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作者：Bertrand, Marianne; Djankov, Simeon; Hanna, Rema; Mullainathan, Sendhil
作者单位：University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); IZA Institute Labor Economics; New York University; Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：We study the allocation of driver's licenses in India by randomly assigning applicants to one of three groups: bonus (offered a bonus for obtaining a license quickly), lesson (offered free driving lessons), or comparison. Both the bonus and lesson groups are more likely to obtain licenses. However, bonus group members are more likely to make extralegal payments and to obtain licenses without knowing how to drive. All extralegal payments happen through private intermediaries (agents). An audit ...
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作者：DellaVigna, Stefano; Kaplan, Ethan
作者单位：University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research; Stockholm University
摘要：Does media bias affect voting? We analyze the entry of Fox News in cable markets and its impact on voting. Between October 1996 and November 2000, the conservative Fox News Channel was introduced in the cable programming of 20 percent of U. S. towns. Fox News availability in 2000 appears to be largely idiosyncratic, conditional on a set of controls. Using a data set of voting data for 9,256 towns, we investigate if Republicans gained vote share in towns where Fox News entered the cable market ...
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作者：Jensen, Robert
作者单位：Harvard University
摘要：When information is limited or costly, agents are unable to engage in optimal arbitrage. Excess price dispersion across markets can arise, and goods may not be allocated efficiently. In this setting, information technologies may improve market performance and increase welfare. Between 1997 and 2001, mobile phone service was introduced throughout Kerala, a state in India with a large fishing industry. Using microlevel survey data, we show that the adoption of mobile phones by fishermen and whol...
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作者：Niederle, Muriel; Vesterlund, Lise
作者单位：Stanford University; Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); University of Pittsburgh; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：We examine whether men and women of the same ability differ in their selection into a competitive environment. Participants in a laboratory experiment solve a real task, first under a noncompetitive piece rate and then a competitive tournament incentive scheme. Although there are no gender differences in performance, men select the tournament twice as much as women when choosing their compensation scheme for the next performance. While 73 percent of the men select the tournament, only 35 perce...
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作者：Duflo, Esther; Pande, Rohini
作者单位：Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); National Bureau of Economic Research; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); Harvard University
摘要：This paper studies the productivity and distributional effects of large irrigation dams in India. Our instrumental variable estimates exploit the fact that river gradient affects a district's suitability for dams. In districts located downstream from a dam, agricultural production increases, and vulnerability to rainfall shocks declines. In contrast, agricultural production shows an insignificant increase in the district where the dam is located but its volatility increases. Rural poverty decl...
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作者：Caselli, Francesco; Feyrer, James
作者单位：Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; National Bureau of Economic Research; Dartmouth College
摘要：Whether or not the marginal product of capital (MPK) differs across countries is a question that keeps coming up in discussions of comparative economic development and patterns of capital flows. Using easily accessible macroeconomic data we find that MPKs are remarkably similar across countries. Hence, there is no prima facie support for the view that international credit frictions play a major role in preventing capital flows from rich to poor countries. Lower capital ratios in these countrie...
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作者：Koren, Miklos; Tenreyro, Silvana
作者单位：Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - New York; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
摘要：Why is GDP growth so much more volatile in poor countries than in rich ones? We identify three possible reasons: G) poor countries specialize in fewer and more volatile sectors; GO poor countries experience more frequent and more severe aggregate shocks (e.g., from macroeconomic policy); and (iii) poor countries' macroeconomic fluctuations are more highly correlated with the shocks affecting the sectors they specialize in. We show how to decompose volatility into the various sources, quantify ...
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作者：Banerjee, Abhijit V.; Cole, Shawn; Duflo, Esther; Linden, Leigh
作者单位：Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Harvard University; Columbia University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
摘要：This paper presents the results of two randomized experiments conducted in schools in urban India. A remedial education program hired young women to teach students lagging behind in basic literacy and numeracy skills. It increased average test scores of all children in treatment schools by 0.28 standard deviation, mostly due to large gains experienced by children at the bottom of the test-score distribution. A computer-assisted learning program focusing on math increased math scores by 0.47 st...
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作者：Nunn, Nathan
作者单位：University of British Columbia
摘要：Is a country's ability to enforce contracts an important determinant of comparative advantage? To answer this question, I construct a variable that measures, for each good, the proportion of its intermediate inputs that require relationship-specific investments. Combining this measure with data on trade flows and judicial quality, 1 find that countries with good contract enforcement specialize in the production of goods for which relationship-specific investments are most important. According ...
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作者：Bloom, Nicholas; Van Reenen, John
作者单位：University of Cambridge; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
摘要：We use an innovative survey tool to collect management practice data from 732 medium-sized firms in the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. These measures of managerial practice are strongly associated with firm-level productivity, profitability, Tobin's Q, and survival rates. Management practices also display significant cross-country differences, with U.S. firms on average better managed than European firms, and significant within-country differences, with a long tail of e...
