Khandker Wahedur Rahman [Wahed]

I originally thought this was about econometrics.

A remedial education program in India worked well when teachers were given strict implementation guidelines. It worked just as well when teachers had discretion to adapt. www.nber.org/papers/w33242 by Beg, @annefitz13.bsky.social, @jkerwin.bsky.social, @profalucas.bsky.social, & @kwrahman.com

Screen shot of title page from NBER website. When Given Discretion Teachers Did Not Shirk: Evidence from Remedial Education in Secondary Schools Sabrin A. Beg, Anne E. Fitzpatrick, Jason T. Kerwin, Adrienne Lucas & Khandker Wahedur Rahman Working Paper 33242 DOI 10.3386/w33242 Issue Date December 2024 Public-sector organizations face a tradeoff: allowing workers discretion at the point of service to adapt to local needs, versus rigid harmonization to ensure uniform service delivery. We examine this tradeoff in the context of secondary schools in Odisha, India, where the centrally set curriculum is nearly 4 grades above the learning levels of the mean student. We conduct a randomized intervention that assigned schools to either a rigid or a flexible version of a remedial learning intervention that displaced the curriculum. We compare learning outcomes and teaching quality to the status quo. Both interventions increased learning by 0.11SD, about 60 percent of a year of learning, with gains throughout the learning distribution. We find no crowd-out of grade-level mastery, and no change in the likelihood of earning passing Board Marks one year later. Discretion did not lower the quality of implementation or induce shirking. Allowing teachers flexibility to adjust classroom content to student needs was beneficial and had limited downsides.

New @nberpubs.bsky.social working paper: "When Given Discretion Teachers Did Not Shirk: Evidence from Remedial Education in Secondary Schools" with #SabrinBeg @annefitz13.bsky.social @jkerwin.bsky.social @kwrahman.com

Title summarizes it. We elaborate in the paper: www.nber.org/papers/w33242

A few weeks ago, I spoke on a panel about publishing at the CSWEP’s CeMENT workshop. I wanted to briefly share some of that advice here.

#EconSky

+1 please. Thanks.

Hope you read, share, cite. Here is the open-access link to the paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ec... (14/14)

We thank handling editor Audra Bowlus, anonymous referees, and colleagues whose constructive comments helped us improve the paper. We also thank my excellent research associates Raied Arman & Farhana Kabir. (13/14)

We are also grateful to the WEE-DiFine initiative of BIGD. This project was a derivative of a separate project funded by them. (Check out ongoing RFPs of WEE-DiFine and WEE-Connect: bigd.bracu.ac.bd/all-projects/) (12/14)

Regression or population parameter estimates without accounting for statement framing might be biased and the researcher will have no way of addressing this bias. Randomizing statement framing allows credible estimation of bounds (a la partial identification). (11/14)

Researchers can also estimate population parameters as bounds. They can report the mean value of each statement by different framing and report the bound on the value of the parameter. (10/14)

Researchers can control statement framing in regression. Interaction with covariates allows obtaining two estimates of the relationship between a variable of interest and an attitude measure. These two estimates can be used as bounds on the correlation of interest. (9/14)

If all respondents receive the same framing, framing effects become a systematic feature of the data and cannot be accounted for in any analysis. To limit this systematic bias, we propose that future surveys randomize the framing of statements across respondents. (8/14)

We show that the conditional mean of each aggregated index for HH heads is significantly different between treatment and control groups. For PCA, not only does the magnitude vary, but also the sign switches. We find similar results using education status as a covariate. (7/14)

Building on Dunsch et al. (2018), we demonstrate the possible consequences of framing effects using two commonly used standard techniques of aggregating multiple responses: (i) Kling index (ii) PCA. (6/14)

Like Dunch et al (2018), we find a significant framing effect: responses vary |7| to |21| pp for the same statements between different framings. Framing effects persist among both positively and negatively framed questions. (5/14)

We randomly ask one of the two versions of the module: in one version, the first three statements are positively framed, and the following three are negatively framed, and vice versa in the second version. (4/14)

We build on this work and show that even with mixing the framing of statements there remains a significant framing effect. In a baseline survey of a study on mobile money, we ask respondents six statements to measure their attitudes towards mobile money. (3/14)

Asking “Is X easy to use” and “Is X not difficult to use” do not yield symmetric results. Dunch et al (2018) show that framing affects responses and suggest mitigating what they call “acquiescence bias” by mixing statement framing. (2/14)

🚨 New Publication 🚨

Happy to announce that @jeffbloem.bsky.social and my paper, “What I say depends on how you ask: Experimental evidence of the effect of framing on the measurement of attitudes” is published in Economics Letters.

Does framing matter when measuring attitudes?

Yes.

🧵 (1/14)

How do small formal and informal firms in Egypt compare? An analysis of firm characteristics and implications for formalization efforts Formalizing firms can potentially increase the tax base, expand safety and social protections for workers, create good jobs, and promote firm growth. However, the costs and processes of formality may....

📣 New paper! "How do small formal and informal firms in Egypt compare? An analysis of firm characteristics and implications for formalization efforts" w/ @raguiassaad.bsky.social @kwrahman.bsky.social and Maakwe Cumanzala in Review of Development Economics #Econsky #menasky

doi.org/10.1111/rode...

Save Farhan, a 29-Year-Old Battling Stage 4 Cancer, organized by SIFAT AHMED KHAN Farhan Bin Liaquat, at the age of 29, stands as a beacon of hope a… SIFAT AHMED KHAN needs your support for Save Farhan, a 29-Year-Old Battling Stage 4 Cancer

Farhan is a dear junior from my school and college (i.e., high school). Farhan is battling vicious stage 4 stomach cancer (adenocarcinoma) and requires financial support for treatment. Kindly requesting to donate whatever you can afford 🙏
gofund.me/fdb346db

🚨🚨This is now available online. 👇👇 #EconSky 📉📈

authors.elsevier.com/c/1hy1X15DRG...

Hawthorne effects

www.thefarside.com/2023/10/24/3

Econometric Thread (#EconSky): Today, I will briefly discuss a few recent papers expanding the synthetic control method (SCM). I will talk about three WPss: Abadie + L'Hour (2019), Grossi, Lattarulo, Mariani, Mattei + Oner (2020); Cao + Dowd (2019) and Cattaneo, Feng, Palomba +Titiunik (2023).

I guess I should re-post from the Bird Site "The Rules For Academic Success here":

I always get asked for advice about starting/surviving the tenure track. Here are the rules I've found useful. Thought I'd put it out there for the masses...

This list gets longer all the time

Just a general rule of life that I keep reminding myself 👇👇👇

Here are 25+ journals where economists publish review papers. bit.ly/3QfaE6m

Here are 50+ journals where economists publish short papers. bit.ly/36qNVfn The list includes examples and my experience with each journal.

Make your axis labels horizontal so people can read them. There’s no excuse anymore, it’s 2023.