Experiment In India Research Articles

Politicians, institutional incentives, and citizen welfare: evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment in India

Abstract We examine how politicians and non-politicians in rural India respond to behavioural incentives. Using a modified dictator game, we vary treatments (and incentives) across the nature of interactions, the visibility of actions, and an upfront promise. Under anonymity, politicians and non-politicians behave selfishly: both become significantly more generous when interactions are personalized. However, while non-politicians respond to greater visibility more strongly than politicians, an upfront promise induces more pronounced politician responses. Whereas promise-breaking appears to be more costly for politicians, visibility, via social image concerns, appears to matter more for non-politicians. This mix of similarity and heterogeneity in response suggests that evidence about the behaviour of real-world politicians is more important for effective policy design than acknowledged so far.

Misinformation and Support for Vigilantism: An Experiment in India and Pakistan

Vigilante violence, often targeting religious and sectarian minorities and preceded by unsubstantiated rumors, has taken the lives of many citizens in India and Pakistan in recent years. Despite its horrific nature, such vigilantism receives popular support. Can reducing the credibility of rumors via corrections decrease support for vigilantism? To answer this question, we field simultaneous, in-person experiments in Punjab, Pakistan, and Uttar Pradesh, India, regions where anti-minority vigilantism has been preceded by misinformation. We find that correcting rumors reduces support for vigilantism and increases the desire to hold vigilantes accountable. This effect is not attenuated by prior distrust toward out-groups. By contrast, information about state and elite behavior does not always shape attitudes toward vigilantism. These findings provide evidence that support for vigilantism can be reduced through the dissemination of credible information, even in polarized settings.

Women Empowerment and Female Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in India

Women Empowerment and Female Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in India

Local political representation as a pathway to power: A natural experiment in India

AbstractWhat drives the career advancement of female politicians in opaque selection environments where party activists hold sway? I argue that women's higher presence in local politics not only improves party elite responsiveness to greater talent supply (top‐down mechanism) but also expands women's capacity to organize grassroots activist networks to influence party‐nomination decisions (bottom‐up mechanism). Using the natural experiment of gender quotas in Delhi, which cause as‐if‐random variation in the number of local reserved seats within state constituencies, I estimate a novel effect of gender quotas. In state constituencies with women's higher presence in local politics, local female politicians are more likely to be promoted, and senior female politicians are more likely to get renominated. Qualitative evidence shows how women leverage grassroots networks and forge informal connections across party hierarchies. The findings emphasize the pivotal role of women's strategic political networks and grassroots organizing in shaping their political careers.

Decentralized Targeting of Agricultural Credit Programs: Private Versus Political Intermediaries

Abstract We conduct a field experiment in India comparing two ways of delegating selection of microcredit clients among smallholder farmers to local intermediaries: a private trader (TRAIL), versus a local–government appointee (GRAIL). Selected beneficiaries in both schemes were equally likely to take up and repay loans, and experienced similar increases in borrowing and farm output. However farm profits increased and unit costs of production decreased significantly only in TRAIL. While there is some evidence of superior selection by ability and landholding in TRAIL, the results are mainly driven by greater reduction of unit production costs for TRAIL treated farmers than GRAIL treated farmers of similar ability or landholding. We develop and test a model where the TRAIL agents’ role as middlemen in the agricultural supply chain enabled and motivated them to offer treated farmers business advice, which helped them lower unit costs.

Entertainment-Education for Better Health: Insights from a Field Experiment in India

Entertainment-education has been touted as a potent delivery channel for health education campaigns. Yet, there is little evidence of its causal effects. This paper aims to fill the gap in the literature by using a field experiment in India to study two questions on the efficacy of health entertainment-education. First, can health entertainment-education, particularly through films that show role models and draw on emotions, lead to lasting, positive change in health knowledge and behavior? Second, can financial incentives for ex-post health literacy boost the effectiveness of health entertainment-education? The results show that health entertainment-education successfully increased health knowledge (e.g. knowledge about cleanliness and hygiene) by 16 percent. These gains persist almost one year later, although there were no observed impacts on health behaviors. Further, financial incentives do not appear to have any effects. These insights contribute to our knowledge of what works for health education in low-income settings, so that future education campaigns can be crafted with more meaningful impact.

What drives poor quality of care for child diarrhea? Experimental evidence from India.

Most health care providers in developing countries know that oral rehydration salts (ORS) are a lifesaving and inexpensive treatment for child diarrhea, yet few prescribe it. This know-do gap has puzzled experts for decades. Using randomized experiments in India, we estimated the extent to which ORS underprescription is driven by perceptions that patients do not want ORS, provider's financial incentives, and ORS stock-outs (out-of-stock events). Patients expressing a preference for ORS increased ORS prescribing by 27 percentage points. Eliminating stock-outs increased ORS provision by 7 percentage points. Removing financial incentives did not affect ORS prescribing on average but did increase ORS prescribing at pharmacies. We estimate that perceptions that patients do not want ORS explain 42% of underprescribing, whereas stock-outs and financial incentives explain only 6 and 5%, respectively.

Social identity and learning: Adult literacy program in India

The paper examines the effect of social identity on adult learning within a hierarchical social setting— an important yet often understudied issue for effective adult education. We leverage the random matching of students and teachers from a randomized controlled experiment in India, where illiterate adult female learners aged 18–45 were randomly assigned to a literacy program. We find a positive and significant impact of matching an upper caste teacher with a lower caste adult student on literacy scores. We also find suggestive evidence of an increase in students' confidence measures when matched with an upper caste teacher, indicating a plausible impact mechanism. Our findings highlight the need for future research on social identity and its influence on adult learning, particularly in countries with existing deep-rooted hierarchical social constructs.

