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Alex Armand
Alex Armand is an Assistant Professor at Nova School of Business and Economics, a resident member of NOVAFRICA, a research fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), and at the Navarra Centre for International Development (Spain). His main research fields are development economics and policy evaluation. His current work focuses on the effect of providing education-related cash transfers on household outcomes, the effect of local community engagement on natural resource management, the role of media in reducing conflict, and sanitation in urban slums. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University College London.
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Incentivising quality of public infrastructure: Does it work?
Community toilets in slums are often poorly maintained, and upgrading facilities is difficult due to low willingness-to-pay among potential users and ‘free riding’. Based on an experiment in Uttar Pradesh, this article examines the impact of one-time facility upgrade and cash incentives to caretakers. While there are improvements in the quality of facilities and reduced free-riding, more residents practise open defecation, with poor public health outcomes.
Covid-19: Debunking fake news among slum-dwellers
Urban slum-dwellers are among the groups that are most at-risk of Covid-19, and their precarious situation is further compounded by rampant misinformation regarding the Virus. Based on a survey of about 4,000 households in slum areas in Uttar Pradesh, this article shows that recorded phone messages from doctors giving information on Covid-19 – along with high financial incentives to pay attention – can debunk related fake news.
Covid-19: Willingness to vaccinate among slum-dwellers
Vaccination is among the success stories in modern-day medicine, and is seen by the WHO as a key element of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In this note, Augsburg et al. discuss findings from a survey of 4,000 slum dwellers in two cities of Uttar Pradesh, on their willingness to vaccinate and pay for it. They contend that, as billions are poured into a vaccine’s development and tackling supply difficulties, policymakers should also prepare for the next challenges: compliance and ability to pay.