Rational Habit Formation: Experimental Evidence from Handwashing in India
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 14,
no. 1, January 2022
(pp. 1-41)
Abstract
We test the predictions of the rational addiction model, reconceptualized as rational habit formation, in the context of handwashing in rural India. To track handwashing, we design soap dispensers with timed sensors. We test for rational habit formation by informing some households about a future change in the returns to daily handwashing. Monitoring and incentives raise handwashing contemporaneously, and effects persist well after they end. In addition, people are rational about this habit formation: when they anticipate future monitoring, they increase their current handwashing. Average child weight and height increase for all study arms given soap dispensers.Citation
Hussam, Reshmaan, Atonu Rabbani, Giovanni Reggiani, and Natalia Rigol. 2022. "Rational Habit Formation: Experimental Evidence from Handwashing in India." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 14 (1): 1-41. DOI: 10.1257/app.20190568Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
- D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
- I12 Health Behavior
- I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- O12 Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
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