Consulta: creatorFacets:"Karlan,   Dean S."
Registros recuperados: 27
Data/hora: 08/06/2024 02:19:52

Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Karlan,   Dean S.; Ashraf,   Nava; Yin,   Wesley.
Female "empowerment" has increasingly become a policy goal, both as an end to itself and as a means to achieving other development goals. Microfinance in particular has often been argued, but not without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a randomized controlled trial, we examine whether access to an individually-held commitment savings product leads to an increase in female decision-making power within the household. We find positive impacts, particularly for women who have below median decision-making power in the baseline, and we find this leads to a shift towards female-oriented durables goods purchased in the household.
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital.
Ano: 2006
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28380

Social Connections and Group Banking
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Karlan,   Dean S.
Lending to the poor is expensive due to high screening, monitoring, and enforcement costs. Group lending advocates believe lenders overcome this by harnessing social connections. Using data from FINCA-Peru, I exploit a quasi-random group formation process to find evidence of peers successfully monitoring and enforcing joint-liability loans. Individuals with stronger social connections to their fellow group members (i.e., either living closer or being of a similar culture) have higher repayment and higher savings. Furthermore, I observe direct evidence that relationships deteriorate after default, and that through successful monitoring, individuals know who to punish and who not to punish after default.
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Microfinance; Group lending; Informal savings; Social capital; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; O12; O16; O17; Z13.
Ano: 2005
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28522

What's Advertising Content Worth? Evidence from a Consumer Credit Marketing Field Experiment
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Bertrand,   Marianne; Karlan,   Dean S.; Mullainathan,   Sendhil; Shafir,   Eldar; Zinman,   Jonathan.
Firms spend billions of dollars each year advertising consumer products in order to influence demand. Much of these outlays are on the creative design of advertising content. Creative content often uses nuances of presentation and framing that have large effects on consumer decision making in laboratory studies. But there is little field evidence on the effect of advertising content as it compares in magnitude to the effect of price. We analyze a direct mail field experiment in South Africa implemented by a consumer lender that randomized creative content and loan price simultaneously. We find that content has significant effects on demand. There is also some evidence that the magnitude of content sensitivity is large relative to price sensitivity....
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Economics of advertising; Economics &amp; psychology; Behavioral; Economics; Cues; Microfinance; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Marketing; D01; M31; M37; C93; D12; D14; D21; D81; D91; O12.
Ano: 2009
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/47038

A Personal Touch: Text Messaging for Loan Repayment
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Morten,   Melanie; Karlan,   Dean S.; Zinman,   Jonathan.
We worked with two microlenders to test impacts of randomly assigned reminders for loan repayments in the “text messaging capital of the world”. We do not find strong evidence that loss versus gain framing or messaging timing matter. Messages only robustly improve repayment when they include the loan officer’s name. This effect holds for clients serviced by the loan officer previously but not for first-time borrowers. Taken together, the results highlight the potential and limits of communications technology for mitigating moral hazard, and suggest that personal obligation/reciprocity between borrowers and bank employees can be harnessed to help overcome market failures.
Tipo: Working Paper
Palavras-chave: Microcredit; Microfinance; Randomized evaluation; Development finance; Consumer/Household Economics; Financial Economics; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; D21; D92; G21; O16; O17.
Ano: 2012
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/121867

Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Ashraf,   Nava; Karlan,   Dean S.; Yin,   Wesley.
We designed a commitment savings product for a Philippine bank and implemented it using a randomized control methodology. The savings product was intended for individuals who want to commit now to restrict access to their savings, and who were sophisticated enough to engage in such a mechanism. We conducted a baseline survey on 1777 existing or former clients of a bank. One month later, we offered the commitment product to a randomly chosen subset of 710 clients; 202 (28.4 percent) accepted the offer and opened the account. In the baseline survey, we asked hypothetical time discounting questions. Women who exhibited a lower discount rate for future relative to current tradeoffs, and hence potentially have a preference for commitment, were indeed...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Savings; Commitment; Hyperbolic preferences; Microfinance; Development economics; Program evaluation; Field experiment; Self-control; Financial Economics; C93; D01; D11; D12; D14; D81; D91; G11; O12.
Ano: 2005
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28411

Using Experimental Economics to Measure Social Capital and Predict Financial Decisions
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Karlan,   Dean S.
Questions remain as to whether results from experimental economics games are generalizable to real decisions in non-laboratory settings. Furthermore, important questions persist about whether social capital can help solve seemingly missing credit markets. I conduct two experiments, a Trust game and a Public Goods game, and a survey to measure social capital. I then examine whether behavior in the games predicts repayment of loans to a Peruvian group lending microfinance program. Since the structure of these loans relies heavily on social capital to enforce repayment, this is a relevant and important test of the games, as well as of other measures of social capital. I find that individuals identified as "trustworthy" by the Trust game are in fact less...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Trust game; Experimental economics; Microfinance; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; B4; C9; D8; O1.
Ano: 2005
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28429

