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作者：Bird, Samuel S.; Carter, Michael R.; Lybbert, Travis J.; Mathenge, Mary; Njagi, Timothy; Tjernstroem, Emilia
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Davis; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Cape Town; Egerton University; Monash University
摘要：This paper studies whether the absence of locally adapted seed varieties constrains the productivity and incomes of farm households residing in small, agro-ecological niches. We empirically examine the disruption of the maize seed market in Western Kenya that took place when public sector foundation breeding and social impact investment capital came together and allowed a local seed company to expand and target a niche area with adaptively-bred maize varieties. The three-year randomized contro...
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作者：Deutschmann, Joshua W.; Gars, Jared; Houde, Jean-Francois; Lipscomb, Molly; Schechter, Laura
作者单位：University of Chicago; State University System of Florida; University of Florida; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; University of Virginia; National Bureau of Economic Research; State University System of Florida; University of Florida
摘要：Privatization of a public good (the management of sewage treatment centers in Dakar, Senegal) leads to an increase in the productivity of downstream sewage dumping companies and a decrease in downstream prices of the services they provide to households. We use the universe of legal dumping of sanitation waste from May 2009 to May 2018 to show that legal dumping increased substantially following privatization-on average an increase of 74%, or an increase of about 1640 trips to treatment centers...
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作者：Berkouwer, Susanna B.; Biscaye, Pierre E.; Puller, Steven; Wolfram, Catherine D.
作者单位：University of Pennsylvania; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Texas A&M University System; Texas A&M University College Station; National Bureau of Economic Research; United States Department of the Treasury; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
摘要：We provide descriptive evidence on the challenges in efficiently, effectively, and fairly distributing in-kind electricity transfers to households. We collect panel data from 1200 households eligible for Ghana's COVID-19 electricity relief program. Distributing relief through electricity transfers enabled an immediate response to the crisis. Theoretical efficiency concerns are mitigated because transfers were inframarginal and storable for most households. Transfer receipt may have increased s...
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作者：Gutierrez, Emilio; Rubli, Adrian; Tavares, Tiago
摘要：Providing information is important for managing epidemics, but issues with data accuracy may hinder its effectiveness. Focusing on Covid-19 in Mexico, we ask whether delays in death reports affect individuals' beliefs and behavior. Exploiting administrative data and an online survey, we provide evidence that behavior, and consequently the evolution of the pandemic, are considerably different when death counts are presented by date reported rather than by date occurred, due to non-negligible re...
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作者：Maitra, Pushkar; Mitra, Sandip; Mookherjee, Dilip; Visaria, Sujata
作者单位：Monash University; Indian Statistical Institute; Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata; Boston University; Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
摘要：Most analyses of randomized controlled trials of development interventions estimate an average treatment effect on the outcome of interest. However, the aggregate impact on welfare also depends on distributional effects. We propose a simple method to evaluate efficiency-equity trade-offs in the utilitarian tradition of Atkinson (1970). This involves an estimation of the average treatment effect on a monotone concave function of the outcome variable, whose curvature captures the degree of inequ...
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作者：Jetter, Michael; Molina, Teresa
作者单位：University of Western Australia; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of Hawaii System; University of Hawaii Manoa
摘要：Exploring the elusive agenda-setting hypothesis pertaining to democratically-elected leaders, we test whether Duterte's 2016 inauguration speech systematically shifted Filipinos' policy agenda towards prioritizing illegal drugs. To do this, we examine daily Google searches (in a country that tops internet usage worldwide) and identify a large increase in drug-related searches right after the speech, both in absolute terms and relative to other prominent policy topics. We find no similar increa...
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作者：Abeberese, Ama Baafra; Chen, Mary
作者单位：Wellesley College; University System of Georgia; Georgia Institute of Technology
摘要：We examine the potential for a reduction in intranational trade costs to increase firm pro-ductivity. Recent trade theories highlight a channel through which this increase may occur - a reduction in trade costs increases competition and leads firms to drop the products in which they are least efficient. We provide empirical evidence for this prediction in the context of an exogenous reduction in intranational trade costs induced by a highway construction project in India. We find that product ...
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作者：Cilliers, Jacobus; Fleisch, Brahm; Kotze, Janeli; Mohohlwane, Nompumelelo; Taylor, Stephen; Thulare, Tsegofatso
作者单位：Georgetown University; University of Witwatersrand; Stellenbosch University
摘要：Virtual communication holds the promise of enabling low-cost professional development at scale, but the benefits of in-person interaction might be difficult to replicate. We report on an experiment in South Africa comparing on-site with virtual coaching of public primary school teachers. After three years, on-site coaching improved students' English oral language and reading proficiency (0.31 and 0.13 SD, respectively). Virtual coaching had a smaller impact on English oral language proficiency...
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作者：Derksen, Laura; Michaud-Leclerc, Catherine; Souza, Pedro C. L.
作者单位：University of Toronto; Laval University; University of London; Queen Mary University London
摘要：Can schools use the internet to promote reading and learning? We provided Wikipedia access to randomly-selected students in Malawian boarding secondary schools. Students used the online resource broadly and intensively, and found it trustworthy, including for information about news and safe sex. We find a 0.10 sigma impact on English exam scores, and a higher impact among low achievers (0.20 sigma). Students used Wikipedia to study Biology, and exam scores increased for low achievers (0.14 sig...
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作者：Bianchi, Nicola; Lu, Yi; Song, Hong
作者单位：Northwestern University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Tsinghua University; Fudan University; Shanghai Institute of International Finance & Economics
摘要：In this paper, we examine the effect of computer-assisted learning on students' long-term development. We explore the implementation of a large ed-tech intervention that connected some of China's best teachers to more than 100 million rural students through satellite internet. By leveraging the staggered installation of computer equipment in different areas of the country, we find evidence that exposure to the program improved students' academic achievement, labor performance, and computer usa...