Election symbols and vote choice: evidence from India

Abstract A large literature has shown that ballot order and ballot structure can influence vote choice. We focus on another behavioral cue for voting, the symbols that are assigned to candidates in many democracies. We take advantage of a naturally occurring experiment in India, where independent candidates can choose from a list of free symbols and conflicting choices are resolved by a drawing of lots. We find that winning the draw has a substantial positive effect on vote share. We also find some evidence that candidates attempt to choose their symbols strategically, for instance choosing household goods common in their constituencies.

Prison Papermaking: Colonial Ideals of Industrial Experimentation in India.

This article questions the economic rationale of colonial experimentation and prison labor, arguing that for many administrators a prison-based experiment's success mattered less than its existence. It examines the position of convict labor and penal discipline within colonial industrial experiments in colonial India, where convicts performed experiments for what one administrator described as "the most penal" form of labor, papermaking. The belief that Indian fibers could open a new export market for global papermaking meant that prisons became prominent sites of experimentation with new pulps. Regional prisons gained state monopolies for handmade paper, often decimating local independent producers. Yet prison and industrial officers counterintuitively positioned the frequent failures of papermaking experiments as a continuing potential source for industrial improvement. They argued that the failures demonstrated the need to improve discipline and supervision. Prison experiments slotted convicts into repetitive, mechanized roles that served European investigations into the utility of Indian products.

Evaluating and Pricing Health Insurance in Lower-Income Countries: A Field Experiment in India

Evaluating and Pricing Health Insurance in Lower-Income Countries: A Field Experiment in India

Evaluating and Pricing Health Insurance in Lower-Income Countries: A Field Experiment in India

Evaluating and Pricing Health Insurance in Lower-Income Countries: A Field Experiment in India

Creating Cohesive Communities: A Youth Camp Experiment in India

Creating Cohesive Communities: A Youth Camp Experiment in India

Evaluating and Pricing Health Insurance in Lower-Income Countries: A Field Experiment in India

Evaluating and Pricing Health Insurance in Lower-Income Countries: A Field Experiment in India

Evaluating and Pricing Health Insurance in Lower-Income Countries: A Field Experiment in India

Evaluating and Pricing Health Insurance in Lower-Income Countries: A Field Experiment in India

My History or Our History? Historical Revisionism and Entitlement to Lead

Ongoing, spirited debates from around the globe over statues, street names, symbols, and textbooks call for a greater understanding of the political effects of different historical representations. In this paper, we theorize that inclusive (exclusive) historical representations can increase (decrease) marginalized group members’ perceived centrality to the nation, entitlement to speak on its behalf, and likelihood of becoming leaders. In an online experiment in India ( $ N=1,592 $ ), we randomly assign participants exercises sourced from official state textbooks containing either an exclusive, inclusive, or a neutral representation of history. We subsequently assess the supply of and demand for Muslim leadership using both an original, incentivized game and additional survey and behavioral measures. We find that inclusive historical narratives increase Muslim participants’ perceived centrality and entitlement, desire to lead, and demand for real-world Muslim leaders. Battles over history can carry consequences for the leadership ambitions of marginalized individuals, for themselves and their communities.

Regulatory Landscape Governing Animal Experimentation In India: An In-Depth Analysis

A contentious and complicated component of scientific study, animal experimentation raises ethical questions and calls for a careful balancing act between the advancement of science and the wellbeing of the animals. Several rules and regulations that guarantee moral behaviour control the use of animals in experiments in India. The advantages of scientific study are balanced against the moral concerns of animal rights in this article's critical analysis of India's current laws and regulations pertaining to animal experimentation.

Incorporating Problem-Based Learning for Promoting Parametric Design Thinking in Architecture Studios: Insights from an Experiment in India

Incorporating Problem-Based Learning for Promoting Parametric Design Thinking in Architecture Studios: Insights from an Experiment in India

What is left of consent when it is deemed consent: A data protection experiment in India

Recently, the latest draft data protection legislation in India, the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, introduced the concept of deemed consent. Among other situations, consent can be deemed to be given through voluntary participation rather than an express statement. This paper positions deemed consent by situating it in recent discussions around consent. Deemed consent, as it stands, sits uncomfortably within the data protection rubric. The paper suggests that the proposed structure of deemed consent in India needs alteration and may be adequately amended with effective learning emanating from jurisdictions like the UK, Canada and Singapore.

Adjusting news accuracy perceptions after deepfakes exposure: Evidence from a non-Western context

Empirical studies examining if and how deepfakes would evoke news skepticism and discredit social trust in societies with low levels of digital literacy are limited. Recognizing the gap in the literature, this study conducts a survey experiment in India. We test whether individuals adjust their perceptions of news accuracy after being exposed to a deepfake about the subject of the news. Furthermore, we examine if cognitive ability will play a critical role in distinguishing how participants readjust their perceptions of news accuracy. In line with the propositions, we find that those exposed to a malicious deepfake video are primed to lower their initial positive news accuracy perceptions (featuring the subject) than those exposed to an informational video (featuring the subject). We also observe that the adjustments of news accuracy perceptions after being exposed to a deepfake are not dependent on the cognitive ability of social media news users. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our work.