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Danila Serra

 

 

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      WORKING PAPERS

 

 

“From Childhood Abduction to Adulthood: Long-term Consequences for Women in Uganda with A. Cassar (University of San Francisco), E. Kandpal (Center for Global Development), M. Lambert (Texas A&M University) and C. Mbabazi (Makerere University).

 

R&R, Journal of Development Economics.

·       PDF (Dec 2025)

·       CGD blog post

·       Pre-registration: AER Registry.

·       Protocol and Games’ Instructions.

·       Funded by The World Bank.

 

 

 

Proud to belong: The impact of ethics training on police officers in Ghana” with D. Harris (University of Oxford), O. Borcan (U of East Anglia), H. Telli (International Growth Center), Bruno Schettini (Brazil Ministry of the Economy), and S. Dercon (University of Oxford). CSAE working paper. First draft: June 2022. Revised (2024): IZA working paper and CEPR discussion paper.

 

·        PDF (Jun 2025)

·        News Brief - Stanford Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (May 2025) 

·        Probable Causation podcast Episode 73

·        Center for the Studies of African Economies (CSAE) podcast

·        The Takeaway Policy Brief, Mosbacher Institute for Trade, Economics and Public Policy.

 

 

 

“The Impact of Role Models on Youth’s Aspirations, Gender Attitudes and Education in Somalia” with E.  Kipchumba (Trinity College, Dublin), C. Porter (Lancaster University) and M. Sulaiman (BRAC University). First draft: 2021. New draft: IZA DP No. 17261, August 2024.

 

·        PDF (Aug 2024)

·        VoxDev Talk with Munshi Sulaiman

·        The Takeaway Policy Brief, Mosbacher Institute for Trade, Economics and Public Policy.

·       Funded by the Spencer Foundation.

 

 

 

“My Department Cares: Supporting Students through Encouragement Emails” with D. Gomez-Vasquez (Texas A&M University). Preliminary draft available upon request.

·       Pre-registration: AER Registry

·       Slides.

 

 

 

 

“Activating change: The role of information and beliefs in social activism” with F. Afridi (Indian Statistical Institute), A. Basistha (Indian Statistical Institute) and A. Dhillon (King’s College).

·       PDF (Apr 2025)

·       Pre-registration: AsPredicted.

 

 

 

“Can Crises Affect Citizen Activism? Evidence from a Pandemic” with F. Afridi (Indian Statistical Institute), A. Basistha (Indian Statistical Institute) and A. Dhillon (King’s College). CAGE Working paper, November 2023. New draft (March 2025).

 

 

 

 

 

PUBLISHED

 

 

“Role Models in Developing Countries.” forthcoming in for the Handbook of Experimental Development Economics, edited by Utteeyo Dasgupta and Pushkar Maitra. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025. 123-135.

 

 

 

Gender and leadership in organizations: The threat of backlash” with P. Chakraborty (Centenary College). The Economic Journal, 134, Issue 660, May 2024. Link to paper and Ungated.

·        Online Appendix with the instructions of the lab and online experiments.

·        Previous drafts circulated under the titles “Gender differences in top leadership roles: Does worker backlash matter?” and “Gender and leadership in organizations: Promotions, demotions and angry workers”]

 

 

 

Mobilizing parents at home and at school: An experiment on primary education in Angolawith V. Di Maio (World Bank), S. Leeffers (Nova University of Lisbon) and P. Vicente (Nova University of Lisbon). Economic Development and Cultural Change, 72:3, 1069-1116, 2024. Link to paper.

Project website; GlobaDev Blog post

 

 

 

“Can high school counselors help the economics pipeline?” with Melissa Gentry (Texas A&M) and Jonathan Meer (Texas A&M). American Economic Association P&P 113: 462-66.  Link to paper.

·        Presented at ASSA 2023: slides

·        Video recording of the presentation, as part of the CSWEP session on “Gender in the Economics Profession”

 

 

 

Health Workers’ Behavior, Patient Reporting and Reputational Concerns: Lab-in-the-Field Experimental Evidence from Kenya with I. Mbiti (U of Virginia). Experimental Economics, 25.2 (2022): 514-556. Link to paper and Ungated.

·        Instructions of the lab-in-the-field experiment here.

 

 

 

“Gender Differences in the Choice of Major: The Importance of Female Role Models” with C. Porter (Lancaster University). American Economic Journal: Applied, 12(3): 226–254. Link to paper and Ungated.

