Research

Abstract
We study how the structure of tournament incentive schemes in education can influence the level and distribution of student outcomes. Through a field experiment among upper-primary students in Malawi, we evaluate two scholarship programs: a Population-based scholarship that rewarded overall top performers on an exam and a Bin-based scholarship that rewarded the top performers within smaller groups of students with similar baseline scores. We find that the Population-based scholarship decreased test scores and motivation to study, especially for those least likely to win. By contrast, we find no evidence for test score impacts among those in the Bin-based scholarship program.

Abstract
We describe a unique environment in which undergraduate students from various STEM and social science disciplines are trained in data provenance and reproducible methods, and then apply that knowledge to real, conditionally accepted manuscripts and associated replication packages. We describe in detail the recruitment, training, and regular activities. While the activity is not part of a regular curriculum, the skills and knowledge taught through explicit training of reproducible methods and principles, and reinforced through repeated application in a real-life workflow, contribute to the education of these undergraduate students, and prepare them for post-graduation jobs and further studies. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

Abstract
Violent conflict has enduring effects on child health, but the speed at which these effects manifest is not fully understood. This study investigates the immediate effects of deteriorating security environment caused by foreign-borne insurgent terrorism on children’s health, using data from a decade before to shortly after the Nigerian Boko Haram insurgency extended across the border to Cameroon. Boko Haram at- tacks decrease weight for-height for children under five – an indicator of short-term health and nutrition – within an average of 2.6 months after the attacks. This effect is likely driven by a reduction in healthcare service utilization, which can exacerbate the prevalence and the severity of conditions such as fever and diarrhea. However, the attacks do not affect dietary diversity or child mortality. The results underscore the importance of maintaining healthcare service accessibility following the eruption of violence to prevent irreversible impacts, a concern that is increasingly relevant for countries combating the infiltration of foreign terrorists.

Abstract
Adverse weather shocks disrupt human capital investment in low-income families in developing countries, but the effectiveness of formal insurance in mitigating this is underexplored. This paper investigates how index-based microinsurance affects children’s engagement in work and schooling, employing randomized premium discounts for the Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) program as instrumental variables for insurance uptake. I find that insured pastoral households shift children’s activity from work to schooling during non-drought periods, and less likely to increase children’s work during droughts. Moreover, there are heterogeneous impacts across age, birth order, and gender, with insurance increasing full-time work among first-born and older children during non-drought periods, while mitigating adverse effects of droughts, particularly for girls. These shifts in children’s activities are largely influenced by increased herd mobility and size, as well as investments in livestock during non-drought periods.

Abstract
We study the long-run effects of catastrophic drought insurance on pastoralist households in Kenya and Ethiopia. Instrumenting with randomized premium discounts, we estimate the im- pacts of insurance coverage a decade later. Insurance induced households to herd fewer small livestock like goats, typically used as precautionary savings, and generated a significant in- crease in children’s education. These effects are driven by households with small baseline herds, reflecting reduced child labor demand, as well as by suggestive positive income effects. These impacts stem primarily from reduced ex ante</i> risk exposure and the behavioral change it induces, rather than from ex post indemnity payments.

Abstract
This study investigates the effect of a natural resource shock on child labor using the opening dates and the location of the industrial gold mines in Mali. Unlike other papers that show mines increase children’s work, I find that the opening of mines decreases children’s work, specifically the working hours for household tasks while it does not affect the school enrollments. The effects were heterogeneous by age and birth order. I claim that my results stem from the income effects of the mines dominating the substitution effects by presenting the evidence on the adults’ employment and occupational choices.