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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social Networks, Neighborhood Effects, And Credit Access: Evidence From Rural Guatemala, Bruce Wydick, Harmony Karp Hayes, Sarah Hilliker Kempf
Social Networks, Neighborhood Effects, And Credit Access: Evidence From Rural Guatemala, Bruce Wydick, Harmony Karp Hayes, Sarah Hilliker Kempf
Economics
We measure the extent to which social networks determine sources of credit from a survey of 465 households in western Guatemala. We estimate correlated, contextual and endogenous effects of networks at the neighborhood, church, and village levels, finding that church networks display endogenous effects in credit access. We calculate an elasticity of social imitation (ESI) indicating if the percentage of people accessing microfinance in a church network doubles, the probability of an individual household accessing microfinance increases by 14.1 percent, a magnitude similar to our estimated ESIs for televisions and cell phones within church and neighbor networks.
Microfinance And Home Improvement: Using Retrospective Panel Data To Measure Program Effects On Fundamental Events, Craig Mcintosh, Gonzalo Villaran, Bruce Wydick
Microfinance And Home Improvement: Using Retrospective Panel Data To Measure Program Effects On Fundamental Events, Craig Mcintosh, Gonzalo Villaran, Bruce Wydick
Economics
Rigorously estimating the effects of development programs is notoriously difficult. In this paper we present a methodology that borrows from "event studies" commonly used in the finance literature to ascertain the impacts of corporate mergers. In our RETRAFECT methodology a retrospective panel data set is created based on “fundamental” events in the history of surveyed households, events that are discrete, unforgettable, and important to welfare. Based on the relationship between the changes in the estimated probabilities of these events and the timing of the introduction and uptake of a treatment, it is possible to ascertain if the probability of these …
The Economics Of Parenting, Self-Esteem, And Academic Performance: Theory And A Test, Rajeev Darolia, Bruce Wydick
The Economics Of Parenting, Self-Esteem, And Academic Performance: Theory And A Test, Rajeev Darolia, Bruce Wydick
Economics
This paper develops a theory about how signals sent to a child by an altruistic parent affect a child's self-esteem, effort and long-term performance when a parent has better information about child ability than children do themselves. We carry out OLS, 2SLS, and 3SLS estimations of our model on a sample of 651 college students. Our results show some complementary actions before college, such as parental praise, foster academic achievement above what natural ability would predict. Conversely, we find some substitutionary actions before college, such as providing them cars as gifts, are associated with lower effort in college and underachievement. …