·        Slides

·        Media Coverage: Dow Jones Moneyish, Pacific Standard, The University Network, Forbes.

·        Read about the study in the new CEPR eBook on Women and Economics.

·        Read an early summary of the study: SMU Press release.

·        Watch a short video of me talking about the study.

 

 

 

Motivating Whistleblowers” with J. Butler (UC Merced) and G. Spagnolo (SITE, Stockholm School of Economics). Management Science 66.2: 605-621, 2020. Link to paper and Ungated.

 

 

 

Corrupt Police” with K. Abbink (Monash University) and D. Ryvkin (FSU). Games and Economic Behavior, 123: 101-119, September 2020. Ungated PDF.

 

 

 

Corruption and competition among bureaucrats: An experimental study”, with D. Ryvkin (FSU).  Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol. 175, July 2020, pp 439-451. Link to paper. Experimental instructions here.

 

 

Is more competition always better? An experimental study of extortionary corruption”, with D. Ryvkin (FSU). Economic Inquiry, 57 (1), January 2019: 50-72. Link to paper.

 

 

 Corruption, Social Judgment and Culture: An Experiment”, with T. Salmon (SMU). Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 142: 64-78, 2017. Link to paper.

 

 

I paid a bribe: An experiment on information sharing and extortionary corruption”, with D. Ryvkin (FSU) and James Tremewan (U of Vienna). European Economic Review, 94: 1-22, 2017. Link to paper

 

 

Participatory accountability and collective action: Experimental evidence from Albania”, with A. Barr (U of Nottingham) and T. Packard (The World Bank). European Economic Review, 68: 250–269, 2014. Link to paper.

 

 

Intermediaries in corruption: An experiment”, with M. Drugov (Carlos III de Madrid) and J. Hamman (FSU). Experimental Economics, 17(1): 78-99, 2014. Link to paper.

·          Winner of the Editor’s prize for the best paper published in Experimental Economics in the year 2014.

 

 

Combining top-down and bottom-up accountability: Evidence from a bribery experiment”. Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, 28(3): 569-587, August 2012. Online advance access here.

 

 

Anti-corruption Policies: Lessons from the Lab”, with K. Abbink. In D. Serra and L. Wantchekon (eds.) New Advances in Experimental Research on Corruption, Research In Experimental Economics Volume 15, Bingly: Emerald Group Publishing, June 2012.

 

 

Intrinsic motivations and the non-profit health sector: Evidence from Ethiopia”, with P. Serneels (UEA) and A. Barr (U of Nottingham) Personality and Individual Differences, 51(3): 309-314. Link to paper.

 

 

How corruptible are you? Bribery under uncertainty”, with D. Ryvkin (FSU), Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 81(2012): 466-477. Link to paper.

 

 

Corruption and Culture: An experimental Analysis, with A. Barr (U of Nottingham), Journal of Public Economics, 94, Issues 11-12, December 2010. Link to paper .

 

 

The effects of externalities and framing on bribery in a petty corruption experiment”, with A. Barr (U of Nottingham), Experimental Economics, 12 (4): 488-503, 2009. Link to paper.

 

 

Discovering the Real World –Health Workers’ Career Choices and Early Work Experience in Ethiopia, with P. Serneels (UEA) and M. Lindelow (World Bank), The World Bank, Washington DC.

 

 

Empirical Determinants of Corruption: A sensitivity Analysis,” Public Choice 126 (1-2), 225-256, 2006. PDF.

 

 

 

 

EDITED VOLUME

 

 

New Advances in Experimental Research on Corruption, edited with Leonard Wantchekon (Princeton University), Emerald Group Publishing, June 2012.

 

 

 

 

BOOK CHAPTERS

 

“Experimental Development Economics: Current Scope and Future Directions” with U. Dasgupta, P. Jakiela, P. Maitra, O. Ozier and A. Viceisza, forthcoming in for the Handbook of Experimental Development Economics, edited by Utteeyo Dasgupta and Pushkar Maitra. Edward Elgar. In press.

 

 

Role Models in Developing Countries” forthcoming in for the Handbook of Experimental Development Economics, edited by Utteeyo Dasgupta and Pushkar Maitra. Edward Elgar. In press.

 

 

“Anticorruption policies: Lessons from the lab” with K. Abbink. In D.Serra and L. Wantchekon (eds.), New Advances in experimental Research on Corruption”, Emerald group Publishing Limited, 2012.