Rema Hanna
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 3591509 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Rema Hanna |
| NOMBRES | Rema |
| APELLIDO | Hanna |
| FIRMA | HANNA R |
| AFILIACIONES | Harvard University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6845-2327 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 15 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 118 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 15 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2007 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Willingness-To-Pay versus Administrative Hurdles
Many social insurance programs have low take-up, but it is unclear whether this is due to administrative barriers, information, or low insurance valuations. We study a Thai policy that offered large incentives for informal workers in selected provinces to enroll. The incentives increased insurance coverage by 67 percentage points- from 6 percent of informal workers to 73 percent- within two months. However, 12 months later, only 13 percent remain…
Embedding Research into Public Sector Programs
Governments serve as the backbone of service delivery worldwide, playing an important role in the daily lives of billions of people. This article details why it can be important for researchers to work with governments to conduct policy-relevant research. To illustrate this point, the author highlights personal experiences from a study on the take-up of government health insurance in Indonesia, a study on the shift from in-kind transfers to food …
Universal Basic Incomes versus Targeted Transfers
Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals articulated by the United Nations, number one is the elimination of extreme poverty by 2030. While future economic growth should continue to reduce poverty, it will not solve the problem by itself; thus, there is a potentially important role for national-level transfer programs that assist poor families in developing countries. Such programs are often run by developing country governments. Many countries ha…
Debunking the Stereotype of the Lazy Welfare Recipient
Targeted transfer programs for poor citizens have become increasingly common in the developing world. Yet, a common concern among policy-makers and citizens is that such programs tend to discourage work. We re-analyze the data from seven randomized controlled trials of government-run cash transfer programs in six developing countries throughout the world, and find no systematic evidence that cash transfer programs discourage work.
Tangible Information and Citizen Empowerment
Redistribution programs in developing countries often "leak" because local officials do not implement programs as the central government intends. We study one approach to reducing leakage. In an experiment in over 550 villages, we test whether mailing cards with program information to targeted beneficiaries increases the subsidy they receive from a subsidized rice program. On net, beneficiaries received 26 percent more subsidy in card villages. I…
Up in Smoke
Laboratory studies suggest that improved cooking stoves can reduce indoor air pollution, improve health, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries. We provide evidence, from a large-scale randomized trial in India, on the benefits of a common, laboratory-validated stove with a four-year follow-up. While smoke inhalation initially falls, this effect disappears by year two. We find no changes across health outcomes or greenhouse…
The devil is in the details
Self-Targeting
This paper shows that adding a small application cost to a transfer program can substantially improve targeting through self-selection. Our village-level experiment in Indonesia finds that requiring beneficiaries to apply for benefits results in substantially poorer beneficiaries than automatic enrollment using the same asset test. Marginally increasing application costs on an experimental basis does not further improve targeting. Estimating a mo…
Does the Effect of Pollution on Infant Mortality Differ Between Developing and Developed Countries? Evidence from Mexico City
Much of what we know about the marginal effect of pollution on infant mortality is derived from developed country data. However, given the lower levels of air pollution in developed countries, these estimates may not be externally valid to the developing country context if there is a non‐linear dose relationship between pollution and mortality or if the costs of avoidance behaviour differ considerably between the two contexts. In this article, we…
The effect of pollution on labor supply
Environmental Regulations, Air and Water Pollution, and Infant Mortality in India
Using the most comprehensive developing country dataset ever compiled on air and water pollution and environmental regulations, the paper assesses India's environmental regulations with a difference-in-differences design. The air pollution regulations are associated with substantial improvements in air quality. The most successful air regulation resulted in a modest but statistically insignificant decline in infant mortality. In contrast, the wat…
Incentives Work
We use a randomized experiment and a structural model to test whether monitoring and financial incentives can reduce teacher absence and increase learning in India. In treatment schools, teachers' attendance was monitored daily using cameras, and their salaries were made a nonlinear function of attendance. Teacher absenteeism in the treatment group fell by 21 percentage points relative to the control group, and the children's test scores increase…
Targeting the Poor
This paper reports an experiment in 640 Indonesian villages on three approaches to target the poor: proxy means tests (PMT), where assets are used to predict consumption; community targeting, where villagers rank everyone from richest to poorest; and a hybrid. Defining poverty based on PPP$2 per capita consumption, community targeting and the hybrid perform somewhat worse in identifying the poor than PMT, though not by enough to significantly aff…
Affirmative action in education
Obtaining a Driver's License in India
We study the allocation of driver's licenses in India by randomly assigning applicants to one of three groups: bonus (offered a bonus for obtaining a license quickly), lesson (offered free driving lessons), or comparison. Both the bonus and lesson groups are more likely to obtain licenses. However, bonus group members are more likely to make extralegal payments and to obtain licenses without knowing how to drive. All extralegal payments happen th…
Does the Effect of Pollution on Infant Mortality Differ Between Developing and Developed Countries? Evidence from Mexico City
Much of what we know about the marginal effect of pollution on infant mortality is derived from developed country data. However, given the lower levels of air pollution in developed countries, these estimates may not be externally valid to the developing country context if there is a non‐linear dose relationship between pollution and mortality or if the costs of avoidance behaviour differ considerably between the two contexts. In this article, we…
Self-Targeting
This paper shows that adding a small application cost to a transfer program can substantially improve targeting through self-selection. Our village-level experiment in Indonesia finds that requiring beneficiaries to apply for benefits results in substantially poorer beneficiaries than automatic enrollment using the same asset test. Marginally increasing application costs on an experimental basis does not further improve targeting. Estimating a mo…
