Quasi-experimental Evidence Research Articles

Electoral Importance and the News Market: Novel Data and Quasi-Experimental Evidence from India

Electoral Importance and the News Market: Novel Data and Quasi-Experimental Evidence from India

The Effect of COVID-19 Cash Transfers on Health and Well-being of Adolescents: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Russia

The Effect of COVID-19 Cash Transfers on Health and Well-being of Adolescents: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Russia

Environmental Justice, Local Governance and Corporate Green Innovation: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the Establishment of Environmental Courts in China

Environmental Justice, Local Governance and Corporate Green Innovation: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the Establishment of Environmental Courts in China

Energy Supply and Industrial Outcomes: A Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Recent Natural Gas Outage

Energy Supply and Industrial Outcomes: A Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Recent Natural Gas Outage

Hostility, Population Sorting, and Backwardness: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the Red Army after WWII

Hostility, Population Sorting, and Backwardness: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the Red Army after WWII

Did Transgenic Cotton Reform Increase Cotton Production in Burkina Faso?: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from West and Central Africa

Did Transgenic Cotton Reform Increase Cotton Production in Burkina Faso?: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from West and Central Africa

Sports Clubs and Populism: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from German Cities

Sports Clubs and Populism: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from German Cities

On Defaults, Framing, and Local Tax Policy: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Portugal

On Defaults, Framing, and Local Tax Policy: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Portugal

Enhancement of Indonesian High School Student Conceptual Mastery on VSEPR Topic Using Virtual Simulation of Molecule Shapes: A Case Study of Quasi-Experimental Evidence

The Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) is an essential topic for high school student’s fundamental understanding of 3D shapes of chemical compounds. Due to the spatial aspect of the topic, the students were forced to imagine the geometry of the molecule by predicting the free or bonded electron pair repulsion. Suitable learning media to accommodate those features should be precisely selected to help students properly understand the geometry of the molecule based on the VSEPR topic. This study compared the significant difference in the application of two media of animation video and interactive simulation toward the control and experimental groups, respectively, to enhance conceptual mastery of the VSEPR topic. This study was a statistical quasi-experiment study with two classes of control (animation video) and experimental (interactive simulation) groups. The results of the significant difference test of the groups showed that the distribution of the experimental and control groups was not normal (significantly different) and normal (not significantly different), respectively. Analysis results using Mann-Whitney for the non-parametric free two samples comparative test with a 95% confidence level showed that the application of virtual simulation on the experimental group impacted more in improving the conceptual mastery of the VSEPR topic. Furthermore, there was an identified significant improvement in sub-concepts of the VSEPR topic in binding pair, molecular shape, and electron repulsion. These findings could support the teachers in designing lesson plans for students to master the VSEPR topic.

The freedom to choose: Theory and quasi-experimental evidence on cash transfer restrictions

Should cash transfer programmes restrict consumer choice? For example, should food assistance delivered in cash be restricted to food and exclude temptation goods? Theoretically, restrictions induce (1) a substitution effect away from restricted goods and (2) a negative wealth effect if transfers are extra-marginal and the resale of goods is costly. The welfare impact on transfer recipients is negative. We test these predictions by exploiting a natural experiment in a refugee settlement in Kenya, where some refugees receive monthly cash transfers restricted to food while others receive unrestricted transfers. In line with theory, we find that restricted transfers increase participation in a shadow resale market and negatively affect non-food expenditure, temptation-goods spending, and subjective well-being. Consistent with theory, restrictions have no significant effect on food consumption. Our results show that policy-makers should avoid restrictions to maximise positive impacts on transfer beneficiaries, especially when extreme poverty implies that transfers are extra-marginal.

WhatsApp Remote Reading Recovery: Using Mobile Technology to Promote Literacy during COVID-19

School closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic affected over a billion young people worldwide and presented a threat to long-term learning, particularly for public school students in low socioeconomic situations. This article offers quasi-experimental evidence on a low-cost strategy for distance learning applied in the Republic of Panama to minimize the negative consequences of the pandemic on public elementary school children’s reading levels. We conducted a 12-week intervention that utilized mobile phone technology and dissemination of reading material through WhatsApp, a cross-platform messaging freeware service, to maintain and improve children’s reading levels during the pandemic school shutdown. The objective was to determine the feasibility of using WhatsApp as a digital tool to facilitate education and inform evolving practice and policy responses. Results among 292 students between the second and sixth grades indicated overall mean gains of up to 10.3% in the number of words read per minute, with statistically significant improvements overall and higher gains among the second and third grades. In addition, the adoption rate was high, with a reported average of 84% completion of the daily readings. The results of this low-tech intervention have immediate and longer-term implications for using mobile technology as a supplemental or complementary learning tool, especially for developing regions and during school closures or school vacations.

