Information Spillovers: Another Look at Experimental Estimates of Legislator Responsiveness

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Coppock
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Quarterly Journal ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
Information Spillovers ◽  
Experimental Intervention ◽  
Indirect Treatment ◽  
Voting Decisions ◽  
Share Information

AbstractA field experiment carried out by Butler and Nickerson (Butler, D. M., and Nickerson, D. W. (2011). Can learning constituency opinion affect how legislators vote? Results from a field experiment. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 6, 55–83) shows that New Mexico legislators changed their voting decisions upon receiving reports of their constituents’ preferences. The analysis of the experiment did not account for the possibility that legislators may share information, potentially resulting in spillover effects. Working within the analytic framework proposed by Bowers et al. (2013), I find evidence of spillovers, and present estimates of direct and indirect treatment effects. The total causal effect of the experimental intervention appears to be twice as large as reported originally.

Making the Most of School Vacation: A Field Experiment of Small Group Math Instruction

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-331
Author(s):  
Beth E. Schueler
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
English Language ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Primary Teacher ◽  
Math Instruction ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
School Suspensions ◽  
Out Of School

Catching students up who have fallen behind academically is a key challenge for educators, and can be difficult to do in a cost-effective manner. This field experiment examines the causal effect of a program designed to provide struggling sixth and seventh graders with math instruction delivered in small groups of roughly ten students by select teachers over weeklong vacation breaks. The program was implemented in a set of low-performing Massachusetts middle schools undergoing turnaround reforms. Attendance at these “Vacation Academies” increased the probability that students scored proficient or higher on Common Core–aligned math exams by 10 percentage points and reduced students’ exposure to exclusionary discipline by decreasing out-of-school suspensions post-Academy. I find suggestive evidence of positive spillover effects on English Language Arts achievement and end-of-course grades in math and reading. Participants assigned to a single primary teacher for the entire week saw larger reductions in out-of-school suspensions than did students who rotated through teachers specializing in particular lessons. However, teacher specialization was associated with greater test score gains, suggesting a trade-off in outcomes depending on program design. Overall, the program's low cost and lack of a highly competitive teacher selection process make it a scalable approach to individualizing instruction.

scholarly journals Yes, You Can! Effects of Transparent Admission Standards on High School Track Choice: A Randomized Field Experiment

Social Forces ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamás Keller ◽  
Károly Takács ◽  
Felix Elwert
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Spillover Effect ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Randomized Field Experiment ◽  
Academic Track ◽  
Admission Standards

Abstract High school track choice determines college access in many countries. We hypothesize that some qualified students avoid the college-bound track in high school simply because they overestimate admission requirements. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a randomized field experiment that communicated the admission standards of local secondary schools on the academic track to students in Hungary before the application deadline. We targeted the subset of students (“seeds”) who occupied the most central position in the classroom-social networks, aiming to detect both direct effects on the track choice of targeted seeds and spillover effects on their untreated peers. We found neither a direct effect nor a spillover effect on students’ applications or admissions on average. Further analyses, however, revealed theoretically plausible heterogeneity in the direct causal effect of the intervention on the track choice of targeted seeds. Providing information about admission standards increased applications and admissions to secondary schools on the academic track among seeds who had a pre-existing interest in the academic track but were unsure of their chances of admission. This demonstrates that publicizing admissions standards can set students on a more ambitious educational trajectory. We discuss the implications for theory and policy.

Sibling Rivalry: Evidence from China’s Compulsory Schooling Reform

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guanfu Fang ◽  
Yu Chen
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Resource Reallocation ◽  
Compulsory Schooling ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Geographical Variations ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Older Siblings

AbstractThis study investigates the causal effect of older siblings’ schooling on their younger siblings’ schooling and labor market outcomes by exploiting the temporal and geographical variations in the implementation of compulsory schooling laws in China. Reform exposure is quantified as the number of years that an individual is eligible for compulsory education. We find that older siblings’ exposure to compulsory schooling reform had negative impacts on their younger siblings’ academic achievement and labor market performance. We provide some suggestive evidence for the mechanism of resource reallocation within households. These findings suggest that we may be overestimating the social benefits of compulsory schooling reforms by ignoring the resources constraints within households and the spillover effects on siblings.

