Evaluations

Researchers sent letters to polling stations announcing smartphone vote-tally audits to evaluate the impact of audits on electoral irregularities such as non-adherence to transparency regulations and falsified vote tallies. Relative to a comparison group, letters increased the number of polling...

Can media campaigns increase voter turnout among those underrepresented in the electorate? Researchers randomly assigned areas covered by Native American radio programming to either receive or not receive targeted radio messaging encouraging listeners to vote in the 2008 and 2010 US elections. The...

Researchers examined two occasions in which an Argentine Congressional chamber was subject to randomly assigned term lengths as a result of political or constitutional changes. Assignment to a longer term increased overall legislative effort.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to study the impact of elite capture in a conditional cash transfer program in Indonesia. Elite capture existed in some programs, but the welfare losses created were small, suggesting that improving administrative capabilities in targeting methods might...

The collection of delinquent fines is a massive public administrative challenge. In the United Kingdom for instance, unpaid court fines amounted to more than £600 million in 2011. Managing noncompliant accounts and dispatching bailiffs to collect fines in person is costly. Researchers used a...