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A Comment on “Raising Health Awareness in Rural Communities: A Randomized Experiment in Bangladesh and India” by Siddique et al. (2024)

Author

Listed:
  • Kjelsrud, Anders

    (University of Oslo)

  • Kotsadam, Andreas

    (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research)

  • Rogeberg, Ole

    (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research)

  • Brodeur, Abel

    (University of Ottawa)

Abstract

Siddique et al. (2024a) report massive effects of a mobile phone-based health awareness campaign in a randomized field experiment conducted in rural Bangladesh and India during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both awareness and compliance with preventive COVID-19 measures were higher when the information was received by voice call rather than text, and even higher for those receiving both. Reproducing the analyses we identify many severe issues, including that the study did not in fact randomize treatment assignment. We further find implausible response patterns in the data, undisclosed sampling criteria that negate the study motivation, and an (unreported) re-treatment where some of the respondents were also included in a separate study that provided additional COVID-19 information immediately before the last data collection.

Suggested Citation

  • Kjelsrud, Anders & Kotsadam, Andreas & Rogeberg, Ole & Brodeur, Abel, 2025. "A Comment on “Raising Health Awareness in Rural Communities: A Randomized Experiment in Bangladesh and India” by Siddique et al. (2024)," IZA Discussion Papers 17783, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17783
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Abel Brodeur & Nikolai Cook & Anthony Heyes, 2020. "Methods Matter: p-Hacking and Publication Bias in Causal Analysis in Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(11), pages 3634-3660, November.
    2. Allcott, Hunt & Boxell, Levi & Conway, Jacob & Gentzkow, Matthew & Thaler, Michael & Yang, David, 2020. "Polarization and public health: Partisan differences in social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    3. Michael Vlassopoulos & Abu Siddique & Tabassum Rahman & Debayan Pakrashi & Asad Islam & Firoz Ahmed, 2024. "Improving Women's Mental Health during a Pandemic," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 422-455, April.
    4. Firoz Ahmed & Roland Hodler & Asad Islam, 2024. "Partisan Effects of Information Campaigns in Competitive Authoritarian Elections: Evidence from Bangladesh," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(660), pages 1303-1330.
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    Keywords

    health awareness; replication; COVID-19;
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