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The study aims to inform the design of industrial policies to reduce barriers to innovation and quality improvements by manufacturing firms, and promote sustained upgrading in Pakistan and other low-income countries.
This pilot intervention is designed to improve service delivery and political accountability. The intervention connects legislative representatives and rural voters in on-going two-way communication using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology available through any cell phone.
This project aims to understand how and why social networks matter in mobile money adoption and active use.
CERP-based researchers engaged with the Government of Punjab to deploy a methodology for measuring value for money of procured generic goods and developed a web portal named Punjab Online Procurement System (POPS). CERP researchers also designed and evaluated policy interventions to improve performance of procurement officers.
Principal Investigators:
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A growing body of research suggests that innovation and quality improvements by manufacturing firms –which together we refer to as “industrial upgrading” are key elements of the process of private-enterprise development in low-income countries. It is widely recognised that industrial upgrading is not automatic: some sectors in some countries successfully move up the ladder to more technologically sophisticated, higher value-added products, and others fail to do so. What are the barriers that the unsuccessful countries or sectors face? And what policies, if any, can reduce these barriers and promote upgrading? These are the questions that motivate our proposal. A key goal is to inform the design of industrial policies to reduce these barriers and promote sustained upgrading in Pakistan and other low-income countries.
The Sialkot soccer ball cluster is made up of a large number of manufacturers who export approximately 60 million hand-stitched soccer balls each year, accounting for about 70 percent of global production. But over the last few years, the amount of soccer balls produced in Sialkot has fallen. This project aims to better understand the technologies within the industry and determine the characteristics of the firms that are able to identify and implement new technologies.
The research team developed a cost saving technology in 2012 which has been given to a number of soccer ball manufacturers in Pakistan in order to determine the factors affecting technology adoption in firms and technology spillovers between firms. The research team has also looked at how misaligned incentives between firms and employees can affect technology adoption. As part of the extended study, the research team provided subsidised imported inputs to the Sialkot football manufacturers in order to see if these high quality inputs increase the output of high quality balls as well as increase exports. At present, the research team continues to work on refining and interpreting the results.
The second study is investigating the extent to which fixed costs of innovation are a barrier to upgrading in the surgical‐goods sector in Sialkot. The aim of the study is to induce firms in the surgical goods sector to produce new and more sophisticated medical devices for the global markets.
2012 – ongoing
Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries (PEDL), IGC
Columbia University, Yale, MIT, Lahore School of Economics, CERP, Rcons.
Manufacturing, Innovation, Technology Adoption, Subsidies
Principal Investigators:
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Elections are blunt instruments for rewarding well-performing politicians or for punishing those who fail to perform adequately in office. At the same time, a politician’s ability to respond to voters’ concerns is impeded if he lacks ways to collect information between elections. We test the potential for improving responsiveness and accountability by partnering with politicians to use a cellphone-based technology that allows them to record messages and ask questions in their own voice, and then to send these out to large numbers of voters. Voters in turn can respond to specific questions using their phone’s touch pad. We study if this use of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology and the ability to provide feedback improves voters’ sense of efficacy and support for democracy and if markers of electoral accountability are improved.
This pilot intervention is designed to improve service delivery and political accountability. The intervention connects legislative representatives and rural voters in on-going two-way communication using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology available through any cell phone. The intervention is designed to be strategic, and to provide “teeth” to the capacity of legislators to improve valued aspects of service delivery while also offering voters opportunities to voice responses to elected officials.
The idea of the intervention is to provide politicians with the ability to distribute information to their constituents about up-coming service delivery priorities and spending decisions, and to allow constituents to provide real time feedback. This feedback loop allows politicians to learn responsiveness to voter preferences, which they are unable to do without information about what voters prefer. Likewise, this feedback connection allows voters to hold politicians accountable by repeatedly evaluating responsiveness during the legislative term, and then making an informed decision in the next election.
2015 – ongoing
JPAL, IGC
SANGUM, CERP and Provincial assembly of KP
Service Delivery, Voting, Voter Preference
Principal Investigators:
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In contexts ranging from health and agriculture to product marketing and job search, networks matter in how individuals make decisions. In the context of mobile money and mobile phones, social networks play a critical role in determining eventual technology adoption. In Pakistan, take-up and usage of mobile money accounts has been relatively low. This is despite the fact that mobile money is considered potentially less expensive, more convenient, and can offer a wider range of financial services (such as savings accounts or insurance) than many other payment channels (such as over-the-counter services, or more informal channels such as transfers made through friends, relatives or even public transport).
The project’s three year pilot work in Pakistan highlighted the benefits of leveraging networks in marketing campaigns. The goal of the project was to understand how and why social networks matter in mobile money adoption and active use. Working alongside Pakistan’s leading telecom operator, Telenor Easypaisa, the researchers implemented a large-scale network experiment incentivising existing mobile account holders to refer their friends or relatives to the mobile money platform. By leveraging referrals, the study aimed to identify the channels through which referral-based interventions can be most effective at increasing the take-up and sustained usage of mobile money in Pakistan.
2013-2015
Principal Investigators:
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In countries such as Pakistan, and in particular the provincial governments, to whom much responsibility for service delivery has been devolved, face growing spending needs and must meet them with limited resources. In this context it becomes crucial to ensure that the available resources are spent in a cost-effective manner. Arguably one of the most important tasks in this respect is to ensure greater efficiency of public procurement, without which cost-effective service delivery is impossible.
The availability of timely and accurate information on value for money achieved during procurement is central to evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to increase efficiency in public procurement.
To this end, Punjab Online Procurement System has been developed, implemented and adopted across 1200 public offices. It digitises the existing Procurement System and allows for transactions to be evaluated across offices in higher education, agriculture, health, and communication and works controlling for different attributes.
2013-2015
Punjab Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), Planning and Development Board Punjab, Finance Department Punjab, Punjab Resource Management Program, Higher Education Department Punjab, Agriculture Department Punjab, Health Department Punjab, Communications and Works Department Punjab, IGC, J-PAL
Early Childhood Development, Social Assistance, Social Protection, Poverty