Peer-reviewed publications:

1. Daga, Giuliana; Lajos Kossuth; Cynthia Boruchowicz; Florencia López Boo; Natalia Largaespada Beer (2024). ‘Behaviorally informed digital campaigns and their association with social media engagement and COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Belize’. BMC Global and Public Health, 2, 71 [View]

We conducted two correlational analyses and one experiment between five sequential behaviorally informed Facebook campaigns, social media performance outcomes, and district-level vaccination data. Facebook adverts highlighting vaccine safety had a similar level of social media performance as other campaigns, except for adverts focusing on vaccine efficacy, which performed worse. Communicating side-effect information with words instead of numbers can expand social media interest in low-uptake regions like the Caribbean. Our results serve as preliminary evidence for public health officials to encourage vaccine uptake in high-hesitancy contexts.

2. Bernal, Pedro; Giuliana Daga; Lajos Kossuth; and Florencia López Boo (2024). ‘Do behavioral drivers matter for healthcare decision-making during crises? A study of low-income women in El Salvador during the COVID-19 pandemic.’ BMC Public Health, 24, 2122. [View]

We study how behavioral factors affect healthcare decisions among low-income women in El Salvador during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the importance of internal locus of control for preventive health behaviors and the strong associations of impatience, optimism bias, and aspirations on healthcare-seeking behaviors, suggesting implications for future policy responses.

3. Kossuth, Lajos; Nattavudh Powdthavee; Donna Harris; and Nick Chater (2020) ‘Does it pay to bet on your favourite to win? Evidence on experienced utility from the 2018 FIFA World Cup experiment’,  Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 171, pp.35-58. [View]

We study the emotional effects of refraining from emotional hedging during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and find that England supporters' reluctance to hedge against the team's success led to decreased happiness after losses without a compensatory increase after wins, suggesting a tendency to overestimate the cost of betting against their social identity while underestimating the emotional impact of unsuccessful bets on their favorite team.

Working Papers:

1. Gender differences in judicial decisions under incomplete information: Evidence from child support cases. (Revise & Resubmit at the Journal of Development Economics). Joint with Roberto Asmat [Link].

We compare child support decisions made by female and male judges, and find that female judges allocate lower amounts of child support. This gap can be attributed to differing reliance on plaintiff claims to estimate the defendant's income in cases of labor market informality.

2. The effect of a nationwide public recognition program on teachers' performance: Evidence from a natural field experiment in Peruvian primary schools.  Joint with Alessandro Castagnetti (Under Review at the Journal of Political Economy). [Link] [AEA Pre-registration] 

The public recognition program 'Destaca Docente' improved teaching performance by 0.19 standard deviations, especially in schools with higher social visibility, and among those with more experience. Based on Self-determination Theory, the effect is explained by a reduction in low-quality externally regulated motivation and an increase in relative autonomy.

Work in progress:

1. "Do More Optimistic Mothers Raise Better-Off Children? A Longitudinal Study in Peru, Ethiopia, India, and Vietnam" 

2. "The unintended effects on intrahousehold violence of the expansion of a mental health program in Peru". Joint with Jimena Romero.

3. "Future of work and automation: does re-framing occupations as their component tasks improve trust in artificial intelligence?". Joint with Isabella Loaiza Saa.