Trust is crucial for successful collective action. A prime example is collective commercialization of agricultural produce through producer organizations. We conduct a cluster-randomized controlled trial in rural Senegal in which we vary the number and the type of smallholder farmers - members...

Shirking of front-line government agents can bear important welfare consequences in low-income countries. When effort or output cannot be monitored, motivating agents through contingent rewards is of limited use. We investigate whether enhancing agent’s competence at a task yields higher...