Community engagement to increase vaccine uptake: Quasi-experimental evidence from Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Developing countries have been facing difficulties in reaching out to low-income and underserved communities for COVID-19 vaccination coverage. The rapidity of vaccine development caused a mistrust among certain subgroups of the population, and hence innovative approaches were taken to reach out to such populations. Using a sample of 1760 respondents in five low-income, informal localities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan, we evaluated a set of interventions involving community engagement by addressing demand and access barriers. We used multi-level mixed effects models to estimate average treatment effects across treatment areas. We found that our interventions increased COVID-19 vaccine willingness in two treatment areas that are furthest from city centers by 7.6% and 6.6% respectively, while vaccine uptake increased in one of the treatment areas by 17.1%, compared to the control area. Our results suggest that personalized information campaigns such as community mobilization help to increase COVID-19 vaccine willingness. Increasing uptake however, requires improving access to the vaccination services. Both information and access may be different for various communities and therefore a "one-size-fits-all" approach may need to be better localized. Such underserved and marginalized communities are better served if vaccination efforts are contextualized.

Local Policy Choice: Theory and Empirics

This paper critically surveys the growing literature on the policy choices of local governments. First, we identify various reasons for local government policy interactions, including fiscal competition, bidding for firms, yardstick competition, expenditure spillovers, and Tiebout sorting. We discuss theoretically what parameters should be estimated to determine the reason for competition among local governments. We emphasize how the policy outcomes emerging from this competition are affected by the presence of constraints imposed by higher-level governments. Second, we integrate theoretical and empirical analyses on the effects of fiscal decentralization on mobility, spillovers, fiscal externalities, economic outcomes, and distributional issues. Third, we identify key issues that arise in the empirical estimation of strategic interactions among local governments and highlight recent quasi-experimental evidence that has attempted to identify the mechanism at work. Finally, a synthesis model, containing multiple mechanisms and fiscal instruments, resolves some puzzles and provides guidance for future research. (JEL D72,H20, H71, H72, H73, H77, R51)

Does retirement (really) increase informal caregiving? Quasi-experimental evidence from Australia

This paper analyzes the impact of retirement on informal care provision using nationally representative panel data from Australia. To establish causality, we exploit the gender and cohort specific eligibility age for the Australian Age Pension. We find no evidence of an impact of retirement (status or duration) on co-residential or extra-residential unpaid care provided by older individuals. The null effect of retirement on informal caregiving does not differ by the type of care recipient. Furthermore, we demonstrate that older people who postpone retirement reduce the amount of time they spend on other non-market activities to resolve the time conflict between unpaid care and extended employment. Our analysis indicates that the Australian Age Pension reform aimed at working career prolongation has not crowded out the supply of informal care.

The Effect of Mandatory Clawback Provisions on Corporate Innovation: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from China

ABSTRACT The clawback provisions adoption has received increasing attention in recent studies. Based on US setting, several studies find that voluntary clawback provisions may impede corporate innovation. Exploiting a policy experiment that requires SOEs to adopt mandatory clawback provisions in China, we find that adopting mandatory clawback provisions enhances corporate innovation. The cross-sectional tests show that the effect is stronger in firms with more related party transactions and in firms with less institutional investors, suggesting that improving corporate governance is a plausible channel through which clawback provisions affect corporate innovation. Overall, our study indicates that mandatory clawback provisions may play an active role in countries with weak corporate governance.

Reforming the world's largest heating system: Quasi-experimental evidence from China

Market reform of the public sector has long been considered as an effective way to improve productivity and has been intensively examined over the past century. China has the world's largest district heating system; however, it has a significant impact on sustainable development because this large and highly coal-dependent public heating sector is associated with great X-inefficiency. To overcome these challenges, the government launched a market-oriented pilot reform of the heating sector in 2003. This study used a quasi-experimental approach to examine the reform's effect on the heating enterprises' total productivity and identify the mechanisms. We applied the difference-in-difference method using the Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database from 1998 to 2015. The empirical evidence indicates that the reform significantly improved the heating enterprises' total factor productivity by increasing profitability, retrenching intermediate costs, upgrading investments, and optimizing market structure. These findings provide the first empirical evidence regarding China's latest market-oriented public utility, which holds relevance for future heating reform in other developing countries.

