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The Economic, Health, and Psychological Effects of Health Insurance and Unconditional Cash Transfers in Kenya

Justin Abraham
Matthieu Chemin
Chaning Jang
Researchers evaluated the effects of a free health insurance policy and UCTs of the same value on the economic, health, and psychological outcomes of informal workers in Kenya. Participants who received health insurance self-reported reduced stress and had lower cortisol levels; UCTs led to fewer...

India’s Happiness Curriculum to Improve Youth Mental Health, Learning, and Development

Avinash Moorthy
Researchers are examining the impact of a socioemotional learning curriculum on student mental health, academic achievement, and other social outcomes.

Direct and Indirect Effects of Malawi's Public Works Program on Food Security

Kathleen Beegle
Emanuela Galasso
Researchers worked with the Malawi Social Action Fund to conduct a randomized evaluation of the program’s effect on food security. They found no evidence that the program improved food security, and there were some indications that the program decreased the food security of non-beneficiaries living...

Promoting High Impact Entrepreneurship in Mexico

A lack of access to finance can impede the potential for growth among small firms. To meet this finance gap and to encourage high-growth entrepreneurship, governments and multilateral agencies throughout the developing world often directly fund small and medium enterprises. Governments, however...

The Effects of Varying Input Market Timing and Access to Credit on Farmers’ Agricultural Investment in Mali

Nicoló Tomaselli
In Mali, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test how the design and timing of a physical market for inputs (village input fairs) with varying levels of credit access affected farmers’ investment decisions. They found that farmers with access to credit from VIFs organized after harvest...