Events
Brown Bag Seminar: Laura Schechter
PSC’s Brown Bag seminar series typically convenes Mondays at noon, at ISR Thompson Room 1430, and on Zoom.
Laura Schechter from the University of Wisconsin joins us Sept. 29, 2025.
Imperfect Competition and Sanitation: Evidence from Randomized Auctions in Senegal
Abstract: We study the extent to which collusion can explain the under-provision of clean sanitation technologies in developing countries. Using latrine desludging services in Dakar as a case-study, we document that prices are 40% lower in competitive areas than in areas where prices are coordinated by a trade association. We then develop an experimental just-in-time auction platform with random variation in several design features to formally test for collusive conduct and estimate the welfare costs of imperfect competition. Consistent with the collusion hypothesis, we find that bidders systematically avoid competition by placing round bids and refraining from undercutting rivals. We use a K-means clustering algorithm to classify bidders as competitive, collusive, or na¨ıve and simulate counterfactuals in which non-competitive bidders are replaced with competitive bidders. This would significantly increase take-up of the improved sanitation technology, with back-of-the-envelope calculations suggesting improvements in health of a similar magnitude to those from building improved sewerage systems.
Bio: Laura Schechter is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Before that she was Olav F. and Elsie de Noyer Anderson-Bascom Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics at UW-Madison. She is associate editor at the Economic Journal. In 2022 she finished a six-year term as co-editor at Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and In 2019 she finished a three-year term as associate editor at the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Her work has been covered by NPR’s Planet Money and has been funded by the NSF, IFPRI, PEDL, and ATAI among others. Her work has been published in top general interest economics journals such as Econometrica, American Economic Review, and the Economic Journal, as well as in top agricultural economics journals such as American Journal of Agricultural Economics and Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, and in top development economics journals such as Journal of Development Economics.
https://umich.zoom.us/j/954186
Meeting ID: 954 1861 0585
Passcode: 818420
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