with Emiliano Huet-Vaughn and Andrea Robbett
Journal of Public Economics, vol. 180, 2019
The authors conduct an experiment with online workers to assess whether the distortionary effect of a tax is sensitive to the ideological match between taxpayer and tax expenditures. They find that, among self-identified political moderates, the labor supply elasticity with respect to the net of tax wage is significantly smaller when individuals pay taxes to a favored government agency as compared to an unfavored one. While the tax has a significant distortionary effect in the latter case, with a point estimate for the labor supply elasticity of approximately 0.77, the elasticity point estimate is close to zero when taxes go to a favored agency. There is also an increase in total output for the matched population among moderates. There is no evidence that these effects hold for self-identified liberals or conservatives.
with Jeremy Shapiro and Chaning Jang
How do we inspire innovation and growth among small, informal manufacturing firms in the developing world? We investigate relieving both physical capital and human capital constraints among informal woodworkers in Kenya through a project called WorkShop. WorkShop offered a high-intensity treatment of a five-week training and access to shared, industrial-grade woodworking tools, and a low-intensity digital training service. We find that the high-intensity treatment, combining simultaneous augmentation of physical and human capital, creates large and significant increases in innovation outcomes such as the number of new designs and the likelihood of purchasing new tools, but does not appear to impact financial outcomes such as revenue and profit. The digital training service alone has more modest improvements in terms of innovation, but appears to generate modest economic benefits in terms of earnings and labor mobility. Given the very low cost of this intervention, these results are promising.
with Jeremy Shapiro, Geoffrey Rees, and Daniel Brauner
Research on the drivers of end-of-life care (EOLC) spending has more than budgetary implications: understanding the decision-making behind EOLC also has the potential to improve the quality of care. To better understand these decisions, we employ a randomized controlled trial design: we prime a general population sample to consider economic information about EOLC, beliefs about dying, and contextual factors of medical care, before making hypothetical EOLC decisions. We find that contextual factors most significantly impact EOLC decisions, relative to economics and beliefs. Our research suggests that a thorough consideration of how each patient-provider interaction frames and guides EOLC decisions and spending, including some reassessment of the associated ethical norms of informed consent and self-determination, is necessary to improve EOLC and reduce spending.
with Evan Borkum, Paolo Abarcar, and Laura Meyer
The IKEA Foundation has contracted with Mathematica to conduct an independent evaluation of the program funded by the DIB. Mathematica’s evaluation seeks to both measure the metrics to determine payments to investors and generate broader learning about the program’s impacts on participants' economic and social wellbeing, to support future adaptation and scale-up. This evaluation framework report describes Mathematica’s proposed design for the evaluation. Our rigorous mixed-methods evaluation comprises three components: (1) income-generating activity (IGA) validation, which will seek to estimate the percent of microenterprise grant recipients who are actively engaged in IGAs about 10 months after grants are disbursed; (2) an impact evaluation, which will assess the impacts of the program on household consumption and other outcomes related to social and economic wellbeing, using a matched design to compare the outcomes of first cohort participants 24 months after grant disbursements with those of matched third cohort participants shortly after program enrollment; and (3) a process evaluation, which will seek to summarize the programmatic context, explore participants’ experiences with and perceptions of the program, and identify facilitators and barriers to achieving the outcomes envisaged in the program logic.
with So O'Neil, Divya Vohra, Dana Rotz, and Shveta Kalyanwala
Participation in the Utkrisht DIB led to quality improvements in private facilities in Rajasthan, India. Although no evaluation was conducted to assess the DIB’s direct impact, the LiST, which leverages the latest evidence linking health care practices to mortality rates and maternal health outcomes, predicts that the gains in quality for participating facilities achieved as a result of meeting the quality standards will lead to fewer maternal and neonatal deaths. With an estimated cost of $21,800 per private facility needed to improve quality, further studies on potential returns could provide more insights into whether a case could be made to implement and sustain related quality improvement efforts.
with So O'Neil, Divya Vohra, Dana Rotz, and Shveta Kalyanwala
Quality improvement represents a journey that a point-in-time verification design might not capture.
Outcome payments under the Utkrisht DIB exceed implementation costs for facilities that have met quality improvement standards.
At the midpoint of the Utkrisht DIB, it is too soon to tell whether improved quality at participating SHCOs has led to meaningful improvements in key health status outcomes.
Verifying DIB outcomes requires that the outcomes triggering repayments are clearly defined, appropriately measured, and agreed upon by all parties.
with Candace Miller, Kristine Bos, Poonam Ravindranath, Paolo Abarcar, Arif Mamun, Jeremy Page, Laura Meyer, Joshua Claxton, Jonathon Cook, and Sara Bryk
The rehabilitation of MCHPP was successful. The hydropower plant is Liberia’s largest electricity asset. However, ongoing operations and maintenance is underfunded increasing the risk of turbine or plant failure and possible consequences including performance losses, extended outages, higher rehabilitation costs and potential emergency situations such as the loss of life or property (Canale et al. 2017).
A careful analysis indicates that ESBI has been successful in diagnosing and beginning to solve critical problems. Although performance has not met stakeholders’ expectations, ESBI assumed responsibility when LEC was in a grave financial situation. The utility requires increased funding for operations and capital expenses, a systematic response to theft and corruption, and support from the Government of Liberia and donors to implement the reform needed to sustain the utility.
LERC has made progress in establishing the regulatory commission in 2019 however it lacks resources beyond January 2021. Commissioners believe that donor financing is essential to LERC being an independent, transparent, accountable, and sustainable agency.
Liberians frequently say, “Electricity Is Life” indicating how much they value and demand “LEC current”. Liberians report that they prefer to pay for a legal connection. However, they will collect illegally if they feel there is no other option. And while electricity improves quality of life and feelings of security, insufficient education and low-quality infrastructure present important dangers and safety risks, including fires and electrocution.