1,720,962 research outputs found
How general are time preferences? Eliciting good-specific discount rates
No full textThis paper tests the commonly-used assumption that people apply a single discount rate to the utility from different sources of consumption. Using survey data from Uganda with both hypothetical and incentivized choices over different goods, we elicit time preferences from about 2,400 subjects. We reject the null of equal discount rates across goods; the average person in our sample is more impatient about sugar, meat and starchy plantains than about money and a list of other goods. We review the assumptions to recover discount rates from experimental choices for the case of goodspecific discounting. Consistently with the theoretical framework, we find convergence in discount rates across goods for two groups expected to engage in or think about arbitraging the rewards: traders and individuals with large quantities of the good at home. As an application, we evaluate empirically the conditions under which goodspecific discounting could predict a low-asset poverty trap
The impact of funding on research collaboration: Evidence from a developing country
No full textIn this paper we evaluate the impact of research grants on the amount of collaboration among scientific researchers in Argentina. We find a positive and significant impact of funding on collaboration which is measured in terms of the number of co-authors for publications in peer-reviewed journals. Our identification strategy is based on comparing collaboration indicators for researchers with financially supported projects with those of a control group of researchers who submitted projects that were accepted in terms
of quality, but not supported because of shortage of funds. We obtain consistent results by using different non-experimental techniques including difference-in-differences models combined with propensity score matching algorithms
Money for Science? The Impact of Research Grants on Academic Output
No full textThis paper evaluates the impact of subsidies on the academic performance of researchers in Argentina. Academic performance is measured in terms of number of publications and in terms of impact factors in peer-reviewed journals. The performance of researchers with financially supported projects is compared with that of a control group of researchers who submitted projects accepted in terms of quality but not supported because of shortage of funds. We use non-experimental data and a difference-in-differences approach along with propensity score matching techniques, where we control for pre-programme observable attributes as well as for researchers' time-invariant unobservable characteristics. Our findings suggest a positive and statistically significant effect of subsidy on academic performance, especially for young researchers. Copyright (c) 2008 The Authors.
Extension services, product quality and yields: the case of grapes in Argentina
No full textThis article studies the impact of publicly subsidized agricultural extension services on yields and product quality. We use panel data from
grape producers in Mendoza, Argentina to estimate the impacts of farmer trainings. We find a negative overall impact on yields and evidence
of a positive average impact on the adoption of higher-quality grape varieties. By analyzing the dynamic pattern of the estimated effects, we
find evidence of a temporary decrease in yields suggesting the existence of an adjustment process following the introduction of higher-quality
grapes. The overall negative effect on yield is driven by a sharp drop in the year of participation. This fades after year one, and two to three years
after treatment we observe increases in higher-quality grape production. Findings reinforce the importance of temporal dimension of extension
services
Improving technology adoption in agriculture through extension services: evidence from Uruguay
No full textThis article evaluates whether cost-sharing public interventions are successful in promoting agricultural technology uptake by small and medium farmers, and whether these changes can affect yields. Our article contributes to the debate by providing empirical evidence, which is scarce in the literature, from a programme offering extension services to fruit producers in Uruguay. Using a unique panel data set, we estimate a fixed effects model for the impact of extension services on technology adoption and yields. We find evidence that the programme increased density of plantation. Once we address small sample issues, we also find some evidence of impact on the adoption of improved varieties. However, we find no evidence of impact on yields for the period under study. Although this lack of effects on yields could be due to the limited time frame of the evaluation and does not rule out effects on other measures of productivity, it may also indicate that the practices promoted by the programme are insufficient to induce a detectable impact on productivity and, consequently, sustainable
benefits for the farmers. The study, therefore, confirms the need of including the design
of impact evaluations in the policy design in order to properly consider the timing of all
the potential effects and produce conclusive findings and precise recommendations
Banking the unbanked? Evidence from three countries
Full text linkWe experimentally test the impact of expanding access to basic bank accounts in Uganda, Malawi, and Chile. Over two years, 17%, 10%, and 3% of treatment individuals made five or more deposits, respectively. Average monthly deposits for them were at the 79th, 91st, and 96th percentiles of baseline savings. Survey data show no clearly discernible intention-to-treat effects on savings or any downstream outcomes. This suggests that policies merely focused on expanding access to basic accounts are unlikely to improve welfare noticeably since impacts, even if present, are likely small and diverse
What Works in Supporting Women-led Businesses?
No full textThe narrative among policymakers about women’s entrepreneurship is slowly shifting from encouraging the creation of a high number of startups to focusing on supporting women who are well positioned to lead growth-oriented enterprises. Innovative women entrepreneurs can be agents of change and provide new solutions to global challenges, yet they face multiple barriers to growing their businesses. This policy brief examines the following four areas of constraints and provides evidence on measures to reduce gender gaps in each: 1. Human capital, including gender gaps in access to skills and networks 2. Factors constraining access to finance 3. Factors constraining technology uptake and market expansion, and 4. Contextual factors, including legal and regulatory constraints, social norms, access to care, and gender-based violence
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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