SOCIAL IDENTITY AND MANIPULATIVE INTERHOUSEHOLD TRANSFERS AMONG EAST AFRICAN PASTORALISTS

We model interhousehold transfers between nomadic livestock herders as the state-dependent consequence of individuals' strategic interdependence resulting from the existence of multiple, opposing externalities. A public good security externality among individuals sharing a social (e.g., ethnic) identity in a potentially hostile environment creates incentives to band together. Self-interested interhousehold wealth transfers from wealthier herders to poorer ones may emerge endogenously within a limited wealth space as a means to motivate accompanying migration by the recipient. The distributional reach and size of the transfer are limited, however, by a resource appropriation externality related to the use of common property grazing lands. When this effect dominates, it can induce distributionally regressive transfers from ex ante poor households who want to relieve grazing pressures caused by larger herds. As compared to the extant literature on transfers, our model appears more consistent with the limited available empirical evidence on heterogeneous and changing transfers patterns among east African pastoralists.Agribusiness, D, O, Q18,

Social enterprises, an economic force for building more inclusive societies? Evidence from the SEFORЇS study

Social enterprises are organisations that act entrepreneurially through generating revenues from the sales of products or services and that have a primary social mission. Many see social enterprises as having transformative economic and societal impacts, particularly towards the creation of more inclusive societies. Yet others have more negative, sceptical views. To date this debate is surprisingly uninformed by high-quality evidence from a cross-country perspective. This policy brief presents insights into the scale and scope of social enterprises based on the SEFORЇS study - the worldwide largest panel study of social enterprises. The SEFORЇS study is unique in that it provides in-depth, rigorous data and on representative samples of over 1000 social enterprises in seven EU countries (Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom), as well as China and Russia. Drawing on this unique database, this policy brief focusses on insights into: (1) The economic significance of social enterprises by mapping key indicators such as their revenues, surpluses/profits, productivity, employment generation and growth expectations, and (2) Social enterprises’ contributions towards social inclusion by charting indicators such as who social enterprises support, the number of beneficiaries, the scope of employment opportunities they facilitate access to for their beneficiaries, as well as the number of volunteering opportunities they provide

How do people value extended warranties ? evidence from two field surveys

Extended warranties are popular but expensive. This paper examines how consumers valuethese warranties, and asks whether economic considerations alone can account for their popularity. Results from two field surveys show that consumers greatly overestimate both thelikelihood and the cost of product breakdown. However, these biases alone do not explain their willingness to buy them. In fact, we find evidence of probability neglect, in whichwarranty purchase decision depends on the magnitude of the possible consequences of nothaving insurance and not on the probability of having to suffer these consequences. Theexpected emotional benefits ("peace of mind") from having a warranty was the best predictorof purchase decision and willingness to pay. We also found that people with higher numeracyand cognitive skills are less likely to overestimate the economic determinants of warrantyvalue, yet are still highly influenced by emotional considerations when deciding whether topurchase a warranty. We conclude by arguing that consumer welfare could be improved byincreasing the competitive intensity in the market for warranties

Probiotic interventions to optimize the infant and child microbiota

The optimal healthy microbiota during early life still needs further evaluation. Pre- and probiotics are commonly used as supplementation in infant formula. Prebiotic oligosaccharides stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria aiming to mimic the gastrointestinal microbiota of breastfed infants. In general, results with prebiotics in therapeutic indications are disappointing. Studies suggest that probiotic supplementation may be beneficial in prevention and management of disease such as e.g., reducing the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants, prevention and treatment of acute gastroenteritis in infants, etc. Although many studies show promising beneficial effects, the long-term health benefits and eventual  risks of probiotic supplementation during early life are not clear. It is likely that ongoing research will result in the use of specific probiotic organisms and/or prebiotic oligosaccharides during the first 1,000 days of life, with the goal to develop a healthy microbiota from conception over birth into the first two years of life with a lowered risk of infections and inflammatory events

SEFORIS Country Report - Social Enterprises in the United Kingdom

This country report shares first insights from the World's Largest Panel Study of Social Enterprises for the United Kingdom. It captures the behavior and characteristics of a representative sample of UK social enterprises who are employers. The report covers a range of topics from profiling social enterprise directors and their social enterprises, to innovation activities and barriers, their entrepreneurial orientation, social missions, social impact metrics to summarizing policy recommendations that social entrepreneurs would like to see being implemented. Who should read this report? The report is written for social enterprises, social enterprises support organisations and policy makers who want to get an overview of social enterprise in the UK. Thank you to all the social entrepreneurs who made this report possible by participating in our study

How Do Nascent Social Entrepreneurs Respond to Rewards? A Field Experiment on Motivations in a Grant Competition

We conducted a field experiment to identify the causal effect of extrinsic reward cues on the sorting and performance of nascent social entrepreneurs. The experiment, carried out with one of the United Kingdom’s largest support agencies for social entrepreneurs, encouraged 431 nascent social entrepreneurs to submit a full application for a grant competition that provides cash and in-kind mentoring through a one-time mailing sent by the agency. The applicants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: one group received a standard mailing that emphasized the intrinsic incentives of the program, or the opportunity to do good (Social treatment), and the other two groups received a mailing that instead emphasized the extrinsic incentives - either the financial reward (Cash treatment) or the in-kind reward (Support treatment). Our results show that an emphasis on extrinsic incentives has a causal impact on sorting into the applicant pool: the extrinsic reward cues led fewer candidates to apply and “crowded out” the more prosocial candidates while “crowding in” the more money-oriented ones. The extrinsic reward cues also increased application effort, which led these candidates to be more successful in receiving the grant. Yet, the selection resulting from the extrinsic incentive cues led to worse performance at the end of the one-year grant period. Our results highlight the critical role of intrinsic motives in the selection and performance of social enterprises and suggest that using extrinsic incentives to promote the development of successful social enterprises may backfire in the longer run

Financial contracting with non-governmental organizations

This dissertation investigates how specific design choices or procedural rules that govern the contracting environment between government and non-governmental organizations affect organizational behaviour and contractual outcomes. Chapter 1 studies government procurement of a public good or service when only nonprofits compete. Theoretically, I find that the intensity of the ideological divide between government and nonprofits jointly impact the degree to which compromises are made in terms of both the public's and nonprofit's missions, as well as the ability on the part of government to reap double (cost-saving and strategic) financial gains. Chapter 2 analyses government procurement of specific development aid services via competitive scoring auctions, open to nonprofits and for-profits alike. Consistent with the theoretical predictions, I find robust empirical evidence that ex post renegotiation costs as well as initial price offers will tend to be higher when the agent is a for-profit compared to when the agent is a nonprofit; at the same time, the initial offers of for-profits will on average adhere better to the government's service delivery instructions compared to those of nonprofits. Furthermore, because nonprofits intrinsically value project outcomes, they will at times be able to offer government a better deal; at the same time, this distinct feature of nonprofits also gives them a competitive disadvantage when government holds strong views about how the services should be provided and finds it important that the agent does what it says. Finally, Chapter 3 shifts attention to the actual grant contracting procedures used by government (and other grant-making institutions) to finance nonprofits' initiatives to provide a public good or service. I focus on how asymmetric information impacts nonprofits' behaviour in markets for individual grant contracts. Theoretically, I make explicit the argument that hidden types may be associated with excessive grant requesting, and demonstrate how a collective contracting mechanism can essentially alleviate grant market failures due to adverse selection