Lasha Lanchava’s research while affiliated with Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute and other places

What is this page?


This page lists works of an author who doesn't have a ResearchGate profile or hasn't added the works to their profile yet. It is automatically generated from public (personal) data to further our legitimate goal of comprehensive and accurate scientific recordkeeping. If you are this author and want this page removed, please let us know.

Publications (4)


Fig 1. Risk task: A sample screenshot from the study. The two numbers on the left represent the gamble's possible gain and loss amounts (Top and Bottom, respectively). The number on the right represents the guaranteed amount. Participants had to indicate which option they wanted to choose by clicking the corresponding button. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0136716.g001  
Fig 1. Risk task: A sample screenshot from the study. The two numbers on the left represent the gamble's possible gain and loss amounts (Top and Bottom, respectively). The number on the right represents the guaranteed amount. Participants had to indicate which option they wanted to choose by clicking the corresponding button. 
Table 1 . Summary statistics for the sample. 
Fig 3. Frequency of risky choices when the expected value of RO is less than SO (left) and the expected value of RO is greater than SO (right) in Toxoplasma-infected and Toxoplasma-free subjects. The graph shows arithmetic means, standard errors and a p-value. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0136716.g003  
Fig 4. Decision response times (RT) in Toxoplasma-infected and Toxoplasma-free subjects. The graph shows arithmetic means, standard errors and a p-value. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0136716.g004  

+3

No Evidence of Association between Toxoplasma gondii Infection and Financial Risk Taking in Females
  • Article
  • Full-text available

September 2015

·

145 Reads

·

12 Citations

Lasha Lanchava

·

Kyle Carlson

·

·

[...]

·

Background: Past research linked Toxoplasma gondii (TG) infection in humans with neurological and mental disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and attention disorders), irregularities of the dopaminergic and testosterone system, and increased likelihood of being involved in traffic accidents. Methodology/principal findings: We test for an association between TG infection and financial decision-making (DM) using a case-control design in a sample of female Czech students (n = 79). We estimate each subject's risk attitude and loss aversion using an experimental economic task involving real monetary incentives. We find no significant evidence that either measure of decision-making is associated with TG infection. Conclusion: We were unable to find evidence of an association between TG infection and financial decision-making in females.

Download

Education for the Poor

January 2015

·

13 Reads

SSRN Electronic Journal

This paper investigates the impact on university enrollment of an unconditional cash transfer in Georgia, designed to help households living below the subsistence level. The program, introduced in 2005, selects recipients based upon a quantitative poverty threshold, which gives us the ability to implement a regression discontinuity design. We use data on program recipients from the Social Service Agency of Georgia (SSA) and on university admissions from the National Examination Center (NAEC) to create a single dataset and compare applicants who are above and below the threshold, while controlling for the main effect of the assignment variable itself. This paper is the first rigorous evaluation of this particular program. We find that being a program recipient significantly increases a student’s likelihood of university enrollment, by 6.3%. We also find a gender specific impact on enrollment. The impact is stronger for males; being a male child of a beneficiary family results in a 13.3% greater chance of university enrollment.


Does Religious Activity Affect Childbearing Decisions? The Case of Georgia

January 2014

·

13 Reads

·

1 Citation

SSRN Electronic Journal

In response to the problem of shrinking birthrates in the country, in October 2007, the head of the Georgian Orthodox church announced that he would personally baptize any third and further baby born to Orthodox families from that time. This study uses the initiative as a natural experiment to explore the economic consequences of religious activity. This analysis uses individual level survey data from the Caucasus Resource Research Center (CRRC) Georgia on fertility before and after the initiative for Orthodox Christians (treatment group) and Non- Orthodox Christians (control group) population to identify the effect of the church leader’s promise on birth rates. Difference-in-differences estimation procedure is employed to examine the potential causal effect. This analysis does not find evidence that the church initiative had an effect on fertility.


Free to Choose: An Experimental Investigation of the Value of Free Choice

January 2013

·

7 Reads

SSRN Electronic Journal

This study is the first economic experiment that tests the economic significance of the theory of psychological reactance (Brehm, 1966). For this purpose, I design an economic experiment in which subjects are asked to express their valuation of two-choice situations. In one case, subjects are given absolute freedom, whereas in another, the extent of their freedom of choice is limited. As the experimental data revealed, subjects’ valuation of free and limited choice situations did not differ significantly. Thus, in the experiment, the subjects did not display signs of reactance. In the end, the potential reasons of why the subjects did not exhibit reactance are discussed. The lessons derived from this study may serve as a future guide for testing the economic significance of the reactance theory.

Citations (2)


... Georgia's system of vital registration was incomplete prior to 2014, the microdata is unavailable for early fertility surveys, demographic data for the immediate post-independence period is unreliable, large shifts in migration have made population estimation challenging, and even the reliability of Georgian censuses has been called into question by Tsuladze et al. (2002). The only previous study of Georgian fertility related to the Patriarch's campaign, Lanchava (2014), was compelled to use a small sample of household rosters derived from a periodic public opinion survey, which was stratified, sampled, and weighted to represent the voter population (including overseas voters) and not the general population. As a result of these numerous challenges, we adopt multiple methods to assess the effects of Patriarch Ilia's baptism policy at the country level and at the individual level. ...

Reference:

Religiously inspired baby boom: evidence from Georgia
Does Religious Activity Affect Childbearing Decisions? The Case of Georgia
  • Citing Article
  • January 2014

SSRN Electronic Journal

... A noter toutefois qu'il s'agissait d'études de petite taille, qui contrôlaient imparfaitement l'ensemble des biais possibles.Une augmentation de la prise de risque, -qui serait le pendant de la néophobie et de l'anxiété diminuées chez le rongeur -, a également été rapportée chez des étudiants et des professionnels, notamment dans le cadre de l'entreprenariat et de la finance, ou après analyse des données de prévalence et de performances mondiales des entreprises (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor)[333]. A l'inverse, une petite étude cas-contrôle réalisée sur 79 étudiants ne retrouvait pas d'association entre séropositivité et prise de risque financier[334]. La présence d'ADN parasitaire dans les coupes de cerveaux lors d'autopsie a été décrite comme associée à un comportement à risque ayant conduit à la mort[169]. En revanche, une autre étude rétrospective sur 837 adultes n'objectivait pas d'association entre T. gondii et le développement de comportements violents[258].Ce lien entre prise de risque et infection latente a également été investigué pour sa contribution à la survenue d'accidents de la route (Annexe 6). ...

No Evidence of Association between Toxoplasma gondii Infection and Financial Risk Taking in Females