WORKING PAPERS

Our working paper series features cutting-edge research and insights from our researchers. It offers a unique opportunity to gain early access to our latest findings and ideas.

DELIVERING REMOTE LEARNING USING A LOW-TECH SOLUTION: EVIDENCE FROM AN RCT DURING SCHOOL CLOSURES 

INVESTIGATORS

Wang Liang Choon, Michael Vlassopoulos, Asad Islam, and Hashibul Hasan

ABSTRACT

During the prolonged school closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many children in rural Bangladesh were missing out on formal education. What is more these children had limited access to distance learning modalities such as the internet, television, and radio. To counteract this poor access, this study used the widely accessible modality of mobile phones to deliver a set of audio lessons to primary school students using Interactive Voice Response (IVR). These lessons were developed using the Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) method.

FORCED DISPLACEMENT, MENTAL HEALTH, AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT: EVIDENCE FROM THE ROHINGYA REFUGEES 

Investigators

Asad Islam, Tanvir Ahmed Mojumder, Tabassum Rahman, Tanvir Shatil, and Abu Siddique

ABSTRACT

Forced displacement is a major driver of mental disorders among refugees worldwide. Poor mental health of adult refugees, particularly mothers, is also considered a risk factor for the psychological well-being and development of their children. In this study, we experimentally examine the extent to which a multifaceted psychosocial program improves the mental health of refugee mothers, and facilitates growth and development among children under the age of two. In partnership with BRAC, we ran a cluster randomized controlled trial on 3,500 Rohingya mother-child dyads in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Participants were given weekly psychosocial support for 44 weeks through peer volunteers, which includes psychoeducation and parenting support for mothers and play activities for both mothers and children. The intervention was largely successful and led to: (i) reductions in the psychological trauma and depression severity of mothers and children, (ii) improvements in communication, gross-motor, and problemsolving skills of children, and (iii) reductions in stunting and severe stunting among children by 10% and 22%, respectively. The intervention cost about $45 per dyad and is currently being scaled up in refugee camps in Bangladesh, where about 17 thousand mother-child pairs have already benefited from it.

NON-PRICE ENERGY CONSERVATION INFORMATION AND HOUSEHOLD ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY: EVIDENCE FROM AN RCT 

Investigators

Asad Islam, Sheikh Eskander, and Liang Choon Wang

Abstract

We use a randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh to test three types of non-price energy conservation strategies influencing residential energy consumption of households: (i) advice on electricity conservation methods (knowledge treatment); (ii) (median) electricity consumption of others in the suburb (suburb comparison); and (iii) (median) electricity consumption of neighbors (neighbor comparison). We find that providing advice on saving energy could reduce households’ energy consumption significantly. The effects are stronger for advice on electricity conservation than neighbor and suburb comparisons. The effects of providing information about own electricity consumption relative to neighbors’ electricity consumption is similar to the effects of giving information about own electricity consumption relative to electricity consumption of households in the same suburb. The effects among households who were inefficient users in neighbor and suburb comparison groups are almost as strong as those in knowledge treatment group. The effects across all treatment groups become stronger over time as they receive repeated information.

TELEMENTORING AND HOMESCHOOLING DURING SCHOOL CLOSURES: A RANDOMIZED EXPERIMENT IN RURAL BANGLADESH 

Investigators

Hashibul Hassan, Asad Islam, Choon Wang, and Abu Siddique

ABSTRACT

We examine the emotional and behavioral impacts of a randomized telementoring intervention on Bangladeshi primary school-aged children during COVID-19 school closures. We measured the prevalence of emotional, conduct, hyperactivity/ inattention, and peer-relation problems among children twice. We found significant reductions in conduct and hyperactivity problems among the treated one month after the intervention ended. However, these impacts disappeared after one year. We also observed significant deterioration in the mental health problems of all children. These results highlight that remote learning can prevent mental health problems among children in the short term, but sustained support is necessary to effectively address the problems.

FINANCIAL DIARIES AND WOMEN’S MONEY MANAGEMENT BEHAVIOR: EVIDENCE FROM A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL 

Investigators

Asad Islam, Vy Nguyen, Russell Smyth, and Zabid Iqbal

ABSTRACT

We conduct a randomized controlled trial among women in rural Bangladesh to compare the efficacy of teaching a standard financial curriculum with maintaining a financial diary. We find that keeping a financial diary to track spending is largely as effective as financial education in improving financial test scores and downstream financial behavior. Using incentivized experiments, we also show that participants who maintained a financial diary exhibited significantly higher household bargaining power. The findings suggest that maintaining a financial diary can be a cost-effective alternative to financial education in improving the financial wellbeing of women in developing countries.

