Experimental Design
Recruiting applicants and selecting Di Lottery beneficiaries was a multi-step process. The lottery was announced over the radio, with posters and through postings in local administrations (town halls). The ADP invited individuals to apply for the lottery who were (1) not PAPs; (2) 18 years of age or older; (3) residents of one of the six provinces of the Boucle du Mouhoun region (Kossi, Banwa, Mouhoun, Bale, Nayala, Sourou); and (4) able to list at least two other people age 15 or older who could cultivate the plot of land with the applicant. Initially, 2,178 of the applicants were determined to meet all four criteria. However, applicants were allowed to contest the decision and ask for a review. As a result, an additional 51 applicants were deemed eligible, bringing the total to 2,229 eligible applicants.
Among eligible applicants, admission to the lottery was determined through a points-based system designed to (1) select applicants with higher expected benefits (for example, applicants received more points when they owned certain machinery); and (2) meet distributional objectives (for example, female applicants and younger applicants received additional points).
Applicants provided the following information as part of their application package:
-Number of household members aged 15 and above who would be available to could help with work on the land
-Applicant's experience with irrigation
-Any ownership of irrigated land in other AMVS perimeters
-Participation in MCC-sponsored training activity
-Age and gender of the applicant
-Type of agricultural equipment owned by the applicant
-Level of debt
-Location of residence
Applicants were aware of the four eligibility criteria, the information they were scored on, and the associated scores, but they were not initially aware of the exact threshold that would determine participation in the lottery. In order to make the selection process transparent, all application information was made public in multiple locations (for example, at local town halls). The accuracy of the application documents was verified by the training implementer, for example, by cross-checking debt with farmers' cooperatives and land ownership with water-user associations.
The cut-off for participation in the lottery was set at 60 points. Given the number of male and female applicants scoring 60 points or more, this cutoff made it highly probable that at least 20 percent of beneficiaries would be female. Applicants with a score of 60 and above participated in the public lottery, which was held in February 2014. The lottery was conducted by the national lottery company LONAB (Loterie Nationale Burkinabe) and validated by a cabinet of lawyers.
Because there were two standard types of plots for which leases were distributed, applicants had to rank the two types of plots as their first and second choices. One plot was two hectares of land suitable for cultivating rice, and the other was one hectare that was suitable for polyculture. Just under 10 percent of the applicants stated that they would not accept a second choice.
We compare outcomes of lottery winners to outcomes of non-lottery winners. We account for different probabilities of selection because the probability of winning the lottery depended on preferences for rice and polyculture plots. In addition, in some households there were multiple applicants for the lottery. We also drop multiple applicant households in some analyses.