Data and Code for: RATIONAL HABIT FORMATION: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM HANDWASHING IN INDIA

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Reshmaan Hussam, Harvard Business School; Natalia Rigol, Harvard Business School; Giovanni Reggiani, Weiss Asset Management; Atonu Rabbani, Dhaka University

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
STATA REPLICATION			10/09/2020 02:20:PM
Handwashing Latex Files.zip	application/zip	8.7 MB	10/09/2020 09:32:AM
README_Stata Code.pdf	application/pdf	84.6 KB	10/09/2020 12:01:PM
STATA REPLICATION.zip	application/zip	454.8 MB	10/09/2020 11:32:AM

Project Citation:

Hussam, Reshmaan, Rigol, Natalia, Reggiani, Giovanni, and Rabbani, Atonu. Data and Code for: RATIONAL HABIT FORMATION: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM HANDWASHING IN INDIA. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2021. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-12-17. https://doi.org/10.3886/E117401V1

Project Description

Summary:

We test the predictions of the rational addiction model, reconceptualized as rational habit formation, in the context of handwashing in rural India. To track handwashing, we design soap dispensers with timed sensors. We test for rational habit formation by informing some households about a future change in the returns to daily handwashing. Monitoring and incentives raise handwashing contemporaneously, and effects persist well after they end. In addition, people are rational about this habit formation: when they anticipate future monitoring, they increase their current handwashing. Average child weight and height increase for all study arms given soap dispensers.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Rational addiction; public health ; handwashing; habit formation

JEL Classification:
      D04 Microeconomic Policy: Formulation, Implementation, and Evaluation
      D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
      D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
      I12 Health Behavior

Geographic Coverage: West Bengal, India

Time Period(s): 2015 – 2016

Methodology

Response Rate: Response rates vary by data type and over time (baseline data, biweekly data, midline data, and daily handwashing dispenser data): specified within text

Sampling: Initial sample provided by partner organization (households who had participated in earlier programs): this sample was then restricted to those households with children under 60 months at baseline. This sample was randomized into several treatment arms as specified in the paper.

Data Source:
Varies by collection method: household self reports, enumerator measures of child anthropometric health, and handwashing dispenser data

Unit(s) of Observation: Household (with female head of household respondent), Child

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Published Versions

V1 [2021-12-17]

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