Combining experimental evidence with machine learning to assess anti-corruption educational campaigns among Russian university students

2021
This paper examines how anti-corruption educational campaigns affect the attitudes of Russian university students toward corruption and academic integrity in the short run. About 2000 survey participants were randomly assigned to one of four different information materials (brochures or videos) about the negative consequences of corruption or to a control group. While we do not find important effects in the full sample, applying machine learning methods for detecting effect heterogeneity suggests that some subgroups of students might react to the same information differently, albeit statistical significance mostly vanishes when accounting for multiple hypotheses testing. Taking the point estimates at face value, students who commonly plagiarize appear to develop stronger negative attitudes toward corruption in the aftermath of our intervention. Unexpectedly, some information materials seem inducing more tolerant views on corruption among those who plagiarize less frequently and in the group of male students, while the effects on female students are generally close to zero. Therefore, policy makers aiming to implement anti-corruption education at a larger scale should scrutinize the possibility of (undesired) heterogeneous effects across student groups.
EMPIRICAL ECONOMICS
页码:1661-1684|卷号:60|期号:4
ISSN:0377-7332
收录类型
SSCI
发表日期
2021
学科领域
循证经济学
国家
瑞士
语种
英语
DOI
10.1007/s00181-020-01827-1
其他关键词
SELECTION; GENDER; FIELD
EISSN
1435-8921
资助机构
Center for Governance and Culture in Europe at the University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland
资助信息
This study was conducted with financial support provided by the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe at the University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland. The sponsor influenced neither the research design nor the interpretation of the results.
被引频次(WOS)
1
被引更新日期
2022-01
来源机构
University of Fribourg Pacific National University Boston College
关键词
Anti-corruption campaigns Experiments Corruption Academic integrity University Students Russia