The Experts below are selected from a list of 122070 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Robert A Blair - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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engineering informal institutions long run impacts of alternative dispute resolution on violence and property rights in liberia
National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018Co-Authors: Alexandra Hartman, Christopher Blattman, Robert A BlairAbstract:Informal institutions govern property rights and disputes when formal systems are weak. Well-functioning institutions should help people reach and maintain bargains, minimizing violence. Can outside organizations engineer improvements and reduce violent conflicts? Will this improve property rights and investment? We experimentally evaluate a UN and civil society Mass Education campaign to promote alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practices and norms in rural communities, where violent land disputes are common. Prior work showed a fall in violence and unresolved disputes within one year. We return after three years to test for sustained impacts and channels. Treated communities report large, sustained falls in violent disputes and a slight shift towards nonviolent norms. Treated residents also report larger farms, though overall effects on property rights and investments are mixed. Politically-connected residents report more secure property rights while those with fewer connections feel less secure. Sustained social engineering is feasible but politics shapes distributional outcomes.
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how to promote order and property rights under weak rule of law an experiment in changing dispute resolution behavior through community Education
American Political Science Review, 2014Co-Authors: Christopher Blattman, Alexandra Hartman, Robert A BlairAbstract:This brief summarizes the results of a gender impact evaluation study, entitled How to promote order and property rights under weak rule of law? : an experiment in changing dispute resolution behavior through community Education, conducted between 2009 and 2010 in Liberia. The study observed the impact of Mass Education campaigns in Liberia, where property disputes are endemic on the community level. In treated communities, land disputes are 29 percent less likely to remain unsolved at the end of the year and 32 percent less likely to result in property destruction. Disputants are 10 percent more satisfied with the outcomes. These effects are strongest among the most longstanding disputes. There are unintended consequences. There are large increases in informal extrajudicial punishment, and increases in fights, youth-elder disputes, and demonstration. These are mostly non-violent, and violent conflict decreases, but not in a statistically significant way. There is a non-significant positive impact on attitudes towards women's and minority rights. Funding for the study derived from the United Nations Peace Building Fund in Liberia, Humanity United, Yale University, and The World Bank's Italian Children and Youth Trust Fund.
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how to promote order and property rights under weak rule of law an experiment in changing dispute resolution behavior through community Education
2013Co-Authors: Christopher Blattman, Alexandra Hartman, Robert A BlairAbstract:Dispute resolution institutions help reach agreements and preserve the peace whenever property rights are imperfect. In weak states, strengthening formal institutions can take decades, and so state and aid interventions also try to shape informal practices and norms governing disputes. Their goal is to improve bargaining and commitment, thus limiting disputes and violence. Mass Education campaigns that promote alternative dispute resolution (ADR) are common examples. We study short-term impacts of one such campaign in Liberia, where property disputes are endemic. From 246 towns, 86 randomly received training in ADR practices and norms, training 15% of adults. One year later, treated towns have higher resolution of land disputes and lower violence. Impacts spill over to untrained residents. We also see unintended consequences: more extrajudicial punishment and (weakly) more non-violent disagreements. Results imply Mass Education can change high-stakes behaviors, and improving informal bargaining and en-forcement behavior can promote order in weak states.
Christopher Blattman - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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engineering informal institutions long run impacts of alternative dispute resolution on violence and property rights in liberia
National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018Co-Authors: Alexandra Hartman, Christopher Blattman, Robert A BlairAbstract:Informal institutions govern property rights and disputes when formal systems are weak. Well-functioning institutions should help people reach and maintain bargains, minimizing violence. Can outside organizations engineer improvements and reduce violent conflicts? Will this improve property rights and investment? We experimentally evaluate a UN and civil society Mass Education campaign to promote alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practices and norms in rural communities, where violent land disputes are common. Prior work showed a fall in violence and unresolved disputes within one year. We return after three years to test for sustained impacts and channels. Treated communities report large, sustained falls in violent disputes and a slight shift towards nonviolent norms. Treated residents also report larger farms, though overall effects on property rights and investments are mixed. Politically-connected residents report more secure property rights while those with fewer connections feel less secure. Sustained social engineering is feasible but politics shapes distributional outcomes.
