Jason T Kerwin
Biographic Data
| ID | 5734388 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jason T Kerwin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jason T |
| FAMILY NAME | Kerwin |
| SIGNATURE | KERWIN J T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Minnesota |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3576-2833 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 6 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 6 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Scared Straight or Scared to Death? Fatalism in Response to Disease Risks
This paper shows that responses to disease risks can be ‘fatalistic’: higher risk beliefs can lead to more risk-taking rather than less. Intuitively, this can occur because high risk beliefs raise not only the chance of contracting the disease (which raises the marginal cost of risk-taking), but also the perceived chance that you are already infected (which lowers the marginal cost). I test for fatalism by randomly providing information about the…
Healthcare Appointments as Commitment Devices
We show that ordinary appointments can act as effective substitutes for hard commitment devices and increase demand for a critical healthcare service, particularly among those with self-control problems. We show this using an experiment that randomly offered HIV testing appointments and hard commitment devices to high-risk men in Malawi. Appointments more than double testing rates, with effects concentrated among those who demand commitment. In c…
Making the Grade
This paper demonstrates the acute sensitivity of education program effectiveness to the choices of inputs and outcome measures, using a randomized evaluation of a mother-tongue literacy program. The program raises reading scores by 0.64 SD and writing scores by 0.45 SD. A reduced-cost version instead yields statistically insignificant reading gains and some large negative effects (−0.33 SDs) on advanced writing. We combine a conceptual model of e…
You Know What I Know
Directly eliciting individuals' subjective beliefs via surveys is increasingly popular in social science research, but doing so via face-to-face surveys has an important downside: the interviewer's knowledge of the topic may spill over onto the respondent's recorded beliefs. Using a randomized experiment that used interviewers to implement an information treatment, we show that reported beliefs are significantly shifted by interviewer knowledge. …
Income timing and liquidity constraints
Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Oral Sex Among Rural and Urban Malawian Men
Objectives: Despite medical evidence that female-to-male oral sex (fellatio) carries a lower risk for HIV transmission than unprotected vaginal intercourse, little research exists on the practice of fellatio in Africa. The objective of this study was to document the prevalence of oral sex in Malawi, and to provide the first evidence on factors associated with the practice in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: We used two samples of men from Malawi—one …
Scared Straight or Scared to Death? Fatalism in Response to Disease Risks
This paper shows that responses to disease risks can be ‘fatalistic’: higher risk beliefs can lead to more risk-taking rather than less. Intuitively, this can occur because high risk beliefs raise not only the chance of contracting the disease (which raises the marginal cost of risk-taking), but also the perceived chance that you are already infected (which lowers the marginal cost). I test for fatalism by randomly providing information about the…
You Know What I Know
Directly eliciting individuals' subjective beliefs via surveys is increasingly popular in social science research, but doing so via face-to-face surveys has an important downside: the interviewer's knowledge of the topic may spill over onto the respondent's recorded beliefs. Using a randomized experiment that used interviewers to implement an information treatment, we show that reported beliefs are significantly shifted by interviewer knowledge. …
Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Oral Sex Among Rural and Urban Malawian Men
Objectives: Despite medical evidence that female-to-male oral sex (fellatio) carries a lower risk for HIV transmission than unprotected vaginal intercourse, little research exists on the practice of fellatio in Africa. The objective of this study was to document the prevalence of oral sex in Malawi, and to provide the first evidence on factors associated with the practice in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: We used two samples of men from Malawi—one …
Income timing and liquidity constraints
Making the Grade
This paper demonstrates the acute sensitivity of education program effectiveness to the choices of inputs and outcome measures, using a randomized evaluation of a mother-tongue literacy program. The program raises reading scores by 0.64 SD and writing scores by 0.45 SD. A reduced-cost version instead yields statistically insignificant reading gains and some large negative effects (−0.33 SDs) on advanced writing. We combine a conceptual model of e…
You Know What I Know
Directly eliciting individuals' subjective beliefs via surveys is increasingly popular in social science research, but doing so via face-to-face surveys has an important downside: the interviewer's knowledge of the topic may spill over onto the respondent's recorded beliefs. Using a randomized experiment that used interviewers to implement an information treatment, we show that reported beliefs are significantly shifted by interviewer knowledge. …
Healthcare Appointments as Commitment Devices
We show that ordinary appointments can act as effective substitutes for hard commitment devices and increase demand for a critical healthcare service, particularly among those with self-control problems. We show this using an experiment that randomly offered HIV testing appointments and hard commitment devices to high-risk men in Malawi. Appointments more than double testing rates, with effects concentrated among those who demand commitment. In c…
Scared Straight or Scared to Death? Fatalism in Response to Disease Risks
This paper shows that responses to disease risks can be ‘fatalistic’: higher risk beliefs can lead to more risk-taking rather than less. Intuitively, this can occur because high risk beliefs raise not only the chance of contracting the disease (which raises the marginal cost of risk-taking), but also the perceived chance that you are already infected (which lowers the marginal cost). I test for fatalism by randomly providing information about the…
Economics (3 works) · Medicine (3 works) · Psychology (3 works) · Computer Science (2 works) · Economic growth (2 works) · Family medicine (2 works) · Actuarial science (1 work) · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (1 work) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (1 work) · Business (1 work)