| 1. |
- Allakulov, Umrbek, et al.
(författare)
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Transparency, governance, and water and sanitation : Experimental evidence from schools in rural Bangladesh
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Development Economics. - : Elsevier. - 0304-3878 .- 1872-6089. ; 163
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Can transparency interventions improve WASH service provision? We use a randomized experiment to evaluate the impacts of a transparency intervention, a deliberative multi-stakeholder workshop initiated with a community scorecard exercise, in schools in rural Bangladesh. To measure impacts, we combine survey data, direct observations, and administrative data. The intervention leads to moderate but consistent improvements in knowledge of WASH standards and practices, and institutions for WASH service management, but does not improve school WASH service provision or change WASH facility use patterns. Drawing on rich descriptive data, we suggest several reasons why the intervention we evaluate did not improve WASH service outcomes and propose ways to improve the design of future interventions.
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| 2. |
- Bengtsson, Niklas
(författare)
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Efficient informal trade : Theory and experimental evidence from the Cape Town taxi market
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Development Economics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0304-3878 .- 1872-6089. ; 115, s. 85-98
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Informal sectors in developing countries are often thought of as responses to rigid and cumbersome market regulations. In this paper I study informal trade as a first-best outcome. In the model I propose rigid regulations can be necessary to achieve efficiency even though they are always sidestepped. The key assumption is that the regulations define the trading parties' fall-back position in case the informal bargaining process breaks down. I set up a field experiment to test the model's mechanisms in the Cape Town market for metered taxis. Consistent with the model, I find that sidestepping the regulations increase cost efficiency (taxis take the shortest route). The price is however unaffected, suggesting informal bargaining leads to a Pareto improvement.
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| 3. |
- Bengtsson, Niklas
(författare)
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How responsive is body weigth to transitory income changes? Evidence from rural Tanzania
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Development Economics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0304-3878 .- 1872-6089. ; 92:1, s. 53-61
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We use time-series of rainfall to estimate the response of body weight to transitory changes in household income in rural Tanzania. We find that the response of body weight to income changes is positive on average, but that the impact is highest for female children, and lower for adults. For female children, a ten-percent increase in household income implies an increase in body weight by about 0.4 kg. In contrast, the body weight of adolescents and young adults is virtually invariant to income changes.
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| 4. |
- Bonnier, Evelina, et al.
(författare)
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Preparing for genocide : Quasi-experimental evidence from Rwanda
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Development Economics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0304-3878 .- 1872-6089. ; 147
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper shows how state-controlled community meetings can facilitate large-scale mobilization of civilians into violence. We analyze a Rwandan community program that required citizens to participate in community work and political meetings every Saturday in the years before the 1994 genocide. We exploit cross-sectional variation in meeting intensity induced by exogenous weather fluctuations, and find that a one standard-deviation increase in the number of rainy Saturdays before the genocide decreased civilian violence by 17 percent. We find evidence that the meetings provided an arena for local elites to spread propaganda and bring people together. In research and policy, community meetings are often treated as positive, community building forces. Our results indicate that they can also lead to negative outcomes. This should, however, not suggest that such meetings are inherently destructive. Instead, community meetings should be understood as powerful tools and their effects depend on the political intention of the leaders.
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| 5. |
- Ham, John C., et al.
(författare)
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The determinants of bargaining power in an empirical model of transfers between adult children, parents, and in-laws for South Korea
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Development Economics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0304-3878 .- 1872-6089. ; 109, s. 73-86
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We derive a bargaining model of transfers between adult children and their parents, and then estimate the model using data from South Korea. Our analysis extends the literature on family bargaining by i) arguing that transfers from the couple represent semiprivate consumption (e.g. it is plausible that the wife cares more about her parents than about the husband's parents, and vice-versa) and ii) using results from laboratory experiments to help identify the model. We find that women have slightly more bargaining power than men in the couple's decision making. We also find that when an adult child receives an extra dollar of income, she transfers half of it to her parents; this result is consistent with previous work. Finally, we reject the null hypothesis that bargaining power within the family depends only on the potential wage of each spouse.
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| 6. |
- Hammar, Olle, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Social Networks and Immigrant Integration : Experimental Evidence from Sweden
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Development Economics. - 0304-3878 .- 1872-6089.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Immigrant integration is key to realizing the potential of international migration in economic development. However, integration is often thought to be hampered by immigrants’ limited social networks beyond their co-ethnics. We study how contact with natives affects immigrants’ social and economic outcomes through a field experiment. We have partnered with an NGO in Sweden that annually matches over one thousand pairs of native Swedes and immigrants for informal meetings to promote new social connections and facilitate integration. Using an RCT and a combination of survey and administrative register data, we will study how such matches with native Swedes affect immigrants’ social relations and values, and whether they lead to better labor and housing market outcomes via access to information or referrals. We will also examine changes in immigrants’ attachment to their country of origin and remittances to family and friends outside Sweden.
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| 7. |
- Olsson, Ola, 1971, et al.
(författare)
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Fiscal capacity in "post"-conflict states : Evidence from trade on Congo river
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Development Economics. - : Elsevier. - 0304-3878 .- 1872-6089. ; 146
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In many post-conflict states with a weak fiscal capacity, illicit domestic levies on trade remain a serious obstacle to economic development. In this paper, we explore the interplay between traders and authorities on Congo River - a key transport corridor in one of the world’s poorest and most conflict-ridden countries; DR Congo. We outline a general theoretical framework featuring transport operators who need to pass multiple taxing stations and negotiate over taxes with several authorities on their way to a central market place. We then examine empirically the organization, extent, and factors explaining the level of taxes charged by various authorities across stations, by collecting primary data from boat operators. Most of the de facto taxes charged on Congo River have no explicit support in laws or government regulations and have been characterized as a “fend for yourself”-system of funding. Our study shows that traders have to pass more than 10 stations downstream where about 20 different authorities charge taxes. In line with hold-up theory, we find that the average level of taxation tends to increase downstream closer to Kinshasa, but authorities that were explicitly prohibited from taxing in a recent decree instead extract more payments upstream. Our results illustrate a highly dysfunctional taxing regime that nonetheless is strikingly similar to anecdotal evidence of the situation on the Rhine before 1800. In the long run, a removal of domestic river taxation on Congo River should have the potential to raise trade substantially.
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