No abstract

This paper reports the results from a randomized experiment designed to evaluate the direct and indirect (displacement) impacts of job placement assistance on the labor market outcomes of young, educated job seekers in France. We use a two-step design. In the first step, the proportions of job seekers to be assigned to treatment (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% or100%) were randomly drawn for each of the 235 labor markets (e.g. cities) participating in the experiment. Then, in each labor market, eligible job seekers were randomly assigned to the treatment, following this proportion. After eight months, eligible, unemployed youths who were assigned to the program were significantly more likely to have found a stable job than those who were not. But these gains are transitory, and they appear to have come partly at the expense of eligible workers who did not benefit from the program, particularly in labor markets where they compete mainly with other educated workers, and in weak labor markets. Overall, the program seems to have had very little net benefits.Bruno Crépon CREST 15, boulevard Gabriel Peri

This paper studies the links between productivity, innovation and research at the firm level. We introduce three new features: (i) A structural model that explains productivity by innovation output, and innovation output by research investment: (ii) New data on French manufacturing firms, including the number of European patents and the percentage share of innovative sales, as well as firm-level demand pull and technology push indicators; (iii) Econometric methods which correct for selectivity and simultaneity biases and take into account the statistical features of the available data: only a small proportion of firms engage in research activities and/or apply for patents; productivity, innovation and research are endogenously determined; research investment and capital are truncated variables, patents are count data and innovative sales are interval data. We find that using the more widespread methods, and the more usual data and model specification, may lead to sensibly different estimates. We find in particular that simultaneity tends to interact with selectivity, and that both sources of biases must be taken into account together. However our main results are consistent with many of the stylized facts of the empirical literature. The probability of engaging in research (R&D) for a firm increases with its size (number of employees), its market share and diversification, and with the demand pull and technology push indicators. The research effort (R&D capital intensity) of a firm engaged in research increases with the same variables, except for size (its research capital being strictly proportional to size). The firm innovation output, as measured by patent numbers or innovative sales, rises with its research effort and with the demand pull and technology indicators, either directly or indirectly through their effects on research. Finally, firm productivity correlates positively with a higher innovation output, even when controlling for the skill composition of labor as well as for physical capital intensity.Research, Innovation, Patent, Productivity, Demand conditions, Technological opportunities, System of limited dependent and qualitative variables, Asymptotic least squares JEL Classification: C31, C34, L60, O31, O33,

Does completing a household survey change the later behavior of those surveyed? In three field studies of health and two of microlending, we randomly assigned subjects to be surveyed about health and/or household finances and then measured subsequent use of a related product with data that does not rely on subjects' selfreports. In the three health experiments, we find that being surveyed increases use of water treatment products and take-up of medical insurance. Frequent surveys on reported diarrhea also led to biased estimates of the impact of improved source water quality. In two microlending studies, we do not find an effect of being surveyed on borrowing behavior. The results suggest that limited attention could play an important but context-dependent role in consumer choice, with the implication that researchers should reconsider whether, how, and how much to survey their subjects. measurement effects | question-behavior effects | Hawthorne effects | survey methodology | models of attention M any data collection efforts in the social and clinical sciences rely on surveys. Psychologists and marketing and survey experts have long held that surveying a subject can draw attention to risks or choices with ordinarily little salience and thereby induce changes in subsequent behavior (1, 2), but conclusive evidence on this question from which a causal relationship can be clearly established has been limited. We provide evidence from a variety of settings that the act of being surveyed can affect behavior and confound estimates of parameters that initially motivated the data collection."Survey" or "interview" effects may occur even when the survey does not ask specifically about intent to engage in the behavior of interest or provide new information, and even when subjects do not know that their later behavior is being observed by researchers. Hence survey effects are conceptually distinct from, but closely related to, "question-behavior" (i.e., mere measurement or self-prophecy) and Hawthorne effects. Question-behavior effects arise when behavior changes as a result of asking subjects for intentions or predictions regarding future behavior effects (3-6). Hawthorne effects occur when behavior changes as a result of a subject responding to being treated and observed, as part of an experiment (7). These effects are also related to "push polling" and other efforts to manipulate subject behavior by posing hypothetical questions (8).We describe results from five different field experiments, in four developing countries, on whether being surveyed affects subsequent behavior. The first experiment randomizes the frequency of surveys on health behavior and diarrhea incidence, in a context in which other water quality interventions are also randomly provided. More-frequent surveying leads to lower reported child diarrhea and cleaner water (as measured by the presence of detectable chlorine in household drinking water). We posit that frequent surveying serves as a reminder to invest in water purification, although because sub...