Gender

Question 1

Which were unethical issues associated with the Tuskegee Syphilis trials?

Answer 1

1. Treatment known to be effective existed, and was withheld
2. No consent given
3. False information was provided to recruit participants
4. The experiment was conducted on a poor, marginalized population

Question 2

True or false: In the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment, if there had not existed a treatment for Syphilis at the time, the participants would not have needed to be informed about the study.

Answer 2

False. In the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment, even if there had not existed a treatment for syphilis at the time, the participants still should have been informed about the experiment.

Question 3

True or false: In general, it is unethical to offer incentives to experimental participants?

Answer 3

False. It can be ethical to offer incentives to experimental participants to participate in a research experiment. Offering incentives can be helpful as a way to compensate participants for their time and for any costs incurred from participating in the experiment. However, the incentives cannot be unreasonably large.

Question 4

What is the primary purpose of the Belmont Principles?

Answer 4

To define a set of core principles which researchers should adhere to in order to protect humans that are participants or subjects in research.

Question 5

Which of the following correctly defines “research”?

Answer 5

A systematic investigation designed to generate generalizable knowledge. Usually, research in this sense is the type of research that is conducted involving human participants with the intention of publishing results at some point. In contrast, investigations that are conducted by organizations for internal use only are generally not considered research under this definition. For example, this includes companies that collect data on its customers with the goal of learning more about those customers, not for the purpose of generating generalizable knowledge or publishing their results. For example Google, Yahoo, OK Cupid, and other related companies collect extensive data on their customers, but this is generally not considered to be research under the definition above.

Question 6

Which of the following correctly defines “human subjects”?

Answer 6

Human subjects are defined as any people from whom researchers collect information or obtain information through intervention or interaction with the individual. The Belmont principles are set out with the primary goal of protecting any human subjects that may be participants in a research study.

Question 7

Which of the following correctly defines the second principle “beneficence”?

Answer 7

The second key principle of the Belmont principles, beneficence, requires that researchers maximize the benefits associated with a study, while minimizing the harms associated with the research study. This requires that the research will answer a question that has some benefit to society that justifies the use of humans as research subjects, and that at the same time takes steps to ensure that risks to those human subjects from participating in the research are minimized.

Question 8

What are some of the steps that must be taken to ensure protection of human subjects?

Answer 8

• Ask for informed consent before collecting any personal data, or ensure that you have approval from an institutional review board to waive the requirement for informed consent, where applicable
• Keep all data in a safe place only accessible to the research team

Question 9

Which of the following statements is true about randomizing treatment, according to the discussion in class?

Answer 9

Randomizing treatment to some people in a sample is ethical, since people have an equal chance of being chosen or not chosen for treatment, and since the control group would not be harmed from having treatment withheld

Question 10

Which of the following correctly defines “undue inducement”?

Answer 10

Undue inducement refers to the practice of recruiting participants by providing too large of an incentive for people that participate. Researchers are allowed to recruit participants by offering an incentive to participate, but this incentive cannot be unreasonably large.

Question 11

True or false: If you discover during the course of a research intervention that a particular intervention is highly effective, you are obligated to inform the IRB, who may instruct you to stop the research and enroll the control group in the treatment.

Answer 11

True. If during the course of research, investigators discover that there the intervention is highly effective, then they are obligated to inform the IRB who may ask them to stop the research and enroll the control group in the treatment.

Question 12

Under which of the following conditions might a human subjects committee waive the requirement for receiving informed consent from research participants?

Answer 12

• Risks to the human subjects are minimal, and collecting informed consent would make the research impossible.
• Collecting informed consent might pose a greater risk to participants, if the researchers would not otherwise collect any personal information from them

Question 13

Which of the following are examples of “dictatorial” households?

Answer 13

• A parent who make decisions on behalf of their children
• Husbands who make decisions on behalf of the wife
• Households with one member who makes all decisions

Question 14

True or false: Dictatorial households, where one member makes decisions on behalf of other members, are always harmful for the non-decision makers.

Answer 14

False. Even in “dictatorial” households, it could be that the decision maker highly values the utility of other household members. In that case, the utility of other household members would feature very highly in the decision maker’s utility function. When the decision maker makes decisions on behalf of the other member, he or she would then be making these decisions with the other members’ best interests in mind. It could also be that the preferences of the dictator are closely aligned with the preferences of other household members, in which case by maximizing his or her own utility would similarly maximize the utility of the other members.

Question 15

Which of the following correctly defines “unanimity” in households?

Answer 15

“Unanimity” in households refers to households where all members have the same preferences. In a “dictatorial” household with unanimous preferences, the dictator could make decisions on behalf of all other members, and everyone would be just as happy as if they had made the decisions themselves to maximize their own utility.

Question 16

True or false: In the example given with household members Ahmad and Bijou, Ahmad’s utility takes into consideration his own and Bijou’s consumption, and Bijou’s utility takes into consideration her own, and Ahmad’s consumption.

Answer 16

True. In the model presented in class, Ahmad’s utility function takes into consideration the allocation of resources to himself and to Bijou, written as uA(qA, qB). Similarly, Bijou’s utility function takes into consideration the allocation of household resources to herself and to Ahmad, written as uB(qA, qB).

