Publications

Recent Journal Articles

Job Search and Hiring with Limited Information on Workseekers' Skills (with Eliana Carranza, Rob Garlick and Neil Rankin).  American Economic Review.  112: 11. November 2022: 3547–3483. Ungated version.

We assess South African workseekers’ skills and disseminate the assessment results to explore how limited information affects firm and workseeker behavior. Giving workseekers assessment results that they can credibly share with firms increases workseekers’ employment and earnings and better aligns their skills, beliefs and search strategies. Giving workseekers assessment results that they cannot easily share with firms has similar effects on beliefs and search, but smaller effects on employment and earnings. Giving assessment results only to firms shifts interview decisions. These findings show that getting credible skill information to the right agents can improve outcomes in the labor market.

• Pre-analysis plan. VoxDev research summary. GlobalDev research summary (also in French and Spanish). JPAL evaluation summary.

• My team at MBRG prepared a practical toolkit on how to scale up the intervention, including detailed costing analysis.

• In collaboration with the World Bank Africa Gender Innovation Lab and Jobs Practice and the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, a South African NGO that aims to reduce unemployment among South African high school graduates by assessing and training youth and providing them with bridging services to a network of employers.

• Funding from the World Bank Jobs Trust Fund, PEDL, NSF, and the Accelerating Adolescent Achievement Hub (UKRI GCRF). Run by the JPAL Africa office

• Note on methodology for surveying young and highly mobile workseekers over the phone.

Can Simple Psychological Interventions Increase Preventive Health Investment? (with Anett John). Journal of the European Economic Association 20: 3. June 2022: 1001–1047. Ungated version.

Behavioral constraints may explain part of low demand for preventive health products. We test the effects of two light-touch psychological interventions on water chlorination and related health and economic outcomes using a randomized controlled trial among 3750 women in rural Kenya. One intervention encourages participants to visualize alternative realizations of the future; one builds participants’ ability to make concrete plans. After 12 weeks, visualization increases objectively measured chlorination, reduces diarrhea episodes among children, and increases savings. Effects on chlorination and savings persist after almost three years. Effects of the planning intervention are weaker and largely insignificant. Analysis of mechanisms suggests both interventions increase self-efficacy – beliefs about one’s ability to achieve desired outcomes. Visualization also increases participants’ skill in forecasting their future utility (Gabaix and Laibson 2017). The interventions do not differentially affect beliefs and knowledge about chlorination. Results suggest simple psychological interventions can increase future-oriented behaviors, including use of preventive health technologies.

• • Policy note. JPAL Summary. Website summary. 

  • Funded by NIH grant NIH UH2 NR016378 to Johannes Haushofer. Run by the Busara Centre for Behavioural Economics

Call Me Maybe: Experimental Evidence on Using Mobile Phones to Survey Microenterprises. (with Rob Garlick and Simon Quinn). World Bank Economic Review, 34(2): 418–443. Pre-analysis plan. Questionnaires. Funding from PEDL. Ungated version.

Conference Proceedings

• Bernard, T., Dercon, S., Orkin, K. and Seyoum Taffesse, A. 2019. "Parental Aspirations for Children’s Education – Is There a 'Girl Effect'? Experimental Evidence from Rural Ethiopia." American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 109 (May): 127-132. Research summary.  Ungated version.

• Bernard, T., Dercon, S., Orkin, K. and Seyoum Taffesse, A. 2015. "Will Video Kill the Radio Star? Assessing the Potential of Targeted Exposure to Role Models through Video." World Bank Economic Review ABCDE Papers and Proceedings, 29 (1): S226-S237. 

Policy Articles

• Orkin, K., R. Garlick, I. Rodriguez Hurtado, M. Grabowska, B. Kreft, A. Cahill. 2022. International Evidence to Inform Decision-Making on Implementing Urgent Response Social Protection Measures. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 27: 219-238. Ungated version.

• Gerard, F., C. Imbert, K. Orkin. 2020. "Social Protection Response to the COVID-19 Crisis: Options for Developing Countries." Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 36(S1): S281–S296. VoxDev podcast, oped. Ungated version.

• Orkin, K., Yadete, W. A., Woodhead, M. 2012. "Delivering Quality Early Learning in Low-Resource Settings: Progress and Challenges in Ethiopia." Bernard van Leer Foundation Monographs in Early Childhood Development (59; The Hague: Bernard van Leer Foundation): 1-88. Young Lives site entry. 

Articles/Book Chapters: Psychology/Development Studies

• Moffett, B., Pozuelo J.R., van Heerden A., O’Mahen, H. Craske, M, Sodi, T., Lund, L. Orkin, K., … Stein, A. 2022. Digital Delivery of Behavioural Activation Therapy to Overcome Depression and Facilitate Social and Economic Transitions of Adolescents in South Africa (The Dobat Study): Protocol for a Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial. BMJ Open 2022, 12:e065977. 

• Tol, W., S. Murray, C. Lund, P. Bolton, L. Murray, T. Davies, J. Haushofer, K. Orkin, M. Witte, L. Salama, V. Patel, G. Thornicroft, J. Bass. 2019. "Can Mental Health Treatments Help Prevent or Reduce Intimate Partner Violence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries? A Systematic Review." BMC Women's Health, 19(1): 34-49. Ungated version.

• Esopo, K., D. Mellow, C. Thomas, H. Uckat, J. Abraham, P. Jain, C. Jang, N. Otis, M. Riis-Vestergaard, A. Starcev, K. Orkin*, J. Haushofer*. 2018. "Measuring Self-Efficacy, Executive Function, and Temporal Discounting in Kenya." Behaviour, Research and Therapy, 101: 30-45. (* denotes equal contribution). Ungated version.

• Orkin, K. 2012. "Are Work and Schooling Complementary or Competitive for Children in Rural Ethiopia?" In Bourdillon, M. and Boyden, J. (eds.), Children Growing Up in Poverty: Multidisciplinary Approaches (Basingstoke: Palgrave): 298-315. Google books. Information on book.

• Orkin, K. 2011. "'See First, Think Later, Then Test': How Economists Researching Children in Developing Countries Can Mix Methods." European Journal of Development Research, 23 (5): 774–791. 

• Orkin, K. 2010. "In the Best Interests of the Child? Legislation on Children's Work in Rural Ethiopia." Journal of International Development, 22 (8): 1102–1114. Pre-publication version. Audio of talk at Copeland Colloquium 2010/11 at Amherst College.