Using Incentivized Games and Networks to Uncover Hidden Impacts: The Case of Community Driven Development Programs

Rodríguez-Lesmes, Paul, Daniel Stein and Vera-Hernández, Marcos
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Paul Andres Rodriguez Lesmes

No 18990, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Despite evidence that social interactions build social capital, evaluations show limited impacts of Community Driven Development (CDD) programs on social capital. We investigate whether this puzzle could result from an excessive reliance on surveys to measure social capital. Our study, in the context of a clustered randomized CDD in Nepal, initially indicates no impacts using surveys-based measures. However, incentivized lab-in-the-field games reveal increased cooperation, while network analysis unveils closer household connections. This highlights the sensitivity of program evaluations to social capital measurement choices and contributes to ongoing debates about empirically capturing social capital.

Keywords: Social capital; Lab-in-the-field games; Social Networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 H41 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-04
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18990 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:18990

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18990

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().