Estimating the effect of intergroup contact over years: Evidence from a youth program in Israel

Abstract

We study how an intervention combining youth intergroup contact and sports affects intergroup relations in the context of an active conflict. We first conduct an RCT of one-year program exposure in Israel. To track effects of a multiyear exposure, we then use machine learning techniques to fuse the RCT with the observational data gathered on multiyear participants. This analytical approach can help overcome frequent limitations of RCTs, such as modest sample sizes and short observation periods. Our evidence cannot affirm a one-year effect on outgroup regard and ingroup regulation, although we estimate benefits of multiyear exposure among Jewish-Israeli youth, particularly boys. We discuss implications for interventions in contexts of active conflict and group status asymmetry.

Political Backlash to Refugee Settlement: Cultural and Economic Drivers

“…Moreover, while transient refugee exposure increases far-right voting, persistent or meaningful contact appears to reduce anti-immigration sentiment (e.g. Steinmayr, 2021;Dinas et al, 2019;Albrecht et al, 2020;Bursztyn et al, 2021;Asimovic et al, 2022). 4 We complement this literature on refugee immigration in two ways.…”

Cash-Based Interventions Improve Multidimensional Integration Outcomes of Venezuelan Immigrants

“…This empirical framework provides a credible impact assessment in a context where, due to the urgent needs of this highly vulnerable population, randomization of treatment assignments, or even randomized treatment delays, were not considered feasible for ethical reasons. Along with other recent methodological developments such as fusing experimental with observational data (Asimovic, Ditlmann, and Samii, 2022), we hope that this empirical framework is helpful to researchers who want to maximize learning while working with international and civil society organization serving vulnerable populations with urgent needs.…”