Main Publications
Immigration, Crime, and Crime (Mis)Perceptions (Slides) (w/P. Dominguez and R. Undurraga) – American Economic Journal: Applied Economics (forthcoming)
More than Words: Leaders’ Speech and Risky Behavior (Slides) (w/Da Mata and T. Cavalcanti) – American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (forthcoming)
Altruism or money? Breaking teacher sorting using behavioral interventions in Peru (w/E. Bertoni, G. Elacqua, L Marotta and C. Mendez) – Journal of Labor Economics (conditionally accepted)
Salience and Accountability: School Infrastructure and Last-Minute Electoral Punishment (Slides) (with R. Durante) – Economic Journal (2022)
Immigration and Labor Market (Mis)Perceptions (with P. Dominguez and R. Undurraga) – American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings (2022)
Exposure to Transit Migration, Public Attitudes, and Entrepreneurship (w/ Cevat Giray Aksoy and Sergei Guriev) – Journal of Development Economics (2022)
A Behavioral Intervention to Increase Preschool Attendance in Uruguay (w/ L. Becerra, J. Hernandez, F. Lopez Boo, M. Perez, A. Vazquez, M. Mateo) – Journal of Development Economics (2022)
The Power of Example: Corruption spurs Corruption (Slides) – American Economic Journal: Applied Economics (2021)
Career choice motivation using behavioral strategies (Summary Video) (with G. Elacqua, D. Hincapie, A. Jaimovich, F. Lopez Boo, D. Paredes, A. Roman) – Economics of Education Review (2021)
On the Distributive Costs of Drug-Related Homicides (with Sebastian Galiani and Enrique Seira) – Journal of Law and Economics (2015)
Working Papers
Abstract: Using large-scale survey data covering more than 110 countries and exploiting within-country variation across cohorts and surveys, we show that individuals with longer exposure to democracy display stronger support for democratic institutions. We bolster these baseline findings using an instrumental-variables strategy exploiting regional democratization waves and focusing on immigrants’ exposure to democracy before migration. In all cases, the timing and nature of the effects are consistent with a causal interpretation. We also establish that democracies breed their own support only when they are successful: all of the effects we estimate work through exposure to democracies that are successful in providing economic growth, peace and political stability, and public goods.
Link: WP
Abstract: Inequality in access to high-quality teachers is an important driver of student socioeconomic achievement gaps. We experimentally evaluate a nationwide zero-cost government program in Ecuador to reduce teacher sorting (that is, lower-income students are more likely to attend understaffed schools with less qualified teachers) based on an insight from behavioral economics: order effects. In the treatment arm, the teachers’ job application platform showed hard-to-staff schools first, while in the control group teaching vacancies were displayed in alphabetical order. In both arms, hard-to-staff schools were labeled with the same icon. Teachers in the treatment arm were more likely to apply to hard-to-staff schools, rank them as their highest priority, and be assigned to a job vacancy in one of them. The effects were not driven by inattentive, altruistic, or less-qualified teachers. Instead, choice overload and fatigue seem to have played a role. As teachers in the treatment group were more likely to apply to schools with poorer and lower-performing students that typically have the lowest numbers of applicants per vacancy, the intervention helped to reduce the unequal distribution of qualified teachers across schools of different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Link: IZA WP
Abstract:
This paper assesses the results of an experiment designed to identify discrimination in users’ following behavior on Twitter. Specifically, we created fictitious bot accounts that resembled humans and claimed to be PhD students in economics. The accounts differed in three characteristics: gender (male or female), race (Black or White), and university affiliation (top- or lower-ranked). The bot accounts randomly followed Twitter users who form part of the #EconTwitter academic community. We measured how many follow-backs each account obtained after a given period. Twitter users from this community were 12% more likely to follow accounts of White students compared to those of Black students; 21% more likely to follow accounts of students from top-ranked, prestigious universities compared to accounts of lower-ranked institutions; and 25% more likely to follow female compared to male students. The racial gap persisted even among students from top-ranked institutions, suggesting that Twitter users racially discriminate even in the presence of a signal that could be interpreted as indicative of high academic potential. Notably, we find that Black male students from top-ranked universities receive no more follow-backs than White male students from relatively lower-ranked institutions.
Link: WP
Abstract:
We experimentally study the interplay between political and other social identities in forming social ties in a context of intense political polarization. We created accounts on Twitter that signaled their political preference for one of the two leading candidates in the 2022 Brazilian Presidential election, their preference for a football club (interpreted as an affective dimension of identity, given football’s importance to socialization in Brazil), or both. The bots randomly followed Twitter accounts with congruent and incongruent identities across these dimensions. We computed the proportion of followbacks and blocks received. Both dimensions of identity are relevant to forming ties, but the effect of sharing political identity is larger. Moreover, affective identity becomes substantially less relevant when information about political identity is available, indicating that political identity can overshadow the affective dimension. Still, shared affective identity has a positive effect in fostering ties even among politically opposite individuals. This suggests that shared affective identities have the potential to reduce politically induced societal divides, despite this effect being lower in a polarized setting.
Link: WP
Other Publications
Effect of a Social Norm Email Feedback Program on the Unnecessary Prescription of Nimodipine in Ambulatory Care of Older Adults (with F. Torrente, J. Bustin, F. Triskier, A. Tomio, R. Mastai and F. Lopez Boo) – JAMA Network Open
Promoting Handwashing Behavior: The Effects of Large-scale Community and School-level Interventions (with Sebastian Galiani, Paul Gertler, and Alexandra Orsola-Vidal) – Health Economics.
In the field
Humans Against Bots: Scaling-up Behavioral Interventions (AEARCTR-0008269)
Getting out the (swing) vote: a behavioral intervention in Argentina (with G. Cruces, AEARCTR-0008510)
Using stigma reduction strategies to increase program take-up among Afro-descendants: Experimental evidence from Uruguay (AEARCTR-0006549)
Cognitive Dissonance in Prosocial Employment Choices: a Nationwide RCT in Peru
A Behavioral Intervention Through Social Media to Motivate Career Choices (with G. Elacqua, G. Perez, and A. Jaimovich, AEARCTR-0008999)
Institutions Shape Social Preferences: The Civic Imprint of Democracy (with Daron Acemoglu, Cevat Giray Aksoy and Martin Fiszbein and Carlos Molina)
Skin Color and Public Attitudes Towards Immigrants: Experimental Evidence from Latin America
A Behavioral intervention to reduce tax fraud in Costa Rica (with Ricardo Perez-Truglia and Martin Ardanaz)
Using behavioral strategies to rise WTP to reduce CO2 emissions in the real world: evidence from airline tickets purchases (with JP Rud and LF Fontez)
Single-sex versus co-ed schooling and the formation of gender norms
Technical and Policy Notes
Lessons from behavioral economics to improve treatment adherence in parenting programs: an application to SMS (with Florencia Lopez Boo)
Designing behaviorally informed health interventions: adherence to micronutrient treatment in El Salvador (with Pedro Bernal, Stewart Kettle, Florencia Lopez Boo and Emma Iriarte)
In the Cold Light of Day: A Case Study of Argentina’s 2001-2002 Economic Crisis (HKS Teaching Case Number 2086 – Harvard Kennedy School of Government, with Michael Walton, Eduardo Levy Yeyati and Pilar Tavella)