Essays in Development and Health Economics
Dissertation
Datum der mündl. Prüfung:2022-11-14
Erschienen:2023-03-06
Betreuer:Prof. Dr. Sebastian Vollmer
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Janina Steinert
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Krisztina Kis-Katos
Dateien
Name:Dissertation_Bogler.pdf
Size:2.36Mb
Format:PDF
Zusammenfassung
Englisch
This dissertation consists of four essays, which are all based on primary data. In the first essay, we describe and attempt to explain the state and functionality of pre-schools (Anganwadi Centres) in Bihar, India. We find an overall very low level of functionality and considerable heterogeneity. The second essay is based in the same setting as the first. We introduced a new method of iron supplementation to a sub-set of functional Anganwadi Centres and evaluated this intervention with a randomized controlled trial with two treatment arms. We measure the success of the intervention with several outcomes proxying knowledge and use of the new iron supplementation method. We find that even fourteen months after implementation, a large share of workers in Anganwadi Centres remembered the method and could explain how it is used. However, indication of actual usage of the method was very low. In the third essay, we use list experiments to measure sensitivity bias in questions on health behaviour and health among an adult population in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Additionally, we analyse heterogeneities in sensitivity bias across demographic characteristics of respondents. We find that sensitivity bias is present in some of the outcomes, but not all. The bias also varies across subgroups, especially between men and women. In the last essay, we measure the skill gap between formal and informal mathematics among primary school pupils in Sokoto, Nigeria. We find that a considerable share of children is not able to solve tasks of addition and subtraction when presented in a formal standard way, but able to solve similar but even more complex tasks when presented in an informal way, as a market transaction. This skill gap is partly explained by children engaging in market activities.
Keywords: development economics; iron supplementation; RCT; India; Nigeria; list experiments; sensitivity bias; informal mathematics; skill gap in mathematics; Anganwadi