Elizabeth Potamites

Beliefs and Endogenous Cognitive Levels: An Experimental Study

Uses a laboratory setting to manipulate our subjectsE¼ beliefs about the cognitive levels of the players they are playing against. We show that in the context of the 2/3 guessing game, individual choices crucially depend on their beliefs about the level of others. Hence, a subjectE¼s true cognitive level may be different than the one he exhibits in a game with the difference being attributed to his expectations about the sophistication of the players he is playing against.

Return to Work of Disability Insurance Beneficiaries Who Do and Do Not Access State Vocational Rehabilitation Agency Services

This study examines the relationship between services provided by state vocational rehabilitation agencies (SVRAs) and return-to-work outcomes of Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries. DI beneficiaries who enrolled in SVRA services were compared with matched and unmatched comparison groups of beneficiaries who did not enroll in these services. We examined the progression to substantial employment milestones for DI beneficiaries over a 10-year period beginning with their entry into the DI program. Employment outcomes of the SVRA enrollee group are substantially better than those of their matched and non-matched non-enrollee counterparts, and the timing of their employment outcomes is strongly associated with the timing of vocational rehabilitation (VR) enrollment. These findings indicate that differences in employment outcomes between DI beneficiaries who received VR services and those who did not are not simply due to observable differences.

Signalling Creditworthiness: Land Titles, Banking Practices, and Formal Credit In Indonesia

Many land titling programs worldwide have produced lacklustre results in terms of achieving access to credit for the poor. This may reflect insufficient emphasis on local banking practices. Bankers commonly seek to ensure repayment by using methods other than securing collateral, such as targeting borrower characteristics that, on average, improve repayment rates. Formal land titles can signal these important characteristics to the bank. Using a household survey from Indonesia, we provide evidence that formal land titles have a positive and significant effect on access to credit and that at least part of this effect is best interpreted as an improvement in information flows. These results stand in contrast to the prevailing notion that land titles function only as collateral. Analysts who neglect local banking practices may misinterpret the observed effect of systematic land titling programs on credit access because these programs tend to reduce the signalling value of formal land titles.