Research

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: We examine the long-term consequences of Catholic missionary presence during the colonial era on the current fertility outcomes in India. Our findings reveal a negative impact of the historical presence of Catholic missionaries on current fertility outcomes, particularly in urban areas. We find that the effect is more pronounced for male children than female children, indicating an improvement in the sex composition at birth. This is in contrast to the existing literature, which finds that a fertility decline is accompanied by a deterioration of the female-male sex ratio at birth. Catholic missionaries played a pivotal role in the advancement of tertiary education. To understand the underlying mechanisms, we find the effect of Catholic presence on higher educational attainment. In urban areas, districts with a historical presence of Catholic missionaries demonstrate a higher likelihood of mothers attaining higher education. We observe weaker effects of Catholic presence on lower levels of education. This aligns with the fact that Catholic missionaries were primarily involved in developing tertiary education. Moreover, the historical presence of Catholic missionaries also resulted in an increase in the age of marriage and higher usage of contraceptives, despite the Catholic Church's stance against contraceptive practices.

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.