Fostering savings by commitment: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment at The Small Enterprise Foundation in South Africa

The Role of Firms in Fostering Within Country Migration: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in India

High ability individuals can be constrained from commensurate employment opportunities due to their geographic location. In the face of physical, informational and social barriers to migration, firms with nation-wide hiring practices can benefit from facilitating the migration of high ability individuals from low employment districts to regions with better employment opportunities. We exploit a...

The Impacts of Public Hospital Autonomization Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment

Empirical Evidence from South Africa

This paper provides empirical evidence on the relationship between exports, and in particular export diversity, and regional growth in a developing country context. Using export data for 19 sectors from 354 subnational (magisterial) districts of South Africa, we construct various measures of subnational export diversity. We find that it is not only how much that is exported, but also important ...

Learning by Bidding: Evidence from a Large-scale Natural Experiment

Learning is a subject of intense research in experimental economics. We contribute to this debate by presenting persuasive evidence that learning took place among uninformed heterogeneous agents on a quasi-stock market during a large-scale natural experiment that by size, incentives, and variation belongs among the largest experiments ever conducted. To detect and quantify learning we develop n...

Household Economic Strengthening through Saving and Budgeting: Evidence from a Field Experiment in South Africa

Using data from a randomized field experiment with 552 households in South Africa, we examine the impact of a financial literacy and savings training that was integrated into a broader psychosocial parenting intervention. We document significant improvements in financial behaviors, including higher savings and lower borrowing rates. We also see wider implications for household economic welfare,...