TOOLBOX Effects on K-2 Student Growth in Social-Emotional Competence: Evidence from a Quasi-Experimental Study

TOOLBOX is a school-based social and emotional learning (SEL) program to teach and reinforce 12 tools (e.g., Breathing Tool, Courage Tool) for healthy youth development. Although TOOLBOX has been broadly adopted, it remains largely untested. This quasi-experimental study aims to examine the relationship between TOOLBOX implementation and the growth of social-emotional competence (SEC) among K-2 students. First, we compare the growth trajectories of SEC between TOOLBOX and non-TOOLBOX conditions during one academic year. Then, within the TOOLBOX condition, we compare two implementation directives—TOOLBOX Standard and TOOLBOX Primer—to assess (a) the extent to which TOOLBOX was implemented and (b) the SEC growth trajectories among youth. Two district schools were given an implementation directive and materials to implement TOOLBOX Standard curriculum (full, structured lesson plans and strategies with higher dosage anticipated), and two district schools to implement TOOLBOX Primer (basic, introductory lesson plans and strategies with lower dosage anticipated). There were no dosage benchmarks available for either condition. Two additional district schools practiced as usual (non-TOOLBOX). The study sample consisted of 1766 K-2 students and their 80 classroom teachers. Student SEC was measured three times using the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment-Mini, a teacher-completed brief behavioral rating scale. Implementation dosage and quality were measured three times using teacher self-reports. Latent growth modeling and t tests were conducted. In Fall, SEC did not differ between TOOLBOX and non-TOOLBOX conditions. TOOLBOX students, however, showed a greater increase in SEC over the year. Within the TOOLBOX condition, Standard teachers incorporated the “tools” into academic instruction more frequently in Spring compared to Primer teachers. For most other implementation variables, no statistical difference was found between TOOLBOX implementation directives. Student SEC growth trajectories did not differ between Standard and Primer schools. Quasi-experimental evidence supports the overall benefits of TOOLBOX on K-2 students’ social and emotional growth. We discuss possible reasons for non-differential outcomes between Standard and Primer implementation directives within the TOOLBOX condition (e.g., gap between implementation directives and actual implementation behaviors). The gap between implementation directives and behaviors may provide an impetus for practicing school psychologists to contribute to more robust forms of implementation leadership (e.g., remove obstacles for implementation) and offer implementation support (e.g., coaching, feedback loops).

The Effect of a Long-Term Care Insurance Program on Subjective Well-Being of Older Adults with a Disability: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from China.

China launched its long-term care insurance (LTCI) program for older adults in 2016. Although the scheme has shown some promising outcomes, little is known about whether it improves subjective well-being. This study explored this topic among older persons with a disability and identified the underlying mechanisms associated with the channel of this effect using data from a national survey. The LTCI program was shown to improve the subjective well-being among older persons with a disability and this effect increased over time. The LTCI program has great positive effect among women and those who lived alone compared to their counterparts. Mechanism analysis revealed that the main channel by which the LTCI program has positive effect occurred through the satisfaction of long-term care needs and improved self-reported health. This study suggests promising benefits of the LTCI program for older Chinese adults.

Does public health policy quality foster state innovation capacity? Evidence from a global panel data.

The design and implementation of public health policy may shape state innovation capacity with governance effectiveness, political stability, and government integrity. Previous studies, however, failed to incorporate these relationships simultaneously. This study aims to combine two distinct scholarships to examine whether the quality of policies in the public health sector contributes to state innovation capacity. We extracted data from the WHO international health regulatory dataset covering the WHO Member States between 2010 and 2017 to investigate the relationship (N = 145). Our fixed-effects models and regression discontinuity design (RDD) suggest a positive impact of public health policy quality on state innovation capacity. There are several contributions to the study of the relationship between public health and innovation in this study. Firstly, it fills a theoretical void concerning the relationship between policy development and implementation in the public health sector and country-specific innovations. Second, it provides an empirical quantitative analysis of policy quality in the public health sector. Third, this study contributes evidence that public health plays an important role in fostering state innovation beyond urbanization, investment in science and technology, and foreign trade. Furthermore, our quasi-experimental evidence found that this mechanism may be significant only between the more politically stable countries and the most politically stable countries. These contributions have empirical implications for governments across the world that seek to balance public health and innovation capacity in the context of the post-pandemic era.

Health benefits of having more female classmates: Quasi-experimental evidence from China

We investigate the impact of having more female classmates on students’ physical health outcomes. To do so, we draw on panel data from the first two waves of the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) and take advantage of exogenous variation in classroom gender composition brought by the random assignment of students to classes when they entered junior high school. Results from the value-added model show that having more female classmates helps to improve the physical health outcomes of junior high school students in China. Specifically, a one-percentage-point (pp) increase in the proportion of female classmates in Grade 7 explains a 0.003-0.004 pp increase in one's probability of staying normal BmiAZ or going from abnormal to normal BmiAZ, a 0.029-0.031 increase in the BmiAZ score of those with low starting BmiAZ, a 0.003 increase in one's HAZ score, and a 0.157-0.165% or 0.166-0.177% decrease in the diopter of one's left or right lens of glasses from Grade 7 to Grade 8, respectively. One possible mechanism underlying these relationships is that more female classmates bring healthier behaviors. Heterogeneity analyses indicate that the beneficial effects of having more female classmates on health outcomes are more prominent among boys, students with less-educated parents, and those attending rural schools or schools with bigger class sizes.