Deposit Collectors
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Ashraf,   Nava; Karlan,   Dean S.; Yin,   Wesley.
Informal lending and savings institutions exist around the world, and often include regular door-to-door deposit collection of cash. Some banks have adopted similar services in order to expand access to banking services in areas that lack physical branches. Using a randomized control trial, we investigate determinants of participation in a deposit collection service and evaluate the impact of offering the service for micro-savers of a rural bank in the Philippines. Of 137 individuals offered the service in the treatment group, 38 agreed to sign-up, and 20 regularly used the service. Take-up is predicted by distance to the bank (a measure of transaction costs of depositing without the service) as well as being married (a suggestion that household bargaining...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Savings behavior; Microfinance; Field experiment; Savings mobilization; Deposit collector; Financial Economics; D1; D9; G1; G2; O1.
Ano: 2005
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28502

Expanding Credit Access: Using Randomized Supply Decisions to Estimate the Impacts
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Karlan,   Dean S.; Zinman,   Jonathan.
Expanding credit access is a key ingredient of development strategies worldwide. Microfinance practitioners, policymakers, and donors have ambitious goals for expanding access, and seek efficient methods for implementing and evaluating expansion. There is less consensus on the role of consumer credit in expansion initiatives. Some microfinance institutions are moving beyond entrepreneurial credit and offering consumer loans. But many practitioners and policymakers are skeptical about “unproductive” lending. These concerns are fueled by academic work highlighting behavioral biases that may induce consumers to over borrow. We estimate the impacts of a consumer credit supply expansion using a field experiment and follow-up data collection. A South African...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Financial Economics.
Ano: 2007
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/9279

Formando microempresarias: impacto de la capacitación empresarial en las instituciones de microfinanzas y sus socias
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Karlan,   Dean S.; Valdivia,   Martin.
Los debates académicos y de políticas acerca de la actividad microempresarial se centran frecuentemente en las restricciones crediticias, asumiendo que los negocios se manejan de manera óptima dadas esas y otras restricciones. Los microempresarios, sin embargo, raramente tienen capacitación formal en gestión empresarial. Por su parte, un número creciente de instituciones de microfinanzas (IMF), en el Perú y el mundo, procura construir el capital humano de estos microempresarios para mejorar sus niveles de vida, contribuyendo a su misión de reducir la pobreza. Con ayuda de un diseño experimental, en este estudio medimos el impacto marginal de agregar un componente de capacitación en gestión empresarial a un programa de servicios financieros que atiende a...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Microempresarios; Microfinanzas; Pequeñas empresas; Mujeres; Capacitacion; Small enterprises; Training; Women; Peru; Financial Economics; C93; D12; D13; D21; I21; J24; O12.
Ano: 2010
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/91358

The Impact of Consulting Services on Small and Medium Enterprises: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Mexico
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Bruhn,   Miriam; Karlan,   Dean S.; Schoar,   Antoinette.
We test whether managerial human capital has a first order effect on the performance and growth of small enterprises in emerging markets. In a randomized control trial in Puebla, Mexico, we randomly assigned 150 out of 432 small and medium size enterprises to receive subsidized consulting services, while the remaining 267 enterprises served as a control group that did not receive any subsidized training. Treatment enterprises were matched with one of nine local consulting firms and met with their consultants once a week for four hours over a one year period.  Results from a follow-up survey, conducted after the intervention, show that the consulting services had a large impact on the performance of the enterprises in the treatment group: monthly sales went...
Tipo: Working Paper
Palavras-chave: Enterprise growth; Entrepreneurship; Managerial capital; Labor and Human Capital; D21; D24; L20; M13; O12.
Ano: 2012
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/121675

Looking Beyond the Incumbent: The Effects of Exposing Corruption on Electoral Outcomes
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Chong,   Alberto E.; De La O,   Ana; Karlan,   Dean S.; Wantchekon,   Leonard.
Does information about rampant political corruption increase electoral participation and the support for challenger parties? Democratic theory assumes that offering more information to voters will enhance electoral accountability. However, if there is consistent evidence suggesting that voters punish corrupt incumbents, it is unclear whether this translates into increased support for challengers and higher political participation. We provide experimental evidence that information about copious corruption not only decreases incumbent support in local elections in Mexico, but also decreases voter turnout, challengers' votes, and erodes voters' identifcation with the party of the corrupt incumbent. Our results suggest that while flows of information are...
Tipo: Working Paper
Palavras-chave: Corruption; Accountability; Elections; Voting; Information; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Political Economy; Public Economics; D72; D73; D82; D83.
Ano: 2012
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/121640

