Changing Beliefs, Changing Bribes in India
Summary of the Randomized Evaluation
Country
India (Rajasthan)
Researchers
Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, John Firth, Daniel Keniston, Ben Olken, Jeffrey Weaver
Methods
Researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the impact of informing citizens about the true legal penalty for helmet violations on corruption and lawbreaking. The study included 17,369 motorcyclists across 112 towns in Rajasthan. Randomly selected motorcyclists were informed of the actual fine for not wearing a helmet through private information campaigns via phone calls and SMS messages. The comparison group received general safe driving messages without the fine details.
