Publications
Cooking, Health, and Daily Exposure to Pollution Spikes
Forthcoming at the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (with Susanna Berkouwer)
Abstract: Many routine daily activities—such as cooking and commuting—cause large recurring pollution spikes that may impact health without significantly affecting average exposure. We study pollution spikes by combining experimental variation in cooking technology with high-frequency data on individual pollution exposure and time-use in Kenya. Improved cookstoves reduce PM2.5 spikes while cooking by 52µg/m3 (42%) and cause a 0.24 standard deviation reduction in self-reported respiratory symptoms. However, even after more than three years of daily use, we find no clinical health improvements; possibly because we detect no impact on average exposure. Clinical health improvements may require reductions in ambient concentrations.
Noise, Cognitive Function, and Worker Productivity
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2024, vol. 16 (4), pp. 322-360.
Abstract: Cognitive science research suggests the noisy workplaces common in low and middle income countries can impair workers’ cognitive functions. However, whether this translates into lower earnings for workers depends on the importance of these functions for productivity and whether workers understand these effects. I use two randomized experiments in Nairobi, Kenya to answer these questions. First, I randomize exposure to engine noise during a textile training course at a government training facility. An increase of 7 dB reduces productivity by approximately 3%. In order to study what mechanism drives this effect, I then randomize engine noise during tests of cognitive function and an effort task. The same noise change impairs cognitive function but not effort task performance. Finally, in both experiments, I examine whether individuals appreciate the impact of noise on their performance by eliciting participants’ willingness to pay for quiet working conditions while randomly varying whether they are compensated based on their performance. Individuals’ willingness to pay does not depend on the wage structure; suggesting that they are not aware that quiet working conditions would increase their performance pay. Thus, workers may fail to mitigate earnings losses by sorting into quieter jobs where they are more productive.
Credit, Attention, and Externalities in the Adoption of Energy Efficient Technologies by Low-income Households
American Economic Review, October 2022, vol. 112 (10), pp. 3291-3330. (with Susanna B. Berkouwer)
Abstract: We study an energy efficient charcoal cookstove in an experiment with 1,000 households in Nairobi. We estimate a 39% reduction in charcoal spending, which matches engineering estimates, generating a 295% annual return. Despite fuel savings of $237 over the stove’s two-year lifespan—and $295 in emissions reductions—households are only willing to pay $12. Drawing attention to energy savings does not increase demand. However, a loan more than doubles WTP: credit constraints prevent adoption of privately optimal technologies. Energy efficient technologies could drive sustainable development by slowing greenhouse emissions while saving households money.
Changing Family Attitudes to Promote Female Employment
AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2019, vol. 109, pp. 138-142. (with Seema Jayachandran)
Abstract: India’s female employment rate is one of the lowest in the world. One approach to expanding female employment is to make young women’s family members more supportive of them working. We report on the effects of two interventions aimed at increasing family members’ supportiveness in rural India. The first entails showing them video testimonials by working women and their family members. The second prompts a conversation between working women and their families about the benefits and challenges they face when a woman in the household works. We find no evidence that the interventions changed employment or attitudes.
Cognitive Science in the Field: A Preschool Intervention Durably Enhances Intuitive but not Formal Mathematics
Science, 7 July 2017, vol. 375 (6346), pp. 47-55. (with Moira R. Dillon, Harini Kannan, Elizabeth S. Spelke and Esther Duflo)
Abstract: Many poor children are underprepared for demanding primary school curricula. Research in cognitive science suggests that school achievement could be improved by preschool pedagogy in which numerate adults engage children’s spontaneous, nonsymbolic mathematical concepts. To test this suggestion, we designed and evaluated a game-based preschool curriculum intended to exercise children’s emerging skills in number and geometry. In a randomized field experiment with 1540 children (average age 4.9 years) in 214 Indian preschools, 4 months of math game play yielded marked and enduring improvement on the exercised intuitive abilities, relative to no-treatment and active control conditions. Math-trained children also showed immediate gains on symbolic mathematical skills but displayed no advantage in subsequent learning of the language and concepts of school mathematics.
Working Papers
The Effect of Exposure: Evidence from Spatial Choices in Nairobi
(with Gabriel Kreindler and Oluchi Mbonu)
Abstract: How much do people dislike opportunities they have never been exposed to, and why? We study how exposure affects work location decisions of casual workers. We offer short-term employment and randomize training locations to induce novel exposures. Participants sacrifice 22% of the median daily wage to avoid working in a location never visited before; one hour-long visit eliminates this premium. Workers anticipate two thirds of the effect exposure has on their later preferences. Results are most consistent with perceived fixed costs of exposure rather than sorting or quality uncertainty. Unfamiliar neighborhoods are also less likely to enter workers’ consideration sets.
Attending Kindergarten Improves Cognitive Development in India, but All Kindergartens Are Not Equal (with Seema Jayachandran)
Abstract: Early childhood is a critical period for child development, and several studies find high returns to formal early schooling (e.g., pre-K) in developed countries. However, there is limited evidence on whether formal pre-primary schooling is an effective model in developing countries. We study the impacts of attending kindergarten on child development in Karnataka, India, through a randomized evaluation. We partnered with a private kindergarten provider to offer two-year scholarships to children in low-income families. Children who attend the partner kindergarten due to the scholarship experience a 0.8 standard deviation gain in cognitive development. Some children induced to attend the partner kindergarten would not have attended kindergarten, while others would have attended a different kindergarten. We use machine learning techniques to predict each child’s counterfactual activity and then estimate separate treatment effects for each type of switcher. We find that the short-run effect on cognition is driven mostly by children who would have otherwise not attended kindergarten. About 40% of the effect on cognitive development persists through first grade, with more persistence for higher-order thinking skills. In contrast, we find no effects on socioemotional development, which could be due to most children interacting with other children in daycare centers even if they do not attend kindergarten.
Works in Progress
Morality in Consumption Decisions and the Global Cost of Climate Change Mitigation (with Susanna Berkouwer)
Behavioral Responses to GST and Firm Pricing (with Avner Strulov-Shlain)
Understanding Financial Decision-making and the Euler Equation Puzzle (with Susanna Berkouwer)
Measuring Gender Attitudes Toward Men and Women (with Christine Exley, Muriel Niederle and Heather Sarsons)