the same model on proxies of welfare in 2015. My results highlight that divergence has
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Does survey mode matter? Comparing in-person and phone agricultural surveys in India J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-10-11 Ellen Anderson, Travis J. Lybbert, Ashish Shenoy, Rupika Singh, Daniel Stein
Ubiquitous mobile phone ownership makes phone surveying an attractive method of low-cost data collection. We explore differences between in-person and phone survey measures of agricultural production collected for an impact evaluation in India. Phone responses have greater mean and variance, a difference that persists even within a subset of respondents that answered the same question over both modes
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Respondent biases in agricultural household surveys J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-10-10 Andrew Dillon, Edouard Mensah
Two sources of respondent bias introduce measurement error into household statistics: asymmetric information between the proxy respondent and the individual on whom they report; and aggregation bias when a proxy respondent reports on a household-level outcome across multiple individuals. We estimate the effects of respondent biases in a survey experiment in Burkina Faso by varying who reports on the
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Learning effects of conditional cash transfers: The role of class size and composition J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-09-30 Jules Gazeaud, Claire Ricard
A large literature has documented the positive effects of conditional cash transfer programs on school enrollment. However, evidence on their learning impacts is mixed and provides little insights into the mechanisms at play. Using a regression discontinuity analysis of a program implemented at scale in Morocco, we identify a substantial decrease in dropout rates in treated municipalities, which increased
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Information and behavior: Evidence from fertilizer quantity recommendations in Bangladesh J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-09-29 Sabrin Beg, Mahnaz Islam, Khandker Wahedur Rahman
We use a field experiment in Bangladesh to test if two types of variety-specific fertilizer recommendations – government provided, community-level recommendations and plot-specific recommendations based on individual soil tests – affect fertilizer use, yield, and profits. The treatments have a limited effect on quantity of most fertilizer types used by farmers. One exception is the case of TSP (phosphate
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Helping families help themselves: The (Un)intended impacts of a digital parenting program J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-09-23 Sofia Amaral, Lelys Dinarte-Diaz, Patricio Dominguez, Santiago M. Perez-Vincent
Parenting practices play a crucial role in child development. We evaluate the impact of a free digital stress management and positive parenting intervention designed to improve caregiver’s mental health and positive caregiver–child interactions in El Salvador. Drawing on the prior success of in-person interventions, we study the effects of digital intervention delivery and examine differential treatment
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Economic shocks and infant health: Evidence from a trade reform in Brazil J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-09-21 Carlos Charris, Danyelle Branco, Bladimir Carrillo
Using a uniquely rich set of data sources spanning more than 3,000 Brazilian municipalities over a horizon of 25 years, we investigate the effects of changes in local economic conditions generated by a trade liberalization reform on infant mortality. We exploit variation in import tariff reductions, together with differences in the baseline industry composition across locations, for identification
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Asset transfers and anti-poverty programs: Experimental evidence from Tanzania J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-09-21 Sarah Baird, Craig McIntosh, Berk Özler, Utz Pape
We use a set of randomized experiments to examine the impact of a group business development program implemented by the Tanzanian government, along with a set of complementary training and cash transfer interventions targeted to vulnerable households in rural areas. In contrast with much of the recent literature, we find little effect of the business development program. While most enterprises remain
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How do digital platforms affect employment and job search? Evidence from India J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-09-19 Erin M. Kelley, Christopher Ksoll, Jeremy Magruder
We use a randomized control trial to evaluate whether digital platforms improve employment outcomes among vocational training graduates in India. We uploaded a random subset of graduates to a digital platform, and assigned some to receive many text messages about job opportunities. We find evidence of voluntary unemployment: graduates respond to platform access by increasing their reservation wages
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Religious identity, trust, reciprocity, and prosociality: Theory and evidence J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-09-18 Sanjit Dhami, Mengxing Wei, Pavan Mamidi
We use the trust and the dictator games to explore the effects of religious identity on trust, trustworthiness, prosociality, and conditional reciprocity within a beliefs-based model. We provide a novel, rigorous, theoretical model to derive the relevant predictions, which are then tested in lab-in-the-field experiments in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. We find strong evidence of the
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Fertility and delayed migration: How son preference protects young girls against mother–child separation J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-09-16 Zibin Huang, Xu Jiang, Ang Sun
Mother–child separation harms children's development. This concern is particularly relevant in rapidly urbanizing societies with massive migration. However, factors that increase the probability of children becoming separated from their migrating parents are not well understood. In this study, we find that during early childhood, specifically at the age of 2 years, girls are less likely to become separated
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TV in times of political uncertainty: Evidence from the 2017 elections in Kenya J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-09-11 Elisa Mougin
What is the impact of television during periods of political crisis? This paper examines the nullification of the 2017 presidential election in Kenya, followed by the organization of a repeat ballot, which sparked widespread protests and heightened uncertainty. Leveraging exogenous variations in television signal expansion since 2013, I assess the influence of television reception on voter turnout
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Corrigendum to “The long-run impact of bombing Vietnam” [J. Dev. Econ. 96 (2011) 1–15/1] J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-09-15 Edward Miguel, Gérard Roland
Abstract not available
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Changing local customs: The long run impacts of Christian missions on female genital cutting in Africa J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-09-06 Heather Congdon Fors, Ann-Sofie Isaksson, Annika Lindskog
We investigate the long-run impacts of Christian missions on female genital cutting (FGC) in Africa. Our empirical analysis draws on historical data on the locations of early European missions geographically matched with Demographic and Health Survey data on FGC practices of around 410,000 respondents from 42 surveys performed over a 30-year period in 14 African countries. We use ethnographic data
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Improved menstrual health and the workplace: An RCT with female Bangladeshi garment workers J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-09-09 Kristina Czura, Andreas Menzel, Martina Miotto
Menstrual hygiene practices in low-income countries are often limited by lack of finances and information, with potentially adverse consequences for women’s well-being and workplace outcomes. In a randomized controlled trial with around 1,900 female workers from four Bangladeshi garment factories, we relax both constraints individually and jointly by providing free sanitary pads and information on
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School electrification and academic outcomes in rural Kenya J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-09-04 Josephat Koima
Between 2014 and 2016, the number of primary schools with electricity rose from 56% to 94%. Schools in proximity to the grid network were connected to grid electricity, while those located further away received solar photovoltaics. Using this rapid electrification expansion as a source of identifying variation in a panel fixed effects model, the paper estimates the impact on school test scores, enrollment
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Illegal markets and contemporary slavery: Evidence from the mahogany trade in the Amazon J. Dev. Econ. (IF 4.277) Pub Date : 2023-08-30 Daniel Araujo, Yuri Barreto, Danny Castro, Robson Tigre
Modern slavery is a major global concern, with an estimated 49.7 million people enslaved in 2022. This paper explores the impact of illegal markets on this phenomenon, focusing on the complete shutdown of the mahogany market in the late 90s in Brazil. Utilizing a quasi-experimental research design that exploits the natural variation in the occurrence of mahogany trees in Brazilian municipalities, we