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how to promote order and property rights under weak rule of law an experiment in changing dispute resolution behavior through community Education
American Political Science Review, 2014Co-Authors: Christopher Blattman, Alexandra Hartman, Robert A BlairAbstract:This brief summarizes the results of a gender impact evaluation study, entitled How to promote order and property rights under weak rule of law? : an experiment in changing dispute resolution behavior through community Education, conducted between 2009 and 2010 in Liberia. The study observed the impact of Mass Education campaigns in Liberia, where property disputes are endemic on the community level. In treated communities, land disputes are 29 percent less likely to remain unsolved at the end of the year and 32 percent less likely to result in property destruction. Disputants are 10 percent more satisfied with the outcomes. These effects are strongest among the most longstanding disputes. There are unintended consequences. There are large increases in informal extrajudicial punishment, and increases in fights, youth-elder disputes, and demonstration. These are mostly non-violent, and violent conflict decreases, but not in a statistically significant way. There is a non-significant positive impact on attitudes towards women's and minority rights. Funding for the study derived from the United Nations Peace Building Fund in Liberia, Humanity United, Yale University, and The World Bank's Italian Children and Youth Trust Fund.
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how to promote order and property rights under weak rule of law an experiment in changing dispute resolution behavior through community Education
2013Co-Authors: Christopher Blattman, Alexandra Hartman, Robert A BlairAbstract:Dispute resolution institutions help reach agreements and preserve the peace whenever property rights are imperfect. In weak states, strengthening formal institutions can take decades, and so state and aid interventions also try to shape informal practices and norms governing disputes. Their goal is to improve bargaining and commitment, thus limiting disputes and violence. Mass Education campaigns that promote alternative dispute resolution (ADR) are common examples. We study short-term impacts of one such campaign in Liberia, where property disputes are endemic. From 246 towns, 86 randomly received training in ADR practices and norms, training 15% of adults. One year later, treated towns have higher resolution of land disputes and lower violence. Impacts spill over to untrained residents. We also see unintended consequences: more extrajudicial punishment and (weakly) more non-violent disagreements. Results imply Mass Education can change high-stakes behaviors, and improving informal bargaining and en-forcement behavior can promote order in weak states.
David P Baker - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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The cognitive impact of the Education revolution: A possible cause of the Flynn Effect on population IQ
Intelligence, 2015Co-Authors: David P Baker, Martin Benavides, Nathan F Dieckmann, Ellen Peters, Paul J. Eslinger, Juan LeonAbstract:The phenomenon of rising IQ scores in high-income nations over the 20th century, known as the Flynn Effect, indicates historical increase in mental abilities related to planning, organization, working memory, integration of experience, spatial reasoning, unique problem-solving, and skills for goal-directed behaviors. Given prior research on the impact of formal Education on IQ, a three-tiered hypothesis positing that schooling, and its expansion and intensification over the Education revolution, is one likely cause of the Flynn Effect is tested in three studies. First, a neuroimaging experiment with children finds that neuromaturation is shaped by common activities in school, such as numeracy, and share a common neural substrate with fluid IQ abilities. Second, a field study with adults from insolated agrarian communities finds that variable exposure to schooling is associated with related variation in the mental abilities. Third, a historical-institutional analysis of the cognitive requirements of American mathematics curriculum finds a growing cognitive demand for birth cohorts from later in the 20th century. These findings suggest a consilience of evidence about the impact of Mass Education on the Flynn Effect and are discussed in light of the g-factor paradigm, cognition, and the Bell Curve debate.
