Working Papers
CDEP-CGEG Working Papers are sponsored jointly by the Center for Development Economics and Policy (CDEP) and the Center on Global Economic Governance (CGEG), and are circulated to promote discussion and comment. They represent the views of their authors and not the official views of CDEP or CGEG.
Abstract
Does identity—one’s concept of self—influence economic behavior in the labormarket? I investigate this question in rural India, focusing on the effect of caste identity on labor supply. In a field experiment, casual laborers belonging to different castes choose whether to take up various real job offers. All offers involve working on a default manufacturing task and an additional task. The additional task changes across offers, is performed in private, and differs in its association with specific castes. Workers’ average take-up rate of offers is 23 percentage…
Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Jan Svejnar, Katherine Terrell
Abstract
Our estimates, based on large firm-level and industry-level data sets from eighteen countries, suggest that FDI and trade have strong positive spillover effects on product and technology innovation by domestic firms in emerging markets. The FDI effect is more pronounced for firms from advanced economies. Moreover, our results indicate that the spillover effects can be detected with micro data at the firm-level, but that using linkage variables computed from input-output tables at the industry level yields much weaker, and usually…
Oriana Bandiera, Michael Carlos Best, Adnan Qadir Khan, and Andrea Prat
Abstract
We design a field experiment to study how the allocation of authority between frontline procurement officers and their monitors affects performance both directly and through the response to incentives. In collaboration with the government of Punjab, Pakistan, we shift authority from monitors to procurement officers and introduce financial incentives to a sample of 600 procurement officers in 26 districts. We find that autonomy alone reduces prices by 9% without reducing quality and that the effect is stronger…
Oriana Bandiera, Michael Carlos Best, Adnan Qadir Khan, and Andrea Prat
Abstract
We design a field experiment to study how the allocation of authority between frontline procurement officers and their monitors affects performance both directly and through the response to incentives. In collaboration with the government of Punjab, Pakistan, we shift authority from monitors to procurement officers and introduce financial incentives to a sample of 600 procurement officers in 26 districts. We find that autonomy alone reduces prices by 9% without reducing quality and that the effect is stronger…
Alex Eble and Feng Hu
Abstract:
We study the transmission of beliefs about gender differences in math ability from adults to children and how this affects girls’ academic performance relative to boys. We exploit randomly assigned variation in the proportion of a child’s middle school classmates whose parents believe boys are innately better than girls at learning math. An increase in exposure to peers whose parents report this belief increases a child’s likelihood of believing it, with similar effects for boys and girls and greater effects from peers of the same gender. This exposure…
Anja Benshaul-Tolonen, Garazi Zulaika, Elizabeth Nyothach, Clifford Oduor, Linda Mason, David Obar, Kelly T. Alexander, Kayla F. Laserson, and Penelope A. Phillips-Howard
Alex Eble, Chris Frost, Alpha Camara, Babourcarr Bouy, Momodou Bah, Maitri Sivaraman, Jenny Hsieh, Chitra Jayanty, Tony Brady, Piotr Gawron, Peter Boone, Diana Elbourne
Abstract
Despite large schooling and learning gains in many developing countries, children in highly deprived areas are often unlikely to achieve even basic literacy and numeracy. We study how much of this problem can be resolved using a multi-pronged intervention combining several distinct interventions known to be effective in isolation. We conducted a cluster-randomized trial in The Gambia evaluating a literacy and numeracy…
Supreet Kaur
Abstract
This paper tests for downward nominal wage rigidity in markets for casual daily agricultural labor in a developing country context. I examine wage and employment responses to rainfall shocks—which shift labor demand—in 500 Indian districts from 1956-2008. First, there is asymmetric wage adjustment: nominal wages rise in response to positive shocks but do not fall during droughts. Second, after transitory positive shocks have dissipated, nominal wages do not return to previous levels—they remain high in future years. Third, inflation moderates these effects: when…
Alex Eble and Feng Hu
Abstract
Information affects beliefs, which in turn determine investment decisions. Because human capital exhibits dynamic complementarity, early sources of information play a crucial role in its formation. We study how information from stereotypes and role models influences children’s beliefs, aspirations, investment, and academic performance. A model of investment under uncertainty predicts that role models should have the greatest effect for children facing stereotypes who are also on the margin of giving up on themselves. We exploit random assignment of students…
Michael Carlos Best, Jonas Hjort, and David Szakonyi
Abstract
How much of the variation in state effectiveness is due to the individuals and organizations responsible for implementing policy? We investigate this question and its implications for policy design in the context of public procurement, using a text-based product classification method to measure bureaucratic output. We show that effective procurers lower bid preparation/submission costs, and that 60% of within-product purchase-price variation across 16 million purchases in Russia in 2011-2015 is due to the bureaucrats and organizations…
Abstract
Though previous works have discussed the benefits of precolonial centralization for development in Africa, the findings and the mechanisms provided do not explain the heterogeneity in development outcomes of formerly centralized states. Using new survey data from Nigeria, I find a significant negative effect of precolonial centralization on access to certain public services for centralized regions whose leaders failed to cooperate with the autocratic military regime, and whose jurisdictions were subsequently punished by underinvestment in these public services,…
Laura Boudreau, Rachel Heath, and Tyler H. McCormick
Abstract
Many workers in large factories in developing countries are internal migrants from rural areas. We examine the relationship between workers’ migration status and the working conditions they face in a household survey of garment workers in Bangladesh. We document that migrants are in firms with higher wages but worse working conditions, but as their careers progress, they have higher mobility than locals as they move towards firms with better conditions. These facts are consistent with a model in which migrants are poorly…