Working Papers

Explore our working papers depository: studies by MBRG researchers that are currently ongoing and drafts under submission for publication or in the pre-publication stage. You can search papers by author; keywords; or select from a list of themes to filter.

These working papers are part of the C SAE working paper series.

Are the Poor So Present-Biased?

Estimates of “present-bias” among the poor may be exaggerated if poor individuals are credit-constrained and expect to have greater liquidity in the future. A conducted experiment in rural Pakistan provides causal evidence of this effect.

Rachel Cassidy

Aspiring to a Better Future: Can a Simple Psychological Intervention Reduce Poverty?

Increase Preventive Health Investment

Researchers test the effects of two light-touch psychological interventions on water chlorination and related health and economic outcomes.

Kate Orkin

Anett John

Johannes Haushofer

Cash-Plus: Variants and Components of Transfer-Based Anti-Poverty Programming

Researchers study whether extensions such as coaching and training can augment the poverty relief effects of cash transfers, or do they unnecessarily constrain the agency of recipients in the allocation of program resources.

Richard Sedlmayr

Anuj Shah

Munshi Sulaiman

Implicit and Explicit Commitment in Credit and Saving Contracts

Researchers conduct a field experiment in Pakistan to test the demand for flexibility and for soft and hard commitment among clients of a micro-finance institution.

Job Search and Hiring With Two-Sided Limited Information about Workseekers’ Skills

Researchers present field experimental evidence where assessing workseekers’ skills, giving workseekers their assessment results, and helping them to credibly share these results with firms increases workseekers’ employment and earnings.

Kate Orkin

Eliana Carranza

Robert Garlick

Neil Rankin

Jobseekers' Beliefs about Comparative Advantage and (Mis)Directed Search

Researchers run two randomised field experiments in South Africa to understand worker sorting in response to providing participants with more information on their own skills.

Parental Aspirations for Children’s Education: Experimental Evidence from Rural Ethiopia

Researchers explore the effects of exposure to documentaries on parents’ educational aspirations and investment in children’s education in rural Ethiopia.

Stefan Dercon

Kate Orkin

Tanguy Bernard

Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse

Role Models in Movies in Uganda

Researchers test the impact of a role model on secondary school student exam performance in Uganda.

Emma Riley