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Behavioural Development Economics: Lessons from field labs in the developing world

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  • Jeffery Carpenter

    ()

  • Juan Camilo Cardenas

Abstract

Explanations of poverty, growth and development more generally depend on the assumptions made about individual preferences and the willingness to engage in strategic behaviour. Economic experiments, especially those conducted in the field, have begun to paint a picture of economic agents in developing communities that is at some variance from the traditional portrait. We review this growing literature with an eye towards preference-related experiments conducted in the field. We rely on these studies, in addition to our own experiences in the field, to offer lessons on what development economists might learn from experiments. We conclude by sharing our thoughts on how to conduct experiments in the field, and then offer a few ideas for future research.

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File URL: http://www.middlebury.edu/services/econ/repec/mdl/ancoec/0616.pdf
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Middlebury College, Department of Economics in its series Middlebury College Working Paper Series with number 0616.

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Length: 41 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2006
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:mdl:mdlpap:0616

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  1. If people don't go to the lab, the lab goes to the people
    by Dany Jaimovich - Bakary Baludin in Development Therapy on 2012-05-21 10:58:00
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