EAGER: Using eye tracking to study migrant remittances and its welfare implications

美国国家科学基金会使用探索性研究的早期概念拨款（EAGER）资助机制来支持在未经测试但具有潜在变革性的研究思路或方法的早期阶段的探索性工作。这个EAGER项目是由于Dear Colleague Letter NSF 16-080邀请来自历史上的黑人学院和大学的申请者提交提案，以加强该机构教师的研究能力而获得的。斯佩尔曼学院（Spelman College）的这个项目旨在利用眼动追踪形式的数据，与在线创业公司RemitRight合作，研究移民的实际汇款决策。该项目将加强研究能力，并为斯佩尔曼学院的本科生提供教育机会。移民汇款是全球发展的重要推动力。尽管如此，汇款的成本仍然很高。建立可公开获取的在线或移动比较数据库，其中包含有关汇款成本、速度和可靠性的信息，是提高透明度和降低交易成本的最有效手段之一。这反过来又要求这样的数据库简单、可访问和用户友好。本研究将与一家建立并维护世界银行认证的在线汇款元搜索平台的公司合作，以测试比较购物的行为基础。这项研究的主要新颖之处在于，它使用眼动追踪来解开实验得出的和自然发生的移民汇款决定的“黑盒子”。通过这样做，这项研究揭示了搜索、选择和信息的行为基础；如何使用神经经济学数据来改进网站定制和在线或移动比较购物；以及由此产生的对移民和受助人的福利影响。从更广泛的角度来看，这项研究还将为如何利用精细的神经经济学数据来制定发展政策提供证据。该EAGER项目由社会、行为与经济科学和教育与人力资源部共同资助。

The National Science Foundation uses the Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) funding mechanism to support exploratory work in its early stages on untested, but potentially transformative, research ideas or approaches. This EAGER project was awarded as a result of the invitation in the Dear Colleague Letter NSF 16-080 to proposers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to submit proposals that would strengthen research capacity of faculty at the institution. The project at Spelman College aims to use data in the form of eye tracking to study actual migrant remittance decisions in partnership with RemitRight, an online startup company. The project will strengthen research capacity and provide educational opportunities to undergraduate students at Spelman College. Migrant remittances are a significant driver of global development. Nonetheless, sending remittances remains costly. The creation of publicly available online or mobile comparison databases containing information on the cost, speed, and reliability of sending remittances is one of the most efficient means to increase transparency and reduce transaction costs. This in turn requires such databases to be simple, accessible, and user-friendly. This study will partner with a company that has built and maintains a World Bank-certified metasearch platform for online money transfers, to test behavioral foundations of comparison-shopping. The main novelty of the study is the use of eye tracking to unpack "the black box" of experimentally elicited and naturally-occurring migrant remittance decisions. In so doing, the study sheds light on the behavioral foundations of search, choice, and information; how neuroeconomic data can be used to improve site customization and online or mobile comparison-shopping; and on the resulting welfare effects that couldaccrue to migrants and recipients. From a broader standpoint, the study will also provide evidence for how refined neureconomic data can be used to craft development policy. This EAGER project is co-funded by the Directorates for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences and Education & Human Resources.