Oriana Bandiera
Biographic Data
| ID | 1101351 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Oriana Bandiera |
| GIVEN NAMES | Oriana |
| FAMILY NAME | Bandiera |
| SIGNATURE | BANDIERA O |
| AFFILIATIONS | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 171 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The Search for Good Jobs: Evidence from a Six-Year Field Experiment in Uganda
There are 420 million young people in Africa today, and only one in three has a regular salaried job. We study how two common labor market interventions—vocational training and matching—affect the job search behavior of young workers. We do so by means of a field experiment tracking young job seekers for 6 years in Uganda’s main cities. Vocational training amplifies the job seekers’ initial optimism, leading them to search more intensively and to…
Microfinance and Diversification
The bulk of the world's extreme poor work in subsistence agriculture. Diversification out of this activity is often seen as the sine qua non of economic development. We evaluate whether the roll‐out of a mainstay development intervention—microfinance—into poor, agricultural and largely unbanked populations in rural Uganda helps borrowers to diversify into non‐agricultural labour activities. The new microfinance product is targeted to women, and d…
Men are from Mars, and Women Too: A Bayesian Meta‐analysis of Overconfidence Experiments
Gender differences in self‐confidence could explain women's under‐representation in high‐income occupations and glass‐ceiling effects. We draw lessons from the economic literature via a survey of experts and a Bayesian hierarchical model that aggregates experimental findings over the last 20 years. The experts’ survey indicates beliefs that men are overconfident and women underconfident. Yet the literature reveals that both men and women are typi…
Young Adults and Labor Markets in Africa
Every year, millions of young adults join the labor market in Africa. This paper harmonizes surveys and censuses from 68 low- and middle-income countries to compare their job prospects to those of their counterparts in other low-income regions. We show that employment rates are similar at similar levels of development but that young adults in Africa are less likely to have a salaried job, especially when the size of their cohort is large. Buildin…
CEO Behavior and Firm Performance
We develop a new method to measure CEO behavior in large samples via a survey that collects high-frequency, high-dimensional diary data and a machine learning algorithm that estimates behavioral types. Applying this method to 1,114 CEOs in six countries reveals two types: “leaders,” who do multifunction, high-level meetings, and “managers,” who do individual meetings with core functions. Firms that hire leaders perform better, and it takes three …
Nation-building Through Compulsory Schooling during the Age of Mass Migration
Why did America introduce compulsory schooling laws at a time when financial investments in education and voluntary school attendance were high? We provide qualitative and quantitative evidence that states adopted compulsory schooling laws as a nation-building tool to instil civic values to the culturally diverse migrants during the ‘Age of Mass Migration’ between 1850 and 1914. We show the adoption of compulsory schooling laws occurred significa…
Labor Markets and Poverty in Village Economies
We study how women's choices over labor activities in village economies correlate with poverty and whether enabling the poorest women to take on the activities of their richer counterparts can set them on a sustainable trajectory out of poverty. To do this we conduct a large-scale randomized control trial, covering over 21,000 households in 1,309 villages surveyed four times over a seven-year period, to evaluate a nationwide program in Bangladesh…
The Making of Modern America: Migratory Flows in the Age of Mass Migration
Field Experiments with Firms
We discuss how the use of field experiments sheds light on long-standing research questions relating to firm behavior. We present insights from two classes of experiments-within and across firms-and draw common lessons from both sets. Field experiments within firms generally aim to shed light on the nature of agency problems. Along these lines, we discuss how field experiments have provided new insights on shirking behavior and the provision of m…
Heterogeneous Class Size Effects: New Evidence from a Panel of University Students
Using administrative records from a UK university, we present evidence on the effects of class size on students' test scores. We estimate non-linear class size effects controlling for unobserved heterogeneity of students and faculty. We find that: ("i") at the average class size, the effect size is - 0.108; ("ii") the effect size is negative and significant only for the smallest and largest ranges of class sizes and zero in intermediate class siz…
Active and Passive Waste in Government Spending: Evidence from a Policy Experiment
We propose a distinction between active and passive waste as determinants of the cost of public services. Active waste entails utility for the public decision maker, whereas passive waste does not. We analyze purchases of standardized goods by Italian public bodies and exploit a policy experiment associated with a national procurement agency. We find that: (i) some public bodies pay systematically more than others for equivalent goods; (ii) diffe…
Social Incentives in the Workplace
We present evidence on social incentives in the workplace, namely on whether workers' behaviour is affected by the presence of those they are socially tied to, even in settings where there are no externalities among workers due to either the production technology or the compensation scheme in place. To do so, we combine data on individual worker productivity from a firm's personnel records with information on each worker's social network of frien…
Social Networks and Technology Adoption in Northern Mozambique
