{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,12]],"date-time":"2026-10-12T22:35:52Z","timestamp":1791844552259,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"The Econometric Society","issue":"2","funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100012353","name":"International Growth Centre","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100012353","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["ECTA"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Standard models of hierarchy assume that agents and middle managers are better informed than principals. We estimate the value of the informational advantage held by supervisors\u2014middle managers\u2014when ministerial leadership\u2014the principal\u2014introduced a new monitoring technology aimed at improving the performance of agricultural extension agents (AEAs) in rural Paraguay. Our approach employs a novel experimental design that elicited treatment\u2010priority rankings from supervisors before randomization of treatment. We find that supervisors have valuable information\u2014they prioritize AEAs who would be more responsive to the monitoring treatment. We develop a model of monitoring under different scales of treatment roll\u2010out and different treatment allocation rules. We semiparametrically estimate marginal treatment effects (MTEs) to demonstrate that the value of information and the benefits to decentralizing treatment decisions depend crucially on the sophistication of the principal and on the scale of roll\u2010out.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3982\/ecta17497","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,15]],"date-time":"2021-03-15T09:42:01Z","timestamp":1615801321000},"page":"677-701","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":43,"title":["Information Technology and Government Decentralization: Experimental Evidence From Paraguay"],"prefix":"10.3982","volume":"89","author":[{"given":"Ernesto","family":"Dal B\u00f3","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"UC Berkeley"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Frederico","family":"Finan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"UC Berkeley"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nicholas Y.","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CFPB"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Laura","family":"Schechter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"UW Madison"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"2359","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021]]},"reference":[{"issue":"4","key":"ecta200243-bib-0001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1759","DOI":"10.1162\/qjec.2007.122.4.1759","volume":"122","author":"Acemoglu","year":"2007","journal-title":"Quarterly Journal of Economics"},{"issue":"1","key":"ecta200243-bib-0002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1086\/262063","volume":"105","author":"Aghion","year":"1997","journal-title":"Journal of Political Economy"},{"key":"ecta200243-bib-0003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"239","DOI":"10.1016\/j.econedurev.2019.05.001","volume":"72","author":"Aker","year":"2019","journal-title":"Economics of Education Review"},{"issue":"4","key":"ecta200243-bib-0004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1206","DOI":"10.1257\/aer.102.4.1206","volume":"102","author":"Alatas","year":"2012","journal-title":"American Economic Review"},{"issue":"3","key":"ecta200243-bib-0005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"375","DOI":"10.1016\/S0047-2727(00)00145-6","volume":"83","author":"Alderman","year":"2002","journal-title":"Journal of Public Economics"},{"key":"ecta200243-bib-0006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Athey, S., R. 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