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Field
Abstract
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Before
Despite living in high-density cities, low-income job seekers might only be familiar with a small number of urban locations. We will use a field experiment in Nairobi, Kenya to document how exploration frictions may limit the potential benefits of cities. Residents of informal settlements in Nairobi have never been to many neighborhoods near their homes; on average a respondent has not been to 1 in 3 of the neighborhoods within the distance that they travel for work. Additionally, respondents are reluctant to travel to neighborhoods they have not been to previously; conditional on neighborhood fixed effects, respondents must be paid more in order to accept work in an unfamiliar location. Through our experiment, we will first test whether exploration frictions are amplified by present bias, projection bias, and attention bias. We will then test whether inducing familiarity with neighborhoods reduces the familiarity premium and increases demand for job search in previously unfamiliar, but known, locations.
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After
Despite living in high-density cities, low-income job seekers might only be familiar with a small number of urban locations. We will use a field experiment in Nairobi, Kenya to document how exploration frictions may limit the potential benefits of cities. Residents of informal settlements in Nairobi have never been to many neighborhoods near their homes; on average a respondent has not been to 1 in 3 of the neighborhoods within the distance that they travel for work. Additionally, respondents are reluctant to travel to neighborhoods they have not been to previously; conditional on neighborhood fixed effects, respondents must be paid more in order to accept work in an unfamiliar location. Through our experiment, we will test whether certain behavioral biases amplify this effect. We will then test whether inducing familiarity with neighborhoods reduces the familiarity premium and increases demand for job search in previously unfamiliar, but known, locations.
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Field
Last Published
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Before
April 13, 2023 03:55 PM
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After
April 13, 2023 06:10 PM
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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
Workers in Nairobi, Kenya will be recruited to participate in the program. All participants will be offered paid opportunities in a set of neighborhoods across Nairobi, including both familiar and unfamiliar neighborhoods. We estimate the familiarity premium and test for present bias, projection bias, and attention bias. Participants will be randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, where treated participants will be accompanied to an unfamiliar neighborhood and control participants will be accompanied to an already familiar neighborhood.
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After
Workers in Nairobi, Kenya will be recruited to participate in the program. All participants will be offered paid opportunities in a set of neighborhoods across Nairobi, including both familiar and unfamiliar neighborhoods. We will estimate the familiarity premium and test whether certain behavioral biases may amplify this effect.
Participants will be randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, where treated participants will be accompanied to an unfamiliar neighborhood and control participants will be accompanied to an already familiar neighborhood.
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