Can Mentoring Alleviate Family Disadvantage in Adolescence? A Field Experiment to Improve Labor-Market Prospects
Sven Resnjanskij, Jens Ruhose, Simon Wiederhold, Ludger Woessmann
Journal of Political Economy,
im Erscheinen
Abstract
We study a mentoring program that aims to improve the labor-market prospects of school-attending adolescents from disadvantaged families by offering them a university-student mentor. Our RCT investigates program effectiveness on three outcome dimensions that are highly predictive of later labor-market success: math grades, patience/social skills, and labor-market orientation. For low-SES adolescents, the mentoring increases a combined index of the outcomes by over half a standard deviation after one year, with significant increases in each dimension. Part of the treatment effect is mediated by establishing mentors as attachment figures who provide guidance for the future. Effects on grades and labor-market orientation, but not on patience/social skills, persist three years after program start. By that time, the mentoring also improves early realizations of school-to-work transitions for low-SES adolescents. The mentoring is not effective for higher-SES adolescents. The results show that substituting lacking family support by other adults can help disadvantaged children at adolescent age.
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Discrimination on the Child Care Market: A Nationwide Field Experiment?
Henning Hermes, Philipp Lergetporer, Fabian Mierisch, Frauke Peter, Simon Wiederhold
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 12,
2023
Abstract
We provide the first causal evidence of discrimination against migrants seeking child care. We send emails from fictitious parents to > 18,000 early child care centers across Germany, asking if there is a slot available and how to apply. Randomly varying names to signal migration background, we find that migrants receive 4.4 percentage points fewer responses. Responses to migrants also contain substantially fewer slot offers, are shorter, and less encouraging. Exploring channels, discrimination against migrants does not differ by the perceived educational background of the email sender. However, it does differ by regional characteristics, being stronger in areas with lower shares of migrants in child care, higher right-wing vote shares, and lower financial resources. Discrimination on the child care market likely perpetuates existing inequalities of opportunities for disadvantaged children.
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Discrimination on the Child Care Market: A Nationwide Field Experiment
Henning Hermes, Philipp Lergetporer, Fabian Mierisch, Frauke Peter, Simon Wiederhold
CESifo Working Paper,
Nr. 10368,
2023
Abstract
We provide the first causal evidence of discrimination against migrants seeking child care. We send emails from fictitious parents to > 18, 000 early child care centers across Germany, asking if there is a slot available and how to apply. Randomly varying names to signal migration background, we find that migrants receive 4.4 percentage points fewer responses. Responses to migrants also contain substantially fewer slot offers, are shorter, and less encouraging. Exploring channels, discrimination against migrants does not differ by the perceived educational background of the email sender. However, it does differ by regional characteristics, being stronger in areas with lower shares of migrants in child care, higher right-wing vote shares, and lower financial resources. Discrimination on the child care market likely perpetuates existing inequalities of opportunities for disadvantaged children.
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Oxytocin, Empathy, Altruism and Charitable Giving: Experimental Evidence from Blood Donations
Irena Jukić, Dejan Kovač, Danijela Vuletić Čugalj
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 4,
2023
Abstract
We conducted a field experiment in the natural setting of blood donations to test how oxytocin relates to empathy and altruism. We randomly assigned blood donors in the Croatian Institute for Transfusion Medicine to three groups with the aim to induce different levels of empathy by showing a neutral video to the donors from the control group and an emotional to the donors from the first and second treatment groups. In addition to watching the emotional video, donors from the second treatment group are given a gift which relates to the emotional story from the video. We find no effect of our treatment on induced levels of oxytocin. Null effects of our treatments could be explained by the above average baseline levels of oxytocin and inability of our treatments to provoke emotional stimuli in blood donors. Nonetheless, for our empathy measures we find the effect of gift exchange on empathic concerns, but not on perspective taking. After our experimental treatments, we followed the return of our blood donors for a whole year. We find that only variable which consistently predicts return for blood donation in stated period is the number of previous donations. From policy perspective it is an important finding. Especially for hospitals and other blood providers when faced with time and resource constraints.
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Wie stark beeinflussen menschliche Entscheidungen im Forschungsprozess die Qualität der empirischen Ergebnisse?
