Belief-based poverty traps and the effects of material and psychological development interventions

Robert Lensink and Mark Treurniet
Additional contact information
Mark Treurniet: University of Groningen

No 2022007-EEF, Research Report from University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management)

Abstract: We study how development interventions can affect economic outcomes via agency beliefs. We model an agent who is uncertain about her agency, and focus on the situation that the agent underestimates her agency. Material development interventions increase the agent’s initial wealth, but may negatively affect her beliefs about her agency, thus decreasing effort and final wealth, and potentially generating a belief-based poverty trap. Instead, psychological interventions can increase beliefs about agency, thus turning the effect on effort and final wealth. A combination of both interventions can combine the positive effects of increased initial wealth and increased agency beliefs.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://hdl.handle.net/11370/96fc9eaa-ee19-4d52-8d9c-3ad3528a166d (application/pdf)

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:gro:rugsom:2022007-eef

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Research Report from University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Hanneke Tamling ().