AEA RCT Registry currently lists 12932 studies with locations in 174 countries.
We examine how citizens can hold policy actors accountable for public service delivery. We do so through a randomized control trial that introduces community-based mobilization interventions to improve public schooling in Pakistan. Based on our pilot, we vary these interventions by: (i) policy actor type – whether citizens approach a bureaucrat directly or exert pressure through a political route and (ii) citizen gender – whether the citizens participating are women or men. In addition, for each we also include a variation in which citizens’ interaction with the policy actor is more directly supported and facilitated by an NGO. We examine impacts on citizen political action, resolution of school issue, and school quality.
This study examines how people make decisions on behalf of someone else when they are uncertain about what information that person will use to judge the decision's quality.
The Thucydides Trap theory postulates that a rising power will inevitably challenge the status of an established power, and the established power will also take measures to restrain and suppress the rising power. Conflict between the two is seen as unavoidable. We test weather future economic prospects matter. If future economic prospects are positive, both parties are more likely to engage in cooperation, whereas if prospects are negative, conflicts are more likely to arise. We use a lab experiment to test cooperation and conflict between a rising power and an established power and how future economic prospects (a growing versus a declining total pie) affect the occurrence of conflict. We further explore possible measures to avoid conflict in this background. Amendment Note: This up...
Centralized university admissions systems often ask applicants to submit rank-order lists, but applicants may have limited information about how these lists are processed. Even in systems that use strategy-proof mechanisms such as deferred acceptance (DA), applicants may infer relative program competitiveness from historical admission thresholds without being given clear guidance on whether it is safe to rank ambitious options first. This study proposes an experiment to examine the structure of ranking choices under such procedural opacity: how the same applicant’s rankings vary with competitive position, how these patterns depend on the value of a safer alternative, and how they respond to historical cutoff information and disclosure that rankings cannot affect which options are attain...
Finding a suitable job is a central objective of most people as it is one of the key drivers of their well-being. However, job search is a difficult process often associated with failed job applications and lost social connections, making it difficult for unemployed workers to stay motivated. Hence, a key public policy question is how the public employment service (PES) can best strengthen and keep up the motivation of job seekers. Research in economics and psychology seems to result in conflicting advice. In psychology – Self-Determination Theory (SDT) (Deci and Ryan, 1985; 2000; 2012) differentiates between different sources of motivation. Controlled motivation occurs when people search for jobs, because they feel pressured to do so. Autonomous motivation occurs when people search fo...
Economies around the world are increasingly setting zero-threshold emissions targets. To achieve zero-threshold emissions, market mechanisms, such as emission trading systems, encourage emission reductions where they are the most cost-efficient. We investigate whether salient sustainability achievements around reference points, such as zero-threshold emissions, serve as heuristic cues for retail investors making investment decisions in such market environments. Based on theory on heuristic decision-making, we predict that retail investors are more likely to invest in a bond disclosing emissions achieving the zero-reference point, even when the emission abatement behind this achievement is more costly than the current market price for abatement. We aim to collect process evidence for ref...
This study uses a randomized placebo-controlled experiment to test whether text messages from the county government that give residents voice over local spending priorities, provide reciprocity information about planned county spending, or both, increase tax morale and improve beliefs about county government in Nairobi County, Kenya. Nairobi County sends a single SMS to residents with mobile numbers in county records, randomly assigned to one of five equal groups: an invitation to reply indicating which of two county project areas, roads/drainage or healthcare, is most important to them (voice); information that the county is planning projects in these areas (information); both the information and the invitation (voice and information); a county message about office hours with no spendi...
Housing affordability has become one of the most pressing economic and social problems in the United States. Increasing housing supply is one solution, but proposals for new development and reforms of local land-use regulation are often blocked by local residents ("Not In My Back Yard" opposition). This study examines how people perceive housing affordability and housing policies, and what shapes their support for increasing housing supply. People's views may reflect not only self-interest, through the effects of new housing on them as homeowners or renters, but also social preferences: concern for its broader effects on others, and fairness considerations, such as whether their community is singled out to bear the costs while others free-ride. We survey US homeowners and renters aged 2...
Schools can play a critical role in shaping norms around violence, inclusion, and gender equality, particularly in contexts affected by insecurity and social tensions. In northern Benin, rising concerns related to violent extremism pose challenges to social cohesion, student well-being, and learning environments. Can teacher training that promotes non-violent, inclusive pedagogy improve classroom practices and reduce violence in schools? And do such changes translate into improved educational and socio-emotional outcomes for students? This study addresses these questions through a randomized controlled trial evaluating a school-based intervention implemented in 100 primary schools in the Donga department of Benin. Led by “Foundation Graines de Paix”, the program trains primary school te...
In this study, we examine how dissenting opinions to that of key opinions leaders (KOL) influence the information environment on an investor-focused online platform. Prior research has highlighted the role of social media in shaping information environments. However, the communication online can easily to lead to an echoing chamber, where the opinions of KOL are exaggerated by his/her followers in the absence of critical or scientific check. We will investigate whether the dissenting comments from the audience can influence the behavior of influencers, the KOLs. To test this, we design a field experiment on an investor social platform, where standardized dissenting and supporting comments will be posted as replies to opinions of a sample of randomly selected KOLs. To avoid subjective bi...