Question 17

In a unitary household, which of the following determine how many units of each good Ahmad and Bijou will purchase?

Answer 17

• Total income
• Each member’s preferences
• Prices of each good

Question 18

In a non-unitary household, which of the following may determine how many units of each good Ahmad and Bijou will purchase?

Answer 18

• Fraction of income coming from each member
• Total income
• Each member’s preferences
• Prices of each good

Question 19

Which of the following might determine bargaining power within a household?

Answer 19

• Portion of income earned
• Potential ability to earn money outside the household
• Share on non-labor income
• Age
• Gender
• Institutions

Question 20

Which of the following impact an individual’s outside option?

Answer 20

• Rules of divorce
• Rules of remarriage
• Education
• Health
• Institutions and gender dynamics in the labor market

Question 21

Which of the following might be a way to test whether a household is unitary or non-unitary?

Answer 21

Identify and measure the impact of factors that might change bargaining power BUT NOT preferences. To test whether a household is unitary, you couldn’t look at factors such as age and education, since these factors affect preferences as well as bargaining power. Instead, you would want to look at exogenous variation in something that only affects bargaining power (but not preferences) and examine the impact of that variation on household allocation decisions. If the household is non-unitary, a change in bargaining power would change the relative allocation of resources among household members.

Question 22

In order to test whether a household is unitary or not unitary, we want to look at the impact of a change in something that _______ bargaining power, _________ preferences, and occurred _________ the marriage was formed.

Answer 22

impacts ; does not impact ; after

In order to test whether a household is unitary or non-unitary, we need to look at the impact of some exogenous variation that causes a change in bargaining power between household members, but does not impact underlying preferences. Additionally, this variation must have occurred after the marriage was formed. If the variation occurred before the marriage was formed, any difference in final outcomes could have been due to different matching between husbands and wives, even in households that are ex-post dictatorial.

Question 23

Which of the following might be valid ways to test whether a household is unitary or non-unitary?

Answer 23

• Changes in divorce laws that only affect a portion of the population
• Removal of restrictions for women to participate in the labor market

Question 24

What are some reasons that a household could be efficient, even if it is not unitary?

Answer 24

• Ability to punish each other into the future could encourage more cooperative behavior
• Each household member’s utility function likely factors into the utility function of other members so their interest may be almost aligned anyway
• Each member has good information about the others
• Members may have good communication with each other

Question 25

In the most efficient households:

Answer 25

Members will maximize joint income from all individuals, then determine how to split that income. Efficient households will pool all resources (inputs, labor, human capital, etc.), maximize output or production, and then make decisions about how to allocate their resources. In other words, efficient households will first try to maximize the size of the pie and then determine how they will divide the pie between household members.

Question 26

In the South Africa pension study introduced in lecture, how does the research design allow for measuring the effect of the pension on weight for height of children living with grandparents?

Answer 26

The research design is set up so that weight for height outcomes are compared between children whose grandparents are eligible to those whose grandparents are not eligible, before and after the pension reform. It’s important to compare children living with grandparents who are eligible to those living with grandparents are not eligible (slightly too young to be eligible) to make sure that the comparison does not simply pick up any effects associated with living with a grandparent.

Question 27

What is a z-score weight for height?

Answer 27

A standardized measure of weight for height, calculated as weight minus average weight of a population of well-nourished American children of that exact height (in cm), divided by standard deviation of weight in that same group of American children.

Question 28

Which of the following are key findings from the South African pension reform study?

Answer 28

• Who receives income matters for how that income is spent
• Pension reform can be an effective way to boost children’s health outcome

Question 29

What differentiates the cash transfers discussed in the Give Directly program compared to the South African pension reform example?

Answer 29

The South African pension reforms were permanent, while the Give Directly cash transfers were temporary. While the South African pension reform study seems to support that the gender of the recipient matters, the Give Directly study found no difference in how the cash transfers were spent by gender. One explanation for this difference is that the South African pension reforms were perceived as a permanent boost to income, and hence may have impacted bargaining power in a meaningful way. In contrast, since the Give Directly cash transfers were known to be temporary, these might not have had an impact on bargaining power in households that were near efficiency: they should have realized that the transfers were going to go away.

Question 30

What are some factors that might lead to families having a preference for male instead of female children?

Answer 30

• Female children are perceived as expensive, since parents will have to pay a dowry in order to have their female children married
• Male children have a greater earnings potential, and thus are a more worthwhile investment for parents
• Male children are more likely to take care of parents as they age

Question 31

Professor Duflo briefly mentions research from Nancy Qian briefly related to tea production in China. This research suggest that outcomes for females might __________ as female-dominated industries become more prevalent.

Answer 31

Improve. Professor Duflo discusses research from Nancy Qian that looks at outcomes for males and females in the presence of female-dominated versus male-dominated industries. Women are thought to have a comparative advantage in tea production, while men are thought to have a comparative advantage in working on orchards. Qian finds that females are relatively better off in areas of China well-suited to tea production, while males are relatively better off in areas of China well-suited to fruit production.