Finding Missing Markets (and a disturbing epilogue): Evidence from an Export Crop Adoption and Marketing Intervention in Kenya
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Ashraf,   Nava; Gine,   Xavier; Karlan,   Dean S.
In much of the developing world, many farmers grow crops for local or personal consumption despite export options which appear to be more profitable. Thus many conjecture that one or several markets are missing. We report here on a randomized controlled trial conducted by DrumNet in Kenya that attempts to help farmers adopt and market export crops. DrumNet provides smallholder farmers with information about how to switch to export crops, makes in-kind loans for the purchase of the agricultural inputs, and provides marketing services by facilitating the transaction with exporters. The experimental evaluation design randomly assigns pre-existing farmer self-help groups to one of three groups: (1) a treatment group that receives all DrumNet services, (2) a...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Field Experiment; Export Crop; Food Safety Standards; Agricultural and Food Policy; O12; Q17; F13.
Ano: 2008
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/46516

What's Psychology Worth? A Field Experiment in the Consumer Credit Market
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Bertrand,   Marianne; Karlan,   Dean S.; Mullainathan,   Sendhil; Shafir,   Eldar; Zinman,   Jonathan.
Numerous laboratory studies report on behaviors inconsistent with rational economic models. How much do these inconsistencies matter in natural settings, when consumers make large, real decisions and have the opportunity to learn from experiences? We report on a field experiment designed to address this question. Incumbent clients of a lender in South Africa were sent letters offering them large, short-term loans at randomly chosen interest rates. Psychological “features” on the letter, which did not affect offer terms or economic content, were also independently randomized. Consistent with standard economics, the interest rate significantly affected loan take-up. Inconsistent with standard economics, the psychological features also significantly affected...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Behavioral economics; Psychology; Microfinance; Marketing; Field experiment; Credit markets; Consumer/Household Economics; D01; C93; D12; D21; D81; D91; M37; O12.
Ano: 2005
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28441

Commitment Contracts
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Bryan,   Gharad; Karlan,   Dean S.; Nelson,   Scott.
We review the theoretical and empirical literature on commitment devices. A commitment device is any arrangement, entered into by an individual, with the aim of making it easier to fulfill his or her own future plans. We argue that there is growing empirical evidence supporting the proposition that people demand commitment devices and that these devices can change behavior. We highlight the importance of further research exploring soft commitment – those involving only psychological costs – and the welfare consequences of hard commitments – those involving actual costs – especially in the presence of bounded rationality.
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Consumer/Household Economics; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Consumer/Household Economics; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; D03; D14.
Ano: 2009
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/54536

Cairo Evaluation Clinic: Thoughts on Randomized Trials for Evaluation of Development
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Karlan,   Dean S.
We were asked to discuss specific methodological approaches to evaluating three hypothetical interventions. This article uses this forum to discuss three misperceptions about randomized trials.  First, nobody argues that randomized trials are appropriate in all settings, and for all questions.  Everyone agrees that asking the right question is the highest priority.  Second, the decision about what to measure and how to measure it, i.e., through qualitative or participatory methods versus quantitative survey or administrative data methods, is independent of the decision about whether to conduct a randomized trial.  Third, randomized trials can be used to evaluate complex and dynamic processes, not just simple and static interventions.  Evaluators should aim...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Program evaluation; Randomized control trial; Agricultural Finance; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Consumer/Household Economics; Financial Economics; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Labor and Human Capital; Public Economics; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; B41; O12; H43; J08; H54; D73; D12.
Ano: 2009
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/51913

Hey Look at Me: The Effect of Giving Circles on Giving
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Karlan,   Dean S.; McConnell,   Margaret.
Theories abound for why individuals give to charity. We conduct a field experiment with donors to a Yale University service club to test the impact of a promise of public recognition on giving. Some may claim that they respond to an offer of public recognition not to improve their social standing, but rather to motivate others to give. To tease apart these two theories, we conduct a laboratory experiment with undergraduates, and found no evidence to support the alternative, altruistic motivation. We conclude that charitable gifts increase in response to the promise of public recognition primarily because of individuals' desire to improve their social image.
Tipo: Working Paper
Palavras-chave: Prosocial behavior; Experiments; Voluntary contributions; Financial Economics; Public Economics; D64; C90; L30.
Ano: 2012
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/121670

