Session 4B: Nudges and Preferences (Auditorium 2)
Moderator: Minhaj Mahmud
Nudges to improve health behaviors: A systematic review of experiments in low-and middle income countries
Srishti Slaria (University of Kansas) and Minhaj Mahmud
This paper contributes to the literature by developing a comprehensive review of experimental studies conducted in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) that use nudge and choice architecture techniques to change health behaviors. The health behaviors chosen for evaluation pertain to nutrition and healthy lifestyle (NHL), Covid-19 appropriate behaviors (CAB), and water, sanitation, and hygiene behaviors (WASH). Another contribution of this paper is that of categorizing the behavioral interventions in two ways: one, categorizing the types of nudges more deeply in terms of the underlying processes, and two, categorizing them more broadly in terms of the technique used itself.
JEL Code/s: D9,I12,I15
Digital reminders and loan repayment: Evidence from maize farmers in Kenya
Tomoko Harigaya (Precision Development), Michael Kremer (University of Chicago), Milan Thomas, Giulia Zane (World Bank)
While there are several studies on the effect of individually targeted digital nudges on loan repayment, none have analyzed the effect of group-based nudges, which have an ambiguous effect on repayment in a group liability setting.
JEL Code/s: C93, G40, O12, O35, Q14
Behavioral adaptation to improved environmental quality: Evidence from a sanitation intervention in Lao PDR
Lisa Cameron (University of Melbourne), An Huang (Monash University); Paulo Santos (Monash University); Milan Thomas
This paper investigates behavioral adaptation to changes in local environment. Using exogenous variation in improved sanitation generated by a randomly assigned subsidy program in rural Lao PDR, we find that increases in village sanitation coverage led to significant reductions in boiling of drinking water, particularly among poor households. This behavior change seems to be a rational response to lowered preventative health benefits of boiling water, which become negligible once more than 50% households in a given village have improved sanitation. Estimates of time savings, particularly for women, suggest that this adaptation is an important benefit of sanitation investments.
JEL Code/s: I12,O15, Q50
Opposites detract: intra-household differences in preferences and cognitive capacity predict economic inefficiency
Milan Thomas, Paulo Santos (Monash University) and Feu Yang (National University of Lao)
Based on a survey of 120 households in northern Lao PDR, we investigate whether differences in time preference, risk preference, and cognitive capacity explain decisions in a dictator game played between spouses. Almost all households performed inefficiently, with husbands, illiterates, and risk-averse people contributing most to inefficiency. Controlling for a large set of couple characteristics (differences in age, literacy, ethnicity, religion), household inefficiency is driven by differences in self-control and time preferences. Turning to real-world implications, we use data from joint savings accounts to determine whether intra-household differences are also correlated with saving behavior
JEL Code/s: C71, D14, D91, G51