Alcohol and Self-Control: A Field Experiment in India
Name
aer.20170458.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
798.87 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
bc33e9b6fcffb72bcf45efe98847b322
Author(s)
Schilbach, Frank
Date Issued
April 2019
Journal
American Economic Review
Publisher
American Economic Association
Citation
Schilbach, Frank et al. "Alcohol and Self-Control: A Field Experiment in India." American Economic Association 109, 4 (April 2019): 1290-1322 © 2019 American Economic Association
Version
Final published version
Abstract
This paper studies alcohol consumption among low-income workers in India. In a 3-week field experiment, the majority of 229 cycle-rickshaw drivers were willing to forgo substantial monetary payments in order to set incentives for themselves to remain sober, thus exhibiting demand for commitment to sobriety. Randomly receiving sobriety incentives significantly reduced daytime drinking while leaving overall drinking unchanged. I find no evidence of higher daytime sobriety significantly changing labor supply, productivity, or earnings. In contrast, increasing sobriety raised savings by 50 percent, an effect that does not appear to be solely explained by changes in income net of alcohol expenditures.
Subjects
Economics and Econometrics
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Sloan School of Management
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20170458