Household Decision Making and Savings Impacts: Further Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Ashraf,   Nava; Karlan,   Dean S.; Yin,   Wesley.
Commitment devices for savings could benefit those with self-control as well as familial or spousal control issues.  We find evidence to support both motivations.  We examine the impact of a commitment savings product in the Philippines on household decision making power and self-perception of savings behavior, as well as actual savings.  The product leads to more decision making power in the household for women, and likewise more purchases of female-oriented durable goods.  We also find that the product leads women who appear time-inconsistent in a baseline survey to self-report being a disciplined saver in the follow-up survey.  For impact on savings balances, we find that the 81% increase in savings after one year did not crowd out savings held outside...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Consumer/Household Economics.
Ano: 2006
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28399

Getting to the Top of Mind: How Reminders Increase Saving
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Karlan,   Dean S.; McConnell,   Margaret; Mullainathan,   Sendhil; Zinman,   Jonathan.
We develop and test a simple model of limited attention in intertemporal choice. The model posits that individuals fully attend to consumption in all periods but fail to attend to some future lumpy expenditure opportunities. This asymmetry generates some predictions that overlap with models of present-bias. Our model also generates the unique predictions that reminders may increase saving, and that reminders will be more effective when they increase the salience of a specific expenditure. We find support for these predictions in three field experiments that randomly assign reminders to new savings account holders.
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Intertemporal consumer choice; Savings; Attention; Consumer/Household Economics; Financial Economics; D91; E21.
Ano: 2010
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/92001

Elasticities of Demand for Consumer Credit
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Karlan,   Dean S.; Zinman,   Jonathan.
The price elasticity of demand for credit has major implications for macroeconomics, finance, and development. We present estimates of this parameter derived from a randomized trial. The experiment was implemented by a consumer microfinance lender in South Africa and identifies demand curves that, while downward-sloping with respect to price, are flatter than recent estimates in both developing and developed countries throughout most of a wide price range. However, demand becomes highly price sensitive at higher-than-normal rates. We discuss several interpretations of this kink and present some related evidence. We also find that loan size is far more responsive to changes in loan maturity than to changes in interest rate. This pattern is more pronounced...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Credit markets; Microfinance; Demand elasticity; Development finance; Maturity elasticity; Consumer credit; Liquidity constraints; Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis; D1; D9; E2; G2; O1.
Ano: 2005
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28485

Microfinance Games
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Gine,   Xavier; Jakiela,   Pamela; Karlan,   Dean S.; Morduch,   Jonathan.
Microfinance has been heralded as an effective way to address imperfections in credit markets. From a theoretical perspective, however, the success of microfinance contracts has puzzling elements. In particular, the group-based mechanisms often employed are vulnerable to free-riding and collusion, although they can also reduce moral hazard and improve selection. We created an experimental economics laboratory in a large urban market in Lima, Peru and over seven months conducted eleven different games that allow us to unpack microfinance mechanisms in a systematic way. We find that risk-taking broadly conforms to predicted patterns, but that behavior is safer than optimal. The results help to explain why pioneering microfinance institutions have been moving...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Financial Economics.
Ano: 2006
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28520

Group versus Individual Liability: Long Term Evidence from Philippine Microcredit Lending Groups
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Gine,   Xavier; Karlan,   Dean S.
Group liability in microcredit purports to improve repayment rates through peer screening, monitoring, and enforcement. However, it may create excessive pressure, and discourage reliable clients from borrowing. Two randomized trials tested the overall effect, as well as specific mechanisms. The first removed group liability from pre-existing groups and the second randomly assigned villages to either group or individual liability loans. In both, groups still held weekly meetings. We find no increase in default and larger groups after three years in pre-existing areas, and no change in default but fewer groups created after two years in the expansion areas.
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Microfinance; Group lending; Group liability; Joint liability; Social capital; Microenterprises; Informal economies; Access to finance; Consumer/Household Economics; Financial Economics; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; International Development; C93; D71; D82; D91; G21; O12; O16; O17.
Ano: 2009
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/50951

You Can Pick Your Friends, But You Need to Watch Them: Loan Screening and Enforcement in a Referrals Field Experiment
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Bryan,   Gharad; Karlan,   Dean S.; Zinman,   Jonathan.
We examine a randomized trial that allows separate identification of peer screening and enforcement of credit contracts. A South African microlender offered half its clients a bonus for referring a friend who repaid a loan. For the remaining clients, the bonus was conditional on loan approval. After approval, the repayment incentive was removed from half the referrers in the first group and added for half those in the second. We find large enforcement effects, a $12 (100 Rand) incentive reduced default by 10 percentage points from a base of 20%. In contrast, we find no evidence of screening.
Tipo: Working Paper
Palavras-chave: Information asymmetries; Credit market failures; Peer networks; Social capital; Social networks; Consumer/Household Economics; Financial Economics; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; International Development; C93; D12; D14; D82; O12; O16.
Ano: 2012
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/121674