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the schooled society the Educational transformation of global culture
2014Co-Authors: David P BakerAbstract:Only 150 years ago, the majority of the world's population was largely illiterate. Today, not only do most people over fifteen have basic reading and writing skills, but 20 percent of the population attends some form of higher Education. What are the effects of such radical, large-scale change? David Baker argues that the Education revolution has transformed our world into a schooled society-that is, a society that is actively created and defined by Education. Drawing on neo-institutionalism, The Schooled Society shows how Mass Education interjects itself and its ideologies into culture at large: from the dynamics of social mobility, to how we measure intelligence, to the values we promote. The proposition that Education is a primary rather than a "reactive" institution is then tested by examining the degree to which Education has influenced other large-scale social forces, such as the economy, politics, and religion. Rich, groundbreaking, and globally-oriented, The Schooled Society sheds light on how Mass Education has dramatically altered the face of society and human life.
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making citizens of the world the political socialization of youth in formal Mass Education systems
Compare, 2011Co-Authors: Alexander W. Wiseman, Fernanda M Astiz, Rodrigo Fabrega, David P BakerAbstract:Unique cross-national data on adolescents’ civic skills, knowledge, and political attitudes are used to examine the democratic processes of modern Mass schooling, effects of national political systems, and patterns of youth political socialization in 27 nations. Compared to the generally weak reported effects on mathematics and reading achievement, we find robust effects of schooling on youths’ civics knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Secondly, there is empirical support for the importance of a supra-national political culture, beyond that of unique national cultures, in the political socialization of youth. Lastly, there is evidence of an emerging common polity among youth across nations. The results extend notions of the institutional influence of Mass public schooling on the political socialization of youth.
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the Education effect on population health a reassessment
Population and Development Review, 2011Co-Authors: David P Baker, Juan Leon, Emily Smith Greenaway, John Collins, Marcela MovitAbstract:Within the demographic literature are numerous reports of consistent and significant associations between formal Educational attainment and individual health outcomes and risks such as mortality, smoking, drug abuse, and accidents, as well as the contraction of many diseases. The vast majority of these reports conclude that more highly educated individuals are healthier and live longer.1 This association is so prevalent that after an extensive survey of the health literature, Mirowsky and Ross (2003, p. 6) conclude, “Education has an enduring, consistent, and growing effect on health.” Macro demographic and development studies also identify a significant positive association between expanding Mass Education and population health; yet many, especially the earliest ones, did not control for other factors, such as economic development, that may also be linked to better health (see review by Feinstein 1993). As a consequence, it is frequently suggested that the association between expanding Education and population health is spurious because of the impact of general social development (e.g., economic growth, quality of health care) on both. Thus, related factors of modernity are often assumed to pave the way for both Mass Education and healthier populations (e.g., Bloom 2007). Social epidemiological research also reports extensive negative associations between Education and disease, often after statistically controlling for indicators of socioeconomic status (e.g., Mackenbach et al. 2008; Martikainen et al. 2001; Steenland, Healey, and Thun 2002). But although Education’s causal role in health is recognized in the discipline of demography, overall it remains underappreciated. For example, demographic studies of health either conflate Education with socioeconomic status in interpreting findings, or assume that Education is only a proxy measure for socioeconomic status. Although Educational attainment is associated with adult socioeconomic status, many studies, including those assessed below, suggest that schooling has a substantial effect on health independent of status attainment (Feinstein et al. 2006). The low appreciation in demography of Education’s independent role as a causal agent fosters speculation that Education is mostly a proxy for other aspects of socioeconomic status at the individual level or of economic development at the aggregate level (Desai and Alva 1998; Basu 1994; Hobcraft 1993; Kunstadter 1995). Consequently, the causal nature of the relationship between Educational attainment and individual health, as well as between Mass Education and population health, has long been debated in demography, even as “universal primary Education” (Goal 2) has become a core strategy of the UN’s Millennium Development Program and Massive development funds continue to target universal access to formal schooling throughout the developing world (e.g., Baker, Collins, and Leon 2009; Grossman 1972; Ross and Mirowski 1999; NRC 2005; UN 2009; UNESCO 2008). The confusion over the causal role of Education is likely due to three reasons. First, the Educational revolution of the past 150 years was originally interpreted as an outcome, not a cause, of modernization. Second, there has yet to be a systematic assessment of the Education effect on health across a full set of methodologically sophisticated studies, with controls for wealth and other dimensions of socioeconomic status. Third, hypotheses about the Education effect on health have not considered the central schooling activity of cognitive development. In addressing these shortcomings, we offer three contributions to illuminate the Education effect on health. First, we summarize the dimensions of the worldwide Educational revolution and reassess its potential influence on modernity and macro-demographic transitions in developed and developing countries. Second, to establish the independence and robustness of the Education effect on individual health, we conduct a meta-analysis of peer-reviewed micro-level studies of the relationship between Educational attainment and mortality. Lastly, in light of new multidisciplinary research on the cognitive impact of schooling, we propose a hypothesis about how Education may be a powerful determinant of health and longevity.