WHEN GOAL SETTING FORGES AHEAD BUT STOPS SHORT 

Investigators

Asad Islam, Sungoh Kwon, Eema Masood, Nishith Prakash, and Shwetlena Sabarwal, Deepak Saraswat

Abstract

In this study, we use at scale randomized control trial among 18,000 secondary students in 181 schools in Tanzania (Zanzibar) to examine the effects of personal best goal-settings on students’ academic performance. We also offer nonfinancial rewards to students to meet the goals they set. We find that goal-setting has a significant positive impact on student time use, study effort, and self-discipline. However, we do not find any significant impact of goalsetting on test scores. We find that, this could be partially because about 2/3rd of students do not set realistic goals. Third, we find weaker results on time use, study effort, and discipline when we combine goal-setting with non-financial rewards, suggesting that typing goal-setting to extrinsic incentives could weaken its impact. We also find that female students improved on outcomes much more than male students and that students coming from relatively weaker socio-economic backgrounds improved more than their counterparts.

DEADWEIGHT LOSSES OR GAINS FROM IN-KIND TRANSFERS? EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM INDIA 

Investigators

Klaus Abbink, Gaurav Datt, Lata Gangadharan, Digvijay Negi, and Bharat Ramaswami

ABSTRACT

Are in-kind transfers associated with deadweight losses? To answer this, we conducted an incentivized field experiment in India, which offered low-income households the choice between a free quantity of rice and varying amounts of cash to elicit their willingness to pay for rice. Contrary to expectation, we find evidence of deadweight gain on average, though with a striking contrast between a deadweight loss among respondents from female-headed households and a deadweight gain among respondents from male-headed households. Our results highlight the role of gender differences in bargaining power in shaping the choice between cash or rice.

Terrorism And Human Capital Accumulation In Pakistan Investigators

Sonja de New, Umair Khalil, and Sundar Ponnusamy

ABSTRACT

How does exposure to violent events impact the educational outcomes of children? We find that children exposed to terrorism are 26% more likely to drop out of school and 6% less likely to stay in the grade commensurate to their age. They also suffer substantial learning losses, with a 6 to 8% reduction in test scores with stronger impacts for girls. As mechanisms, we show that terrorexposed areas also show a sizable reduction in teacher appointments and attendance as well as a general loss of economic wellbeing. Several robustness exercises probe the appropriacy of the causal nature of our findings.

DUAL CIRCULATION AND POPULATION MOBILITY DURING THE PANDEMIC IN CHINA  INVESTIGATORS

Wang-Sheng

ABSTRACT

Lee, Trang My Tran, and Bo Yu

We use high-frequency data from location-based mobile phone records to measure domestic air travel patterns of the Chinese population during the Covid-19 pandemic. The travel and tourism industry is a key driver of China’s domestic economy and data from this industry helps serve as an objective proxy for domestic economic activity during the pandemic. Our results show that except for some periods of intense mobility restrictions, relative to travel patterns in 2019, mobility in fact increased in China from mid-2020 onwards. This increase in domestic air travel is likely due to a combination of factors: China’s control and management of the Delta variant, China’s new “dual circulation” development paradigm, and a pent-up demand for international travel that is not permitted.

Selection And Heterogeneity In The Returns To Migration Investigators

Eduardo Cenci, Marieke Kleemans, and Emilia Tjernstrom

ABSTRACT

There is considerable debate on the returns to migration and sectoral change in developing countries, and magnitudes differ sharply depending on the method used. We aim to reconcile these divergent estimates by explicitly accounting for the role of heterogeneity in the returns to migration and sectoral mobility. We exploit rich panel data from over 30 thousand individuals in Indonesia whom we observe over a 25-year period. We model self-selection into migration in a multi-period Roy model, which incorporates worker heterogeneity in both absolute and comparative advantage. We then estimate a correlated random coefficient model that considers both types of heterogeneity. This model lets us extrapolate the returns identified from switcher sub-populations to non-switchers—a group of particular interest to policymakers deciding whether to encourage migration as a development strategy. It also allows us to draw on recent developments in the literature on non-parametric panel data identification and employ a group-random coefficient estimator that explicitly tests the parametric assumptions that identify the returns to non-switchers. Our results show considerable heterogeneity in the (log income) returns to switching from agricultural to nonagricultural sectors that help explain the large variation in existing estimates. Our estimated returns to non-switchers range between 0.20 and 0.34 log points, considerably lower than the raw sectoral income gap but close to the returns to switchers identified using individual fixed effects and on par with estimates from experimental evidence.