The impact of a study abroad programme on learning abilities and personality traits: evidence from a randomization

Personality traits are increasingly considered as a powerful predictor of socio-economic success as academic achievement. In this article, we exploit the random assignment of applicants to a programme in order to retrieve unbiased estimates of the impact of studying abroad on both cognitive and noncognitive abilities. Our findings suggest that secondary school students, especially those considered ‘more able’, benefited from a 1-month experience abroad, as it enhanced both personality traits and language proficiency.     

Crop Insurance Valuation under Alternative Yield Distributions

Considerable disagreement exists about the most appropriate characterization of farm-level yield distributions. Yet, the economic importance of alternative yield distribution specifications on crop insurance valuation has not been well documented. The results of this study demonstrate that large differences in expected payouts from popular crop insurance products can arise solely from the parameterization chosen to represent yield distributions. The results suggest that the frequently unexamined yield distribution specification may lead to economically significant errors in crop insurance policy rating and assessment of expected payouts from policies.