Targeting High Ability Entrepreneurs Using Community Information: Mechanism Design in the Field

Reshmaan Hussam, Natalia Rigol and Benjamin N. Roth

American Economic Review, 2022, vol. 112, issue 3, 861-98

Abstract: Identifying high-growth microentrepreneurs in low-income countries remains a challenge due to a scarcity of verifiable information. With a cash grant experiment in India we demonstrate that community knowledge can help target high-growth microentrepreneurs; while the average marginal return to capital in our sample is 9.4 percent per month, microentrepreneurs reported in the top third of the community are estimated to have marginal returns to capital between 24 percent and 30 percent per month. Further we find evidence that community members distort their predictions when they can influence the distribution of resources. Finally, we demonstrate that simple mechanisms can realign incentives for truthful reporting.

JEL-codes: D82 G21 I38 L25 L26 O12 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20200751

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