Despite their potentially strong impact on poverty, agricultural innovations are often adopted slowly. Using a unique household dataset on sunflower adoption in Mozambique, we analyse whether and how individual adoption decisions depend upon the choices of others in the same social networks. Since farmers anticipate that they will share information with others, we expect farmers to be more likely to adopt when they know many other adopters. Dynam…
Private enforcement and social efficiency
Land Reform, the Market for Protection, and the Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: Theory and Evidence
Historical records show that the Sicilian mafia developed to protect land from predatory attacks at a time when publicly provided security was scarce and banditry widespread. Using a common-agency model, this article shows that (i) it is optimal for each landowner to voluntarily buy protection even if this results in a worse equilibrium for the landowning class and (ii) all things equal, mafia profits are higher where land is more fragmented. The…
Does Financial Reform Raise or Reduce Saving
ServŽn for useful suggestions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. DOES FINANCIAL REFORM RAISE OR REDUCE SAVING? By Oriana Bandiera*, Gerard Caprio Jr.**, Patrick Honohan* * and Fabio Schiantarelli* (*Boston College, **World Bank) The effect of financial libe…
Social Networks and Technology Adoption in Northern Mozambique
Despite their potentially strong impact on poverty, agricultural innovations are often adopted slowly. Using a unique household dataset on sunflower adoption in Mozambique, we analyse whether and how individual adoption decisions depend upon the choices of others in the same social networks. Since farmers anticipate that they will share information with others, we expect farmers to be more likely to adopt when they know many other adopters. Dynam…
Land Reform, the Market for Protection, and the Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: Theory and Evidence
Historical records show that the Sicilian mafia developed to protect land from predatory attacks at a time when publicly provided security was scarce and banditry widespread. Using a common-agency model, this article shows that (i) it is optimal for each landowner to voluntarily buy protection even if this results in a worse equilibrium for the landowning class and (ii) all things equal, mafia profits are higher where land is more fragmented. The…
Nation-building Through Compulsory Schooling during the Age of Mass Migration
Why did America introduce compulsory schooling laws at a time when financial investments in education and voluntary school attendance were high? We provide qualitative and quantitative evidence that states adopted compulsory schooling laws as a nation-building tool to instil civic values to the culturally diverse migrants during the ‘Age of Mass Migration’ between 1850 and 1914. We show the adoption of compulsory schooling laws occurred significa…
The Making of Modern America: Migratory Flows in the Age of Mass Migration
CEO Behavior and Firm Performance
We develop a new method to measure CEO behavior in large samples via a survey that collects high-frequency, high-dimensional diary data and a machine learning algorithm that estimates behavioral types. Applying this method to 1,114 CEOs in six countries reveals two types: “leaders,” who do multifunction, high-level meetings, and “managers,” who do individual meetings with core functions. Firms that hire leaders perform better, and it takes three …
Field Experiments with Firms
We discuss how the use of field experiments sheds light on long-standing research questions relating to firm behavior. We present insights from two classes of experiments-within and across firms-and draw common lessons from both sets. Field experiments within firms generally aim to shed light on the nature of agency problems. Along these lines, we discuss how field experiments have provided new insights on shirking behavior and the provision of m…
Heterogeneous Class Size Effects: New Evidence from a Panel of University Students
Using administrative records from a UK university, we present evidence on the effects of class size on students' test scores. We estimate non-linear class size effects controlling for unobserved heterogeneity of students and faculty. We find that: ("i") at the average class size, the effect size is - 0.108; ("ii") the effect size is negative and significant only for the smallest and largest ranges of class sizes and zero in intermediate class siz…
Young Adults and Labor Markets in Africa
Every year, millions of young adults join the labor market in Africa. This paper harmonizes surveys and censuses from 68 low- and middle-income countries to compare their job prospects to those of their counterparts in other low-income regions. We show that employment rates are similar at similar levels of development but that young adults in Africa are less likely to have a salaried job, especially when the size of their cohort is large. Buildin…
Private enforcement and social efficiency
Does Financial Reform Raise or Reduce Saving
ServŽn for useful suggestions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. DOES FINANCIAL REFORM RAISE OR REDUCE SAVING? By Oriana Bandiera*, Gerard Caprio Jr.**, Patrick Honohan* * and Fabio Schiantarelli* (*Boston College, **World Bank) The effect of financial libe…
Land Reform, the Market for Protection, and the Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: Theory and Evidence
Historical records show that the Sicilian mafia developed to protect land from predatory attacks at a time when publicly provided security was scarce and banditry widespread. Using a common-agency model, this article shows that (i) it is optimal for each landowner to voluntarily buy protection even if this results in a worse equilibrium for the landowning class and (ii) all things equal, mafia profits are higher where land is more fragmented. The…
Private enforcement and social efficiency
Social Networks and Technology Adoption in Northern Mozambique
Despite their potentially strong impact on poverty, agricultural innovations are often adopted slowly. Using a unique household dataset on sunflower adoption in Mozambique, we analyse whether and how individual adoption decisions depend upon the choices of others in the same social networks. Since farmers anticipate that they will share information with others, we expect farmers to be more likely to adopt when they know many other adopters. Dynam…
