By Edoardo Ardito, LEAP Intern Within the various fields of Economics, scholars are often confronted with the challenge of translating the complex and sometimes blurry reality of human behaviour into elegant models and assumptions, or into datasets and observable variables. This is often not an easy job: picture for example ability, or motivation. Labor economics’ models largely study how the interplay of these variables can affect productivity and other labor market outcomes, or what role they play in defining the returns to human capital investments such as university education. But how thes ..read more

by Michele Salatino Introduction When I applied for the internship program at the Laboratory for Effective Anti-Poverty Policies, this summer, I was looking for an opportunity to gain useful experience on the field of research. In particular, my main goals were to improve my data management skills, using softwares such as Stata or R, while at the same time learning from my mentor how to conduct a proper research project in a rigorous way. Little did I know that, after being selected, I would have been given the opportunity to contribute to the realization of a research project in the place whe ..read more

Classic economic theory rests on two main assumptions about human behavior: people want to get as much as possible for themselves (self-interest), and are quite clever in getting what they want (rationality). Given that standard models leave little or no room for prosocial motivations, one might be tempted to conclude that economics does not have much to say about it and it would be better stop reading and just go for a more interesting post. Bear with me a few lines more. In real life, people commonly engage in prosocial activities, meaning actions that are costly to themselves and mostly ben ..read more

by Cécile Pierre In January 2022 I started working as RA and Field Coordinator for Prof. Lucia Corno, on the Project Breast-Ironing Breastfeeding and Child Mortality. This study investigates a harmful tradition common in Cameroon called “Breast Ironing”. It is a traditional practice that involves scarifying, massaging or pressing the breast of adolescent girls and is usually performed by close relatives such as mothers, grandmothers and aunts in order to reverse and thwart the development of the breast. As part of this position, I moved to Yaoundé, Cameroun for 6 months. My job was to set up a ..read more

During the last two months, as a LEAP student, I had the privilege to follow the first steps of the project Peers in Action in Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso. The project’s aim is to study the impact of peer pressure in changing attitudes towards harmful traditional practices among adolescent girls, with a specifical focus on female genital mutilations (FGM) and child marriage. The intervention, which will start in September 2022, is in partnership with the local branch of the NGO Children Believe, who will be in charge of setting up girls’ clubs, in order to create a safe space ..read more

By Raffaella Dimastrochicco Aspiration trap There is large evidence in the literature that low aspirations are a common issue among people coming from fragile socio-economic backgrounds. This tendency to under-aspire is detrimental for poor people, as it prevents them from investing in education and ultimately condemns them to lower wages, thereby reinforcing their poverty status (Appadurai, 2004; Ray, 2006; La Ferrara, 2019). Several interventions have been tested and implemented to break this vicious circle – known as “aspiration trap” – and increase aspirations, which range from organizing ..read more

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent worldwide even when measures of gender disparity are considered. For example, despite Denmark having the second-lowest Gender Inequality Index score in the UNDP ranking, IPV is still prevalent: in 2014, national rates were not distinctly different from global proportions of 1/3 (FRA, 2014). Immigrant women disproportionately composed this statistic. While only 11.8% of women were classified as immigrants nationally, 42% of women’s shelter stays were non-Danish in 2019 (LOKK, 2020). In March 2021, we are awarded the LEAP student grant to explore thes ..read more

By Sveva Vitellozzi In March 2021 I was awarded with the LEAP Student Grant to conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment in Kenya, with the aim of assessing the impact of women’s mental load on cognitive functions and labor productivity. The idea for this experiment came during my first year of Ph.D. during the class on Behavioral and Experimental Economics while we were asked to write a research proposal of a hypothetical lab experiment. Throughout this course, we talked about the strand of academic literature on the “psychology of poverty”, according to which poverty reduces cognitive functions ..read more

By Fabrizio Cabrera Last winter, I did an internship at the Fundación Paraguaya, where I collaborated within the department of research and methodology. My role was to support the senior researcher Katharina Hammler, with quantitative and qualitative analysis in order to write a report on the preliminary evaluation findings of an ongoing study: the “add-on” impact of the Poverty Stoplight (PS) program for Fundación Paraguaya’s microfinance clients. The PS program The Poverty Stoplight (PS) is an interactive survey and coaching model that complements Fundación Paraguaya’s microfinance ..read more

By Gaia Gaudenzi There is evidence around the world (two examples here and here) telling us that COVID-19 and the decision to close schools during the lockdown had negative effects on pupils’ educational attainments and well-being. In most cases, students who are in “cognitive” educational poverty (meaning that they are not achieving minimum proficiency levels in math and reading) come from socio-economically and culturally disadvantaged backgrounds (For more information and data about educational poverty in Italy, please the Save The Children’s report here). The program: The Tutoring Online P ..read more