Dorothee Rouzet - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Education and military rivalry
Journal of the European Economic Association, 2019Co-Authors: Philippe Aghion, Torsten Persson, Dorothee RouzetAbstract:What makes countries engage in reforms of Mass Education? Motivated by historical evidence on the relation between military threats and expansions of primary Education, we assemble a panel dataset from the last 150 years in European countries and from the postwar period in a large set of countries. We uncover three stylized facts: (i) investments in Education are associated with military threats, (ii) democratic institutions are negatively correlated with Education investments, and (iii) Education investments respond more strongly to military threats in democracies. These patterns continue to hold when we exploit rivalries in a country’s neighborhood as an alternative source of variation. We develop a theoretical model that rationalizes the three empirical findings. The model has an additional prediction about investments in physical infrastructures, which finds support in the data. (JEL: N30, N40, I20, H56).
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Education and military rivalry
PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint), 2019Co-Authors: Philippe Aghion, Torsten Persson, Xavier Jaravel, Dorothee RouzetAbstract:What makes countries engage in reforms of Mass Education? Motivated by historical evidence on the relation between military threats and expansions of primary Education, we assemble a panel dataset from the last 150 years in European countries and from the postwar period in a large set of countries. We uncover three stylized facts: (i) investments in Education are associated with military threats, (ii) democratic institutions are negatively correlated with Education investments, and (iii) Education investments respond more strongly to military threats in democracies. These patterns continue to hold when we exploit rivalries in a country's neighborhood as an alternative source of variation. We develop a theoretical model that rationalizes the three empirical findings. The model has an additional prediction about investments in physical infrastructures, which finds support in the data.
Rihab Abdalazez Hasanain - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the potential role of social media platforms in community awareness of antibiotic use in the gulf cooperation council states luxury or necessity
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2015Co-Authors: Hosam M Zowawi, Malak Abedalthagafi, Florie A Mar, Turki Almalki, Abdullah Kutbi, Tiffany Harrisbrown, Stephan Juergen Harbarth, Hanan H Balkhy, David L Paterson, Rihab Abdalazez HasanainAbstract:The increasing emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious public health issue. Increasing the awareness of the general public about appropriate antibiotic use is a key factor for combating this issue. Several public media campaigns worldwide have been launched; however, such campaigns can be costly and the outcomes are variable and difficult to assess. Social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, are now frequently utilized to address health-related issues. In many geographical locations, such as the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain), these platforms are becoming increasingly popular. The socioeconomic status of the GCC states and their reliable communication and networking infrastructure has allowed the penetration and scalability of these platforms in the region. This might explain why the Saudi Ministry of Health is using social media platforms alongside various other media platforms in a large-scale public awareness campaign to educate at-risk communities about the recently emerged Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). This paper discusses the potential for using social media tools as cost-efficient and Mass Education platforms to raise awareness of appropriate antibiotic use in the general public and in the medical communities of the Arabian Peninsula.