Active and Passive Waste in Government Spending: Evidence from a Policy Experiment
We propose a distinction between active and passive waste as determinants of the cost of public services. Active waste entails utility for the public decision maker, whereas passive waste does not. We analyze purchases of standardized goods by Italian public bodies and exploit a policy experiment associated with a national procurement agency. We find that: (i) some public bodies pay systematically more than others for equivalent goods; (ii) diffe…
Social Incentives in the Workplace
We present evidence on social incentives in the workplace, namely on whether workers' behaviour is affected by the presence of those they are socially tied to, even in settings where there are no externalities among workers due to either the production technology or the compensation scheme in place. To do so, we combine data on individual worker productivity from a firm's personnel records with information on each worker's social network of frien…
Heterogeneous Class Size Effects: New Evidence from a Panel of University Students
Using administrative records from a UK university, we present evidence on the effects of class size on students' test scores. We estimate non-linear class size effects controlling for unobserved heterogeneity of students and faculty. We find that: ("i") at the average class size, the effect size is - 0.108; ("ii") the effect size is negative and significant only for the smallest and largest ranges of class sizes and zero in intermediate class siz…
Field Experiments with Firms
We discuss how the use of field experiments sheds light on long-standing research questions relating to firm behavior. We present insights from two classes of experiments-within and across firms-and draw common lessons from both sets. Field experiments within firms generally aim to shed light on the nature of agency problems. Along these lines, we discuss how field experiments have provided new insights on shirking behavior and the provision of m…
The Making of Modern America: Migratory Flows in the Age of Mass Migration
Labor Markets and Poverty in Village Economies
We study how women's choices over labor activities in village economies correlate with poverty and whether enabling the poorest women to take on the activities of their richer counterparts can set them on a sustainable trajectory out of poverty. To do this we conduct a large-scale randomized control trial, covering over 21,000 households in 1,309 villages surveyed four times over a seven-year period, to evaluate a nationwide program in Bangladesh…
CEO Behavior and Firm Performance
We develop a new method to measure CEO behavior in large samples via a survey that collects high-frequency, high-dimensional diary data and a machine learning algorithm that estimates behavioral types. Applying this method to 1,114 CEOs in six countries reveals two types: “leaders,” who do multifunction, high-level meetings, and “managers,” who do individual meetings with core functions. Firms that hire leaders perform better, and it takes three …
Nation-building Through Compulsory Schooling during the Age of Mass Migration
Why did America introduce compulsory schooling laws at a time when financial investments in education and voluntary school attendance were high? We provide qualitative and quantitative evidence that states adopted compulsory schooling laws as a nation-building tool to instil civic values to the culturally diverse migrants during the ‘Age of Mass Migration’ between 1850 and 1914. We show the adoption of compulsory schooling laws occurred significa…
Microfinance and Diversification
The bulk of the world's extreme poor work in subsistence agriculture. Diversification out of this activity is often seen as the sine qua non of economic development. We evaluate whether the roll‐out of a mainstay development intervention—microfinance—into poor, agricultural and largely unbanked populations in rural Uganda helps borrowers to diversify into non‐agricultural labour activities. The new microfinance product is targeted to women, and d…
Men are from Mars, and Women Too: A Bayesian Meta‐analysis of Overconfidence Experiments
Gender differences in self‐confidence could explain women's under‐representation in high‐income occupations and glass‐ceiling effects. We draw lessons from the economic literature via a survey of experts and a Bayesian hierarchical model that aggregates experimental findings over the last 20 years. The experts’ survey indicates beliefs that men are overconfident and women underconfident. Yet the literature reveals that both men and women are typi…
Young Adults and Labor Markets in Africa
Every year, millions of young adults join the labor market in Africa. This paper harmonizes surveys and censuses from 68 low- and middle-income countries to compare their job prospects to those of their counterparts in other low-income regions. We show that employment rates are similar at similar levels of development but that young adults in Africa are less likely to have a salaried job, especially when the size of their cohort is large. Buildin…
The Search for Good Jobs: Evidence from a Six-Year Field Experiment in Uganda
There are 420 million young people in Africa today, and only one in three has a regular salaried job. We study how two common labor market interventions—vocational training and matching—affect the job search behavior of young workers. We do so by means of a field experiment tracking young job seekers for 6 years in Uganda’s main cities. Vocational training amplifies the job seekers’ initial optimism, leading them to search more intensively and to…
Economics (14 works) · Business (8 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Economic growth (5 works) · Geography (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Finance (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Demographic economics (3 works) · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics (3 works)