scholarly journals How Do Nascent Social Entrepreneurs Respond to Rewards? A Field Experiment on Motivations in a Grant Competition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Ganguli ◽  
Marieke Huysentruyt ◽  
Chloé Le Coq
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Extrinsic Reward ◽  
Social Entrepreneurs ◽  
Social Treatment ◽  
And Performance ◽  
One Year ◽  
The One

We conducted a field experiment to identify the causal effect of extrinsic reward cues on the sorting and performance of nascent social entrepreneurs. The experiment, carried out with one of the United Kingdom’s largest support agencies for social entrepreneurs, encouraged 431 nascent social entrepreneurs to submit a full application for a grant competition that provides cash and in-kind mentoring through a one-time mailing sent by the agency. The applicants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: one group received a standard mailing that emphasized the intrinsic incentives of the program, or the opportunity to do good (Social treatment), and the other two groups received a mailing that instead emphasized the extrinsic incentives—either the financial reward (Cash treatment) or the in-kind reward (Support treatment). Our results show that an emphasis on extrinsic incentives has a causal impact on sorting into the applicant pool: the extrinsic reward cues led fewer candidates to apply and “crowded out” the more prosocial candidates while “crowding in” the more money-oriented ones. The extrinsic reward cues also increased application effort, which led these candidates to be more successful in receiving the grant. Yet the selection resulting from the extrinsic incentive cues led to worse performance at the end of the one-year grant period. Our results highlight the critical role of intrinsic motives in the selection and performance of social enterprises and suggest that using extrinsic incentives to promote the development of successful social enterprises may backfire in the longer run. This paper was accepted by Toby Stuart, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Do Beautiful Stores improve Product Evaluation?

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mia B. MÜNSTER ◽  
Tore KRISTENSEN ◽  
Gorm GABRIELSEN
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Product Evaluation ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Improve Product ◽  
Fashion Products ◽  
Store Design ◽  
Conscious Attention ◽  
Product Rating ◽  
Product Preference

Retail designers often emphasize the importance of creating stores that consumers will find attractive. This paper challenges that commonly held view, presenting empirical results from a field experiment showing that a positive rating of a store interior does not affect the product rating to the degree expected. This paper proposes a method for measuring spillover effects, which ordinarily take place without conscious attention. The method was applied in an experiment where 50 shoppers were asked to rate six fashion products in three differently designed stores. Respondents were asked to rate stores and products from within the stores. Any discrepancy between the in-store ratings can be interpreted as the influence of the store design. Results indicate measurable spillover effects from store design to product preference. Surprisingly, however, only one of the three stores showed a significant correlation between the respondents’ highest product rating and store preference.

Coping with boycotts: An analysis and framework

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saleh Al Shebil ◽  
Abdul A Rasheed ◽  
Hussam Al-Shammari
Keyword(s):  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
Economic Opportunities ◽  
New Entrants ◽  
Consumer Boycotts ◽  
Activist Groups

AbstractIn recent years, consumer boycotts are increasingly being used by various activist groups to punish targeted countries. This paper develops an analytic framework to help managers formulate strategies to cope with country-of-origin-related consumer boycotts. Based on the two dimensions of brand–country association and boycott intensity, we propose four possible strategies. We discuss spillover effects wherein certain firms become unintended victims of boycotts due to misperceptions about their nationality. Also discussed are economic opportunities that boycotts present to potential new entrants.

Gender Discrimination in Exam Grading? Double Evidence from a Natural Experiment and a Field Experiment

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Schindler Rangvid
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Full Cohort ◽  
Gender Biases

Abstract Grading bias against boys may be one of the reasons why boys underperform in school compared to girls. This study assesses the causal effect of blind grading of boys relative to girls using difference-in-differences methods and exploiting two separate identification strategies: a unique full cohort natural experiment providing exogenous variation in blind grading, and a field experiment where the exact same exam papers are scored twice (blind and non-blind). Even though the two strategies hinge on different assumptions, the results persistently suggest against the existence of systematic gender biases in non-blind evaluation. The results are robust to different model specifications.

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