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    The effects of anti-corruption videos on attitudes toward corruption in a Ukrainian online survey
    (Routledge, 2019-09-30) ; ;
    Prytula, Yaroslav
    This paper presents the outcomes of an anti-corruption educational intervention among Ukrainian students based on an online experiment. More than 3,000 survey participants were randomly assigned to one of three different videos on corruption and its consequences (treatment groups) or a video on higher education (control group). The data suggest a high level of academic dishonesty and misconduct among young people, but also a negative attitude toward corruption in general, highlighting the ambivalence of corruption in the country. We find that one video, which presented a thrilling story abut a victim of corruption related to common bribery in an accessible way, was effective in promoting awareness of the negative consequences of corruption. In contrast, the other two treatment videos, which more closely followed the style of TV news or documentaries on corruption, did not generally promote negative attitudes toward corruption. Presenting corruption issues in a catchy way therefore appears to matter for the effectiveness of such interventions.
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    Scopus© Citations 8
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    Direct and indirect effects of training vouchers for the unemployed
    This paper evaluates the effects of awarding vouchers for vocational training on the employment outcomes of unemployed voucher recipients in Germany, as well as the potential mechanism through which they operate. This study assesses the direct effects of voucher assignment net of ac¬tual redemption, which may be driven by preference shaping and learning about possible human capital investments or simply by the costs of information gathering. Using a formal mediation analy-sis framework based on sequential conditional independence assumptions and semiparametric match¬ing estimators, our results suggest that the negative short-term and positive long-term em-ployment ef¬fects of receiving a voucher are mainly driven by actual training participation. However, the direct ef¬fect of just obtaining a voucher is negative over the short-run as well. This result points to potential losses in the effectiveness of such training provision systems if individuals decide not to redeem vouchers, as employment chances are lower than under non-award over the short-run and under redemption over the long-run, which makes non-re¬demption the least attractive option.
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    Scopus© Citations 16
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    Sharp IV Bounds on Average Treatment Effects on the Treated and Other Populations Under Endogeneity and Noncompliance
    (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017-01) ;
    Laffers, Lukas
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    Mellace, Giovanni
    In the presence of an endogenous binary treatment and a valid binary instrument, causal effects are point identified only for the subpopulation of compliers, given that the treatment is monotone in the instrument. With the exception of the entire population, causal inference for further subpopulations has been widely ignored in econometrics. We invoke treatment monotonicity and/or dominance assumptions to derive sharp bounds on the average treatment effects on the treated, as well as on other groups. Furthermore, we use our methods to assess the educational impact of a school voucher program in Colombia and discuss testable implications of our assumptions.
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    Scopus© Citations 19
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    Why Do Tougher Caseworkers Increase Employment? The role of Programme Assignement as a Causal Mechanism
    (MIT Press, 2017-02-23) ; ;
    Mellace, Giovanni
    Previous research found that less accommodating caseworkers are more successful in placing unemployed workers into employment. This paper explores the causal mechanisms behind this result using semi-parametric mediation analysis. Analyzing rich linked job seeker-caseworker data for Switzerland, we find that the positive employment effects of less accommodating caseworkers are not driven by a particularly effective mix of labor market programs but, rather, by other dimensions of the counseling process, possibly including threats of sanctions and pressure to accept jobs.
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    Scopus© Citations 32
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    Scopus© Citations 18
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    The finite sample performance of estimators for mediation analysis under sequential conditional independence
    (American Statistical Association, 2016-02) ; ;
    Mellace, Giovanni
    Using a comprehensive simulation study based on empirical data, this paper investigates the finite sample properties of different classes of parametric and semi-parametric estimators of (natural or pure) direct and indirect causal effects used in mediation analysis under sequential conditional independence assumptions. The estimators are based on regression, inverse probability weighting, and combinations thereof. Our simulation design uses a large population of Swiss jobseekers and considers variations of several features of the data generating process and the implementation of the estimators that are of practical relevance. We find that no estimator performs uniformly best (in terms of root mean squared error) in all simulations. Overall, so-called 'g-computation' dominates. However, differences between estimators are often (but not always) minor in the various setups and the relative performance of the methods often (but not always) varies with the features of the data generating process.
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    Scopus© Citations 13
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    The effect of firms' phased retirement policies on the labour market outcomes of their employees
    (Sage Publications, 2016-04-15) ; ;
    Wunsch, Conny
    In this article, the authors assess the impact on male employees’ labor market outcomes of firms offering a special form of phased retirement. The goal of the program is to smooth the transition from work to retirement and to decrease the costs of public pension and unemployment insurance schemes by increasing the employment of elderly workers. Using a unique linked employer-employee data set, the authors examine whether male employees spend more time in employment and less time in unemployment or inactivity after the introduction of the program. Results suggest that phased retirement options offered by firms can help to reduce some of the public costs of low labor force attachment of elderly workers, mainly by reducing exits through unemployment and by increasing employment and earnings. Under relatively good labor market conditions, they may also encourage a small share of workers to exit the labor market earlier.
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    Scopus© Citations 14
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    An Experimental Evaluation of an Anti-Corruption Intervention among Ukranian University Students
    (Routledge, 2015-12) ; ;
    Prytula, Yaroslav
    In this paper, we investigate experimentally the effect of an anti-corruption intervention – an info folder based on materials developed by Transparency International – on Ukrainian university students’ willingness to participate in an anti-corruption campaign and their general attitude toward corruption. In a survey of 600 students in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, individuals were randomly exposed to either the anti-corruption folder (treatment group) or a folder with information about Lviv (control group). The results suggest that students who have previous experience with bribing are more open to the campaign, while the effect on the total sample is not statistically significant. Furthermore, the intervention increases the overall perception that corruption is a (long-term) part of society rather than a temporary phenomenon. Finally, students with experience in corrupt practices tend to adopt a more negative view of corruption. For those without such experiences, however, we find some indication that the treatment could bolster the acceptance of corruption by instructing the students about its dissemination. The effects of this intervention are therefore ambivalent and appear to depend on the students’ previous exposure to corruption.
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    Scopus© Citations 34
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    Radius matching on the propensity score with bias adjustment: tuning parameters and finite sample behaviour
    Using a simulation design that is based on empirical data, a recent study by Huber, Lechner and Wunsch (2012) finds that distance-weighted radius matching with bias adjustment as proposed in Lechner, Miquel and Wunsch (2011) is competitive among a broad range of propensity score-based estimators used to correct for mean differences due to observable covariates. In this paper, we further investigate the finite sample behaviour of radius matching with respect to various tuning parameters. The results are intended to help the practitioner to choose suitable values of these parame¬ters when using this method, which has been implemented as "radiusmatch" command in the software packages GAUSS, STATA and the R package "radiusmatching".
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    Scopus© Citations 78
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    Workplace health promotion and labour market performance of employees
    (North-Holland Publ., 2015-09) ; ;
    Wunsch, Conny
    This paper investigates the average effects of (firm-provided) workplace health promotion measures in form of the analysis of sickness absenteeism and health circles/courses on labour market outcomes of the firms' employees. Exploiting linked employer-employee panel data that consist of rich survey-based and administrative information on firms, workers and regions, we apply a flexible propensity score matching approach that controls for selection on observables as well as on time-constant unobserved factors. While the effects of analysing sickness absenteeism appear to be rather limited, our results suggest that health circles/courses increase tenure and decrease the number of job changes across various age groups. A key finding is that health circles/courses strengthen the labour force attachment of elderly employees (51-60), implying potential cost savings for public transfer schemes such as unemployment or early retirement benefits.
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    Scopus© Citations 8