Expanding Microenterprise Credit Access: Using Randomized Supply Decisions to Estimate the Impacts in Manila
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Karlan,   Dean S.; Zinman,   Jonathan.
Microcredit seeks to promote business growth and improve well-being by expanding access to credit. We use a field experiment and follow-up survey to measure impacts of a credit expansion for microentrepreneurs in Manila. The effects are diffuse, heterogeneous, and surprising. Although there is some evidence that profits increase, the mechanism seems to be that businesses shrink by shedding unproductive workers. Overall, borrowing households substitute away from labor (in both family and outside businesses), and into education. We also find substitution away from formal insurance, along with increases in access to informal risk-sharing mechanisms. Our treatment effects are stronger for groups that are not typically targeted by microlenders: male and...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Microfinance; Microcredit; Microentrepreneurship; Risk sharing; Formal and informal finance; Financial Economics; O1; D1; D2 G2.
Ano: 2009
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/52600

Group versus Individual Liability: A Field Experiment in the Philippines
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Gine,   Xavier; Karlan,   Dean S.
Group liability is often portrayed as the key innovation that led to the explosion of the microcredit movement, which started with the Grameen Bank in the 1970s and continues on today with hundreds of institutions around the world.  Group lending claims to improve repayment rates and lower transaction costs when lending to the poor by providing incentives for peers to screen, monitor and enforce each other’s loans.  However, some argue that group liability creates excessive pressure and discourages good clients from borrowing, jeopardizing both growth and sustainability.  Therefore, it remains unclear whether group liability improves the lender’s overall profitability and the poor’s access to financial markets.  We worked with a bank in the Philippines to...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Financial Economics.
Ano: 2006
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28413

Observing Unobservables: Identifying Information Asymmetries with a Consumer Credit Field Experiment
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Karlan,   Dean S.; Zinman,   Jonathan.
Information asymmetries are important in theory but difficult to identify in practice. We estimate the empirical importance of adverse selection and moral hazard in a consumer credit market using a new field experiment methodology. We randomized 58,000 direct mail offers issued by a major South African lender along three dimensions: 1) the initial "offer interest rate" appearing on direct mail solicitations; 2) a "contract interest rate" equal to or less than the offer interest rate and revealed to the over 4,000 borrowers who agreed to the initial offer rate; and 3) a dynamic repayment incentive that extends preferential pricing on future loans to borrowers who remain in good standing. These three randomizations, combined with complete knowledge of the...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Information asymmetries; Field experiment; Adverse selection; Moral hazard; Development finance; Credit markets; Microfinance; Financial Economics; C9; D8; G2; G3; O1.
Ano: 2005
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28482

Adaptive Experimental Design Using the Propensity Score
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Hahn,   Jinyong; Hirano,   Keisuke; Karlan,   Dean S.
Many social experiments are run in multiple waves, or are replications of earlier social experiments. In principle, the sampling design can be modified in later stages or replications to allow for more efficient estimation of causal effects. We consider the design of a two-stage experiment for estimating an average treatment effect, when covariate information is available for experimental subjects. We use data from the first stage to choose a conditional treatment assignment rule for units in the second stage of the experiment. This amounts to choosing the propensity score, the conditional probability of treatment given covariates. We propose to select the propensity score to minimize the asymptotic variance bound for estimating the average treatment...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Experimental design; Propensity score; Efficiency bound; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; C1; C14; C9; C93; C13.
Ano: 2009
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/47107

Teaching Entrepreneurship: Impact of Business Training on Microfinance Clients and Institutions
Provedor de dados: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics (AgEcon Searh)
Autores: Karlan,   Dean S.; Valdivia,   Martin.
Can one teach entrepreneurship, or is it a fixed personal characteristic?  Most academic and policy discussion on microentrepreneurs in developing countries focuses on their access to credit, and assumes their human capital to be fixed.  However, a growing number of microfinance organizations are attempting to build the human capital of micro-entrepreneurs in order to improve the livelihood of their clients and help further their mission of poverty alleviation.  Using a randomized control trial, we measure the marginal impact of adding business training to a Peruvian village banking program for female microentrepreneurs.  Treatment groups received thirty to sixty minute entrepreneurship training sessions during their normal weekly or monthly banking...
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper
Palavras-chave: Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession.
Ano: 2006
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28510