This paper tests stylized facts and theories from behavioral economics and laboratory experiments using a randomized field experiment of our design. A major South African consumer credit lender issued 60,000 scripted direct mail solicitations where several marketing “treatments†were...

This paper estimates the prevalence of asymmetric information in a consumer credit market using a field experiment of our design. A major South African lender issued 60,000 direct mail offers where the interest rate was randomized along two different dimensions — an initial “offer...

In this paper, we adapt the audit studies methodology to analyze gender and racial differences in hiring for a particular segment of the market of three selected occupations in Metropolitan Lima: salespersons, secretaries and (accounting and administrative) assistants. The adapted pseudo-audit...

This paper proposes a test for the existence of placebo effects, as described by the so-called expectancy theory. This theory, which is the dominant medical theory of how placebo effects operate, posits that health outcomes rise in individuals' beliefs about the probability that they are getting...

This paper estimates dynamic random effects models for intakes by 100 Kenyan school children (6-9 years) of dietary energy, protein, calcium, iron, zinc, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, and vitamins A, C, D, and E within a multivariate longitudinal framework. The explanatory variables were...

In 1997, the FDA relaxed regulations on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising for pharmaceutical products. This has led to a substantial increase in such expenditures which in turn raises some important public policy questions. For example, has this increase in DTC advertising affected the...

The adverse effects of excessive alcohol consumption are well-known. Of great concern to policy makers is to understand the potentially different drivers for consumers of different levels of alcohol consumption. Using unit record data from the Australian Drug Strategy Household Surveys, this...

Foreign Direct Investment has become an important source of long-term capital inflows for less developed countries in the last two decades. As documented in previous literature, FDI flows may increase permanently domestic output and represent an important source of technological spillovers for...

This paper considers measures of uncertainty used in economic estimation. Our first contribution is to address the theoretical relationship between cross-section and time series measures, highlighting the reasons why these might diverge. In a subsequent empirical section, we compare measures of...

We use a novel data set and identification strategy to empirically detect the presence and magnitude of local social interactions effects in the labor market. We argue that the use of informal referrals has implications for the spatial distribution of residential and work locations, that can...