Research

 Abstract: This paper examines the long-term relationship between historical institutions and fertility, focusing on the presence of Catholic missionaries during the colonial period in India. We document a robust negative relationship between historical Catholic missionary presence and contemporary fertility outcomes in urban areas. The results point to female tertiary education as a plausible pathway. We find that districts with historical Catholic missionary presence have higher female tertiary educational attainment, consistent with the focus of Catholic missionaries on higher education. The education results are again concentrated in the urban areas. Moreover, women in urban areas of districts with historical Catholic missionary presence marry later and report greater contraceptive use. However, we find no significant differences in female labor-force participation, the gender wage gap, or returns to education between districts with and without historical Catholic missionary presence. These patterns are consistent with female tertiary education, later marriage, and contraceptive use as plausible pathways, rather than labor-market outcomes.

Abstract: Research shows that women volunteer significantly more for tasks that people prefer others to complete. Such tasks carry little monetary incentives because of their very nature. We use a modified version of the volunteer’s dilemma game to examine if non-monetary interventions, particularly, social recognition can be used to close the gender gap associated with such tasks. In a well-powered experiment, we design three treatments where a) a volunteer receives positive social recognition, b) a non-volunteer receives negative social recognition, and c) a volunteer receives positive, but a non-volunteer receives negative social recognition. Our results indicate that competition for social recognition increases the overall likelihood that someone in a group has volunteered. Positive social recognition closes the gender gap observed in the baseline treatment and so does the combination of positive and negative social recognition. Our results, consistent with the prior literature on gender differences in competition, suggest that public recognition of volunteering can change the default gender norms in organizations and increase efficiency at the same time.

Abstract: To assess the threat of experimenter demand, we ask whether a hypothetical `ill-intentioned' researcher can manipulate inference. Four classic behavioral comparative statics are evaluated, and the potential for false inference is gauged by differentially applying strong positive and negative experimenter demand across the relevant decision pair. Evaluating three different subject pools (laboratory, Prolific, and MTurk) we find no evidence of experimenter demand eliminating or reversing directional effects. The response to experimenter demand is very limited for all three subject pools and is not large enough to generate false negatives, though we do find evidence of false positives when testing precise nulls  in larger online-subject pools.

Abstract: A dismal view of household decision-making arises from evidence that individuals fail to incorporate information their spouses hold. I explore whether failure to pool information in the household arises from a reluctance to learn from one’s spouse. Using a lab-in-field experiment with 400 married couples in Kolkata, India, I examine information pooling across two domains: (i) a gender-neutral ball-in-urn domain where neither spouse is better informed, and (ii) a novel gendered pricing domain,  where individuals have to price a basket of either male or female products, and each spouse is better informed in their gender-congruent domain. In the gender-neutral domain, I replicate the finding that households fail to pool information. However, in the gendered domain, I find that households pool information successfully. The results point to common knowledge of expertise as facilitating communication, effectively incentivizing spouses to both talk and listen.