Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP16810
Authors: Ricardo Godoy; Dean Karlan; Jonathan Zinman
Abstract: What should researchers do when confronted with surprising results? Financial accessinnovations usually leave “temptation” spending unaffected or reduced. However, wefound that promotion of savings lockboxes in a largely autarkic society increased alcoholconsumption and blood pressure, despite no one reporting intentions to save for alcohol.To probe mechanisms that could explain this pattern, we then used ethnographic methods,including direct observations of drinking (“scans”) and debriefing interviews to discuss theearlier trial results. We learn that sponsoring drinks confers prestige, but the stigmaattached to drinking by outsiders likely discouraged reporting intentions to save for it.
Keywords: mixed methods; randomized evaluation; native amazonians; tsimane; temptation; commitment; savings
JEL Codes: D12; I12; O15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| alcohol consumption (L66) | blood pressure (G21) |
| savings lockboxes (D14) | alcohol consumption (L66) |
| savings lockboxes (D14) | blood pressure (G21) |