Research

Job market Paper:

Do Some Peers Matter More Than Others? The Heterogeneous Impacts of Social Networks on Female Entrepreneurship  - with Vatsal Khandelwal [Latest draft]

This paper studies how social networks can be strategically leveraged to increase the take-up of female entrepreneurship. We implement a randomized controlled trial in rural Nepal in which we vary whether women attend a three-day training program with a randomly matched peer or alone, and additionally, whether they are encouraged to share their network contacts. While training significantly improves short-term outcomes, pairing matters only when the individual is paired with a socially close peer who is more connected than them. Despite extensive contact sharing, exchanging network contacts does not significantly improve outcomes, implying that networks primarily generate direct rather than indirect benefits. One year later, we find that while treated individuals have taken steps to open a business, those treated in pairs instead expand their agricultural activities, with higher effects concentrated among those paired with a socially close peer who is less connected than them. We show that these differential peer effects over time can arise due to motivation from central peers in the short term and ease of collaboration with non-central peers in the longer term. Finally, we implement counterfactual exercises to compare network-based pairing with random pairing and find that strategic pairing can increase average outcomes by 0.8-0.9 standard deviations in the short and long run respectively 

Published Paper:

Multi-state choices with aggregate feedback on unfamiliar alternatives- with Philippe Jehiel [ Latest draft ] (Games and Economic Behavior)

This paper studies a multi-state binary choice experiment in which in each state, one alternative has well understood consequences whereas the other alternative has unknown consequences. Subjects repeatedly receive feedback from past choices about the consequences of unfamiliar alternatives but this feedback is aggregated over states. Varying the payoffs attached to the various alternatives in various states allows us to test whether unfamiliar alternatives are discounted and whether subjects’ use of feedback is better explained by similarity-based reinforcement learning models (in the spirit of the valuation equilibrium, Jehiel and Samet 2007) or by some variant of Bayesian learning model. Our experimental data suggest that there is no discount attached to the unfamiliar alternatives and that similarity-based reinforcement learning models have a better explanatory power than their Bayesian counterparts. 

Working papers:

Endogenous Institutions: a network experiment in Nepal - with Giulio Iacobelli [ Latest draft ] submitted 

In developing countries where formal institutions are often weak or non-existent, the enforcement of local agreements is based on the community. Peer monitoring represents a natural mechanism for the enforcement of social norms and local agreements in such a setting. In this paper we study the demand for such monitoring and its effectiveness across different group compositions. We collect original network data in 19 villages in rural Nepal and conduct an experiment to study who is elected as a monitor in a public good game. Individuals play in groups of three, both with their close friends and with people far away in the social network and are given the opportunity to anonymously choose their preferred "institution". We combine theoretical approach and a unique lab in the field evidence to show that closely knit groups are significantly more likely to not choose a monitor, while sparse groups tend to prefer a high central one. Low central monitors are seldom chosen. Endogenous election of the high central monitor ensures higher cooperation compared to an exogenous assignment, but only in sparse groups. 

Migration and networks: Evidence from Senegal - with Bernd Beber, Cara  Ebert and Zara Riaz

Urban migration is a primary strategy to respond to seasonal hunger, and income shocks during the agricultural lean season. Migration frictions prevent migrants from making efficient migration decisions. We collect network data in 146 villages in Senegal and conduct an information RCT regarding migration. In treatment villages, we have mentors that conduct one-one information session and hand flyers to the participants giving them information about income and accommodation in urban migration destinations. In another treatment we complement this with a local mentor living within the village. We study how community level networks affect migration rates and how the information affects rate of migration. 

From Muscle Drain to Brain Gain: the Long-Term Effects of Gurkha Recruitment in Nepal- with François Libois, Ritu Muralidharan and Oliver Vanden Eynde [ Preliminary Draft ] 

Gurkha soldiers in Nepal have been recruited by the Indian and later the British armies for over 200 years. The transformational role that these soldiers played in the development of their home communities is often described informally, but is challenging to quantify. Using the plausibly exogenous locations of British recruitment depots in the 19th century, we use a continuous difference-in-difference design to show that exposure to historical Gurkha recruitment is associated with improved outcomes for education and indicators of female empowerment today that are specific to the “recruitable” Gurkha castes. Historical Gurkha recruitment is associated with higher literacy, a greater probability of attending school, higher educational levels, marrying later, increased women-run nonfarm businesses, and a greater share of women currently using contraceptives. There is a differential in these positive effects between the “recruitable” Gurkha castes and other castes. While Gurkha castes tend to hold more assets in historical recruitment grounds, the positive impacts on education remain when we explicitly account for wealth differences. This finding is consistent with the idea that military recruitment changed the culture and preferences of recruited communities, as historians have long argued.