Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/190108 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2018/59
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
Interventions in remote, rural settings face high transaction costs. We develop a model of household decision-making to evaluate how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) address these implementation-related challenges and influence intervention effectiveness. To test our model's predictions, we create a sample of observationally similar Indian villages that differ in their prior engagement with a local development NGO. In partnership with this NGO, we then stratify a randomized technology promotion intervention on this institutional variable. We uncover a large, positive, and statistically significant "NGO effect": prior engagement with the NGO increases the effectiveness of our intervention by at least 30 per cent. Our results have implications for the generalizability of experimental research conducted jointly with NGOs. In particular, attempts to scale-up findings from such work may prove less successful than anticipated if the role of NGOs is insufficiently understood. Alternatively, policy makers looking to scale-up could achieve greater success by enlisting trusted local partners.
Subjects: 
external validity
field experiments
NGOs
non-governmental organizations
JEL: 
L31
C93
O12
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9256-501-5
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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