Alison Andrew Publications

Social connections are fundamental to human well-being. We examine the social networks of mothers of young children in rural Odisha, India. Gendered norms around marriage, mobility, and work likely shape this group’s opportunities to form and maintain ties. We track 2,170 mothers’ networks over 4 years and find a high degree of isolation. Wealthier women and women from more-advantaged castes and tribes have smaller networks than their less-advantaged peers, primarily because they know fewer women within their own socioeconomic group. There exists strong but symmetric homophily by socioeconomic group. Socioeconomic differences are associated with toilet ownership and labor force participation.

Globally, preschool enrollment has surged, but its quality is often poor. We evaluate strategies to improve quality of public preschools in Colombia. The first, designed by the government and rolled out nationwide, provided extra funding, mainly earmarked for hiring teaching assistants. The second also offered low-cost training for existing teachers. The first intervention had no effect on child development, while the second improved children’s cognitive development, especially for more disadvantaged children. This pattern can be explained by the interventions affecting teachers' behavior differently. The first led teachers to reduce their classroom time, including learning activities, while additional training offset the adverse effect on learning activities and improved teaching quality.