Michael Koetter, Shuo Xia
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
Nr. 4,
2022
Abstract
Wie bedeutend ist das menschliche Element für die Genauigkeit empirischer Erkenntnisse in den Wirtschaftswissenschaften? Die Unsicherheit empirischer Schätzungen wird üblicherweise als ein statistisches Phänomen betrachtet. Unbekannte Parameter einer Grundgesamtheit werden anhand einer Stichprobe geschätzt, deren Erzeugung zu so genannten Standardfehlern führt. Forschende treffen jedoch viele unbeobachtete Entscheidungen, die nicht per se richtig oder falsch sind, sich aber auf das Ergebnis der Schätzung auswirken. Beispiele hierfür sind die Wahl der Software, die Art der Datenbereinigung oder die Spezifikation der Kontrollvariablen, um nur einige zu nennen. Wir haben an einem großen crowd-basierten Feldexperiment teilgenommen, bei dem sich herausstellte, dass dieser evidenzgenerierende Prozess von Forscher zu Forscher stark variiert, wodurch eine neue Art von Unsicherheit entsteht: so genannte Nicht-Standardfehler (NSE). 164 Teams von Finanzökonominnen und Finanzökonomen testeten sechs Hypothesen an einer identischen Stichprobe von Finanzmarktdaten. Das wichtigste Ergebnis ist, dass die Nicht-Standardfehler beträchtlich sind und die gleiche Größenordnung haben wie die Standardfehler, dass sie aber nach einem anonymen Begutachtungsprozess deutlich abnehmen. Wer sich von Wirtschaftsforschern beraten lässt, sollte sich daher darüber im Klaren sein, dass die Entscheidungen der einzelnen Forschenden die empirische Evidenz mit einer nicht unerheblichen Unsicherheit behaften. Gleichzeitig scheint eine der Veröffentlichung vorausgehende Begutachtung der Ergebnisse durch wissenschaftliche Kollegen (peer-review) die Anfälligkeit für diese Art von Unsicherheit zu verringern.
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Forschungscluster
Drei Forschungscluster ...
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Mission, Motivation, and the Active Decision to Work for a Social Cause
Sabrina Jeworrek, Vanessa Mertins
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly,
Nr. 2,
2022
Abstract
The mission of a job affects the type of worker attracted to an organization but may also provide incentives to an existing workforce. We conducted a natural field experiment with 246 short-term workers. We randomly allocated some of these workers to either a prosocial or a commercial job. Our data suggest that the mission of a job has a performance-enhancing motivational impact on particular individuals only, those with a prosocial attitude. However, the mission is very important if it has been actively selected. Those workers who have chosen to contribute to a social cause outperform the ones randomly assigned to the same job by about half a standard deviation. This effect seems to be a universal phenomenon that is not driven by information about the alternative job, the choice itself, or a particular subgroup.
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Verhalten
Die Mathematik der Bauchentscheidungen Zuerst Kosten und Nutzen sorgfältig abwägen und dann rational...
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Gift-Exchange in Society and the Social Integration of Refugees: Evidence from a Field, a Laboratory, and a Survey Experiment
Sabrina Jeworrek, Bernd Josef Leisen, Vanessa Mertins
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization,
December
2021
Abstract
Refugee integration requires broad support from the host society, but only a minority is actively engaged. Given that most individuals reciprocate kind behavior, we examine the idea that the proportion of supporters will increase as a reciprocal response to refugees’ contributions to society through volunteering. Our nationwide survey experiment shows that citizens’ intentions to contribute time and money rise significantly when they learn about refugees’ pro-social activities. However, we find a substantial heterogeneity in the observed treatment effects. Individuals with a high reciprocal inclination show higher willingness to contribute time, while individuals with a lower reciprocal inclination are ready to contribute money after learning about the refugees' good deeds. Information regarding the possibility to establish a mutual support relationship with the refugees does not generally increase the willingness to contribute time or money beyond the information on refugees’ general contributions to the society. We complement this investigation with experiments in the lab and the field that confirm our findings for actual behavior.
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Ehrenamtliches Engagement von Flüchtlingen zur Förderung sozialer Integration
Sabrina Jeworrek
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
Nr. 3,
2020
Abstract
Die soziale Integration von Flüchtlingen kann einen substanziellen Beitrag zu deren ökonomischer Integration leisten, häufig sind negative Einstellungen der Bevölkerung gegenüber ethnischen Minderheiten aber ein Schlüsselfaktor für Integrationsprobleme. Die Förderung ehrenamtlichen Engagements von Flüchtlingen könnte eine Lösung darstellen und
den Integrationsprozess positiv beeinflussen. Basierend auf den Daten dreier unterschiedlicher Experimente zeigt dieser Beitrag, dass Einheimische in höherem Maße bereit sind, die Integration von Flüchtlingen persönlich oder finanziell zu unterstützen, wenn sich Flüchtlinge an ihrem neuen Wohnort gesellschaftlich engagieren. Natürlich findet sich eine gewisse Heterogenität hinsichtlich der Neigung, eher persönlich oder eher finanziell zu unterstützen. Für die unterschiedlichsten Personengruppen gilt aber, dass ehrenamtliches Flüchtlingsengagement zumindest auf eine dieser beiden Optionen einen positiven Effekt ausübt.
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