BREAD Working Paper No. 593, July 2021

Machine Learning and Mobile Phone Data Can Improve the Targeting of Humanitarian Assistance Emily Aiken, Suzanne Bellue, Dean Karlan, Chris Udry, Joshua Blumenstock Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), causing widespread food insecurity and a sharp decline in living standards. In response to this crisis, governments and humanitarian organizations […]

BREAD Working Paper No. 518, July 2017

Why Do Defaults Affect Behavior? Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan Joshua Blumenstock, Michael Callen, Tarek Ghani Abstract We report on an experiment examining why default options impact behavior. Working with one of the largest private firms in Afghanistan, we randomly assigned each of 949 employees to different variants of a new default savings account. Employees assigned […]