Home / Central Data Catalog / IND_2018_ILMSDPBM-IE_V01_M
central

Improving Last-Mile Service Delivery using Phone-Based Monitoring Impact Evaluation 2018

India, 2018
Get Microdata
Reference ID
IND_2018_ILMSDPBM-IE_v01_M
Producer(s)
Jeffrey Weaver, Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Niehaus, Sandip Sukhtankar
Metadata
Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON
Created on
Jan 05, 2026
Last modified
Jan 05, 2026
Download related resources
Reports
Improving Last- Mile Service Delivery Using Phone- Based Monitoring
Download [PDF, 1020.1 KB]
Author(s) Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Niehaus, Sandip Sukhtankar, and Jeffrey Weaver
Country India
Publisher(s) American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
Abstract Improving “last-mile” public service delivery is a recurring challenge in developing countries. Could the widespread adoption of mobile phones provide a scalable, cost-effective means for improvement? We use a large-scale experiment to evaluate the impact of phone-based monitoring on a program that transferred nearly a billion dollars to 5.7 million Indian farmers. In randomly selected jurisdictions, officials were informed that program implementation would be measured via calls with beneficiaries. This led to a 7.8 percent reduction in the number of farmers who did not receive their transfers. The program was highly cost-effective, costing 3.6 cents for each additional dollar delivered.
Table of contents I. Setting and Intervention
II. Research Methods
III. Results
IV. Conclusion
Download http://catalog.ihsn.org//catalog/13620/download/108439
Technical documents
Stata Do Files for Replication
Download [ZIP, 20.72 KB]
Country India
Description Folder contains 19 Stata do files that can be used to replicate all analysis-based tables and figures in the published version of “Improving Last-Mile Service Delivery using Phone-Based Monitoring.”
Download http://catalog.ihsn.org//catalog/13620/download/108437
Zip preview
adminsetup.do
balancetables.do
figure2.do
figure3.do
figure4.do
figurea1.do
figurea2.do
installpackages.do
master.do
phonesetup.do
table3and4.do
table5.do
tablea1.do
tablea2.do
tablea3.do
tablea4.do
tablea5anda6.do
tablea7.do
tablea8.do
Replication Manual: “Improving Last-Mile Service Delivery using Phone-Based Monitoring”
Download [PDF, 424.19 KB]
Country India
Description The replication archive contains a directory with 3 sub-directories, a master analysis file, and this Readme document. This manual describes in detail how one can replicate all analysis-based tables and figures in the published version of “Improving Last-Mile Service Delivery using Phone-Based Monitoring.”

Notes on the readme file:
1) For labels and descriptions of the variables in the BalanceTests4.dta dataset, refer to BalanceTests3.dta in the readme file. The variables appear there.
2) The rand and mandal_id variables in the miscdata.dta dataset and the dist_id, dist_mandal_uid_MC, and village_uid_MC variables in the mcdata.dta dataset are generated ID variables.
Table of contents 1. Overview
2. Data
3. Code
4. Detailed list of content
Download http://catalog.ihsn.org//catalog/13620/download/108438
Back to Catalog