AEA RCT Registry currently lists 1878 studies with locations in 119 countries.
At least ten countries across Africa, including Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Namibia, are currently undergoing secondary curriculum reforms to teach youth the skills they need to succeed after school. Yet many of these reforms are not effective due to implementation challenges, particularly the prevalence of traditional rote-memorization pedagogy. This study will examine pedagogy-targeted curriculum reform and teacher training in the delivery of Rwanda’s revised secondary school entrepreneurship curriculum, to be introduced in 2016. A subset of schools will be randomly selected to receive two years of ongoing teacher training on the curriculum. A control group will receive the curriculum only. The study will measure impact on student academic and life outcomes over a period of three years...
Most of the poor receive their income in cash and they seem to readily spend it instead of saving some of it. Offering commitment devices to overcome present bias or sending reminders to tackle inattention and forgetfulness only seem to yield modest improvements. In particular, usage levels of formal savings account usually remain low. What if the act itself, depositing the cash into the account or handing it over to the loan officer is associated with non-monetary costs that prevents individuals from saving? Based on a literature that shows reduced spending levels when cash is the means of transaction, I hypothesize that a "cash-in-hand" effect also exists for savings, i.e. individuals become attached to their cash and are reluctant to 'give it away' to save it. I test this hypothesis ...
The increasing popularity of microfinance resulted in fierce competition in credit markets in many developing counties. Despite the favorable notion of competition in general, increased competition has led to new challenges. Recent studies find that higher levels of competition among microfinance institutions (MFIs) are related to over-indebtedness of borrowers and weakened loan repayment incentives. This might partly be driven by the absence of information sharing between lenders and the increase in competition which in turn results in greater information asymmetries in the markets. Information sharing via credit registries can thus be an important measure to improve the performance of microcredit markets and better access to credit for the poor. In this project we seek to answer the q...
Joint-liability groups and rigid repayment schedules have long been considered essential for guaranteeing high repayment rates in microcredit lending, since they offer mutual insurance and keep repayment discipline high. Yet both features have been criticized lately: rigid repayment schedules interfere with fluctuating incomes, and joint liability induces excessive peer pressure, as group members internalize the mission indoctrination of the microlender. Anecdotal evidence suggests that members who miss one installment due to a shock often do not dare to return to the group at all. We study whether the interaction of both flexible repayment features and joint-liability allows reaping the benefits of joint liability and flexibility - high repayment and shock coping capacity - while keep...
In this study we analyze two aspects of microcredit group lending. First, we seek to analyze credit demand for different micro loans using choice experiments and data from an existing randomized evaluation in which four different loan products were randomly offered to clients. The choice experiments will help us to better understand take-up decisions of offered loans contracts in the field experiment. Second, we seek to analyze group structures of lending groups and how peer monitoring and punishment are applied to increase repayment performance of lending groups. We use lab-in-the-field experiments to study group structures and the role of the group leader. We combine this information with repayment data from the aforementioned randomized evaluation to understand the external validity ...
The study aims to evaluate the impact of the Rural Finance Expansion Program (RUFEP), an initiative of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Zambia. The program’s goal is to improve the livelihood of rural communities by providing access to financial institutions. The population of interest is active members of Community-Based Financial Institutions (CBFIs) or saving groups, engaging in internal savings and credit schemes. These saving groups are supported and supervised by four Zambian implementing partners, which have a grant agreement with RUFEP. The first intervention of the study facilitates linking CBFIs to formal banks. Thereby, banks shall provide access to formal financial services for CBFIs and enable each s...
The intervention is a randomized control trial (RCT) that aims to enhance the self-efficacy of individuals on the edge of the labor market to help them find small jobs, even if it is only a few hours per week. Prior evidence has shown that a lack of perceived self-efficacy is a good predictor of job-search intentions, actual job-search behavior, and the future employment status. This study employs an information intervention to increase the beliefs that long-term unemployed hold about their ability to find work, even if only for a few hours per week. The intervention consists of sending out SMS text messages to long-term unemployed in Denmark. Subjects are recruited through employment agencies and randomized into treatment and control groups. The treatment group receives text messages t...
Mobile banking technology makes it cheaper and easier to move money across distances. Against a background of rapid urbanization in Bangladesh, we estimate the impact of mobile banking in a sample of "ultra-poor" rural households paired to relatives who migrated to find jobs in the capital. The study shows that diffusion of the gains from urbanization is constrained by barriers to remitting money. The technology substantially improved rural economic conditions by better connecting villagers to urban migrants, an idea that contrasts with (and complements) innovations like microfinance that focus on rural self-employment. Participants were trained on how to sign up for and use mobile banking accounts in a randomized encouragement design costing less than $12 per family. Active use of acc...
How does banning firms from seeking applicants’ wage histories affect employment and salary offers? We implement a field experiment in which recruiters evaluate job applications that randomly include or exclude salary information questions and disclosures. The experiment mimics laws passed in Massachusetts, California, New York City, and Chicago banning these questions. Applicants also vary by gender and whether their previous salaries are high or low in the distribution of their previous firms salaries. We test several hypotheses about how salary disclosure might impact wage offers and gender inequality.
The epidemiological transition has resulted in an increased burden of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension throughout the developing world. As countries adapt to this new environment, they must find cost-effective ways of screening for, and treating these diseases. With the proliferation of mobile technology as well as the increased evidence for the effectiveness of cash transfers we will be conducting a randomized-controlled trial in rural Tanzania to examine the usage of an SMS-based approach of informing individuals of the dangers of non-communicable diseases and offering financial incentives for hypertension and diabetes screening. Beyond estimating the overall impact of this program, we will measure how much of the impact is derived from offsetting the opportunity cost of...