Tangible Information and Citizen Empowerment
Redistribution programs in developing countries often "leak" because local officials do not implement programs as the central government intends. We study one approach to reducing leakage. In an experiment in over 550 villages, we test whether mailing cards with program information to targeted beneficiaries increases the subsidy they receive from a subsidized rice program. On net, beneficiaries received 26 percent more subsidy in card villages. I…
Universal Basic Incomes versus Targeted Transfers
Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals articulated by the United Nations, number one is the elimination of extreme poverty by 2030. While future economic growth should continue to reduce poverty, it will not solve the problem by itself; thus, there is a potentially important role for national-level transfer programs that assist poor families in developing countries. Such programs are often run by developing country governments. Many countries ha…
The devil is in the details
Obtaining a Driver's License in India
We study the allocation of driver's licenses in India by randomly assigning applicants to one of three groups: bonus (offered a bonus for obtaining a license quickly), lesson (offered free driving lessons), or comparison. Both the bonus and lesson groups are more likely to obtain licenses. However, bonus group members are more likely to make extralegal payments and to obtain licenses without knowing how to drive. All extralegal payments happen th…
Affirmative action in education
Incentives Work
We use a randomized experiment and a structural model to test whether monitoring and financial incentives can reduce teacher absence and increase learning in India. In treatment schools, teachers' attendance was monitored daily using cameras, and their salaries were made a nonlinear function of attendance. Teacher absenteeism in the treatment group fell by 21 percentage points relative to the control group, and the children's test scores increase…
Targeting the Poor
This paper reports an experiment in 640 Indonesian villages on three approaches to target the poor: proxy means tests (PMT), where assets are used to predict consumption; community targeting, where villagers rank everyone from richest to poorest; and a hybrid. Defining poverty based on PPP$2 per capita consumption, community targeting and the hybrid perform somewhat worse in identifying the poor than PMT, though not by enough to significantly aff…
Environmental Regulations, Air and Water Pollution, and Infant Mortality in India
Using the most comprehensive developing country dataset ever compiled on air and water pollution and environmental regulations, the paper assesses India's environmental regulations with a difference-in-differences design. The air pollution regulations are associated with substantial improvements in air quality. The most successful air regulation resulted in a modest but statistically insignificant decline in infant mortality. In contrast, the wat…
The effect of pollution on labor supply
Up in Smoke
Laboratory studies suggest that improved cooking stoves can reduce indoor air pollution, improve health, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries. We provide evidence, from a large-scale randomized trial in India, on the benefits of a common, laboratory-validated stove with a four-year follow-up. While smoke inhalation initially falls, this effect disappears by year two. We find no changes across health outcomes or greenhouse…
The devil is in the details
Self-Targeting
This paper shows that adding a small application cost to a transfer program can substantially improve targeting through self-selection. Our village-level experiment in Indonesia finds that requiring beneficiaries to apply for benefits results in substantially poorer beneficiaries than automatic enrollment using the same asset test. Marginally increasing application costs on an experimental basis does not further improve targeting. Estimating a mo…
Does the Effect of Pollution on Infant Mortality Differ Between Developing and Developed Countries? Evidence from Mexico City
Much of what we know about the marginal effect of pollution on infant mortality is derived from developed country data. However, given the lower levels of air pollution in developed countries, these estimates may not be externally valid to the developing country context if there is a non‐linear dose relationship between pollution and mortality or if the costs of avoidance behaviour differ considerably between the two contexts. In this article, we…
Debunking the Stereotype of the Lazy Welfare Recipient
Targeted transfer programs for poor citizens have become increasingly common in the developing world. Yet, a common concern among policy-makers and citizens is that such programs tend to discourage work. We re-analyze the data from seven randomized controlled trials of government-run cash transfer programs in six developing countries throughout the world, and find no systematic evidence that cash transfer programs discourage work.
Tangible Information and Citizen Empowerment
Redistribution programs in developing countries often "leak" because local officials do not implement programs as the central government intends. We study one approach to reducing leakage. In an experiment in over 550 villages, we test whether mailing cards with program information to targeted beneficiaries increases the subsidy they receive from a subsidized rice program. On net, beneficiaries received 26 percent more subsidy in card villages. I…
Universal Basic Incomes versus Targeted Transfers
Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals articulated by the United Nations, number one is the elimination of extreme poverty by 2030. While future economic growth should continue to reduce poverty, it will not solve the problem by itself; thus, there is a potentially important role for national-level transfer programs that assist poor families in developing countries. Such programs are often run by developing country governments. Many countries ha…
Willingness-To-Pay versus Administrative Hurdles
Many social insurance programs have low take-up, but it is unclear whether this is due to administrative barriers, information, or low insurance valuations. We study a Thai policy that offered large incentives for informal workers in selected provinces to enroll. The incentives increased insurance coverage by 67 percentage points- from 6 percent of informal workers to 73 percent- within two months. However, 12 months later, only 13 percent remain…
Embedding Research into Public Sector Programs
Governments serve as the backbone of service delivery worldwide, playing an important role in the daily lives of billions of people. This article details why it can be important for researchers to work with governments to conduct policy-relevant research. To illustrate this point, the author highlights personal experiences from a study on the take-up of government health insurance in Indonesia, a study on the shift from in-kind transfers to food …
Economics (13 obras) · Economic growth (9 obras) · Political science (8 obras) · Business (7 obras) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (6 obras) · Developing country (4 obras) · Labour economics (4 obras) · Medicine (4 obras) · Computer Science (3 obras) · Demographic economics (3 obras)