Evaluations
Search our database of 998 randomized evaluations conducted by our affiliates in 84 countries. To browse summaries of key policy recommendations from a subset of these evaluations, visit the Policy Publications tab.
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Featured
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Finance
Eliminating Behavioral Barriers to Saving through a Tablet App for the Base of the Pyramid in Paraguay
Jeanne Lafortune , Jose Tessada, Liliana Olarte, Viviane AzevedoDespite the benefits of accumulating savings, low-income individuals rarely use formal savings products. Researchers are partnering with a financial institution in Paraguay to evaluate the impact of a range of tablet-based applications, which remind people to save and help them make savings goals, on savings behavior of low-income individuals.
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Labor Markets
Discrimination in the Job Market in the United States
Researchers examined the level of racial discrimination in the United States labor market by randomly assigning identical résumés black-sounding or white-sounding names and observing the impact on requests for interviews from employers. Results found that résumés with white-sounding names received 50 percent more callbacks than those with black-sounding names, indicating that, all other things being equal, considerable racial discrimination exists in the American labor market.
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Finance, Health
Extending Health Insurance to the Informal Sector Through Microfinance in Nicaragua
Erica Field, Rebecca Thornton , Laurel Hatt, Mursaleena Islam, Freddy Solis Diaz, Martha Gonzalez Monada, Anne FitzpatrickThis evaluation measured the determinants of insurance enrollment as well as the impacts of having insurance for informal sector workers by randomly varying the costs and convenience of signing up for a government health insurance program available to formal and informal sector workers in Nicaragua. Overall, take-up of the insurance and retention rates were low, and enrolling in the program did not provide an absolute cost savings for participants.
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Political Economy & Governance
Does Development Aid Undermine Political Accountability in Bangladesh?
Mushfiq Mobarak , Raymond GuiterasThere is little evidence to lend credence to or discredit the argument that development aid undermines political accountability. In Tanore district of Bangladesh, researchers tested the impact of providing external subsidies for sanitation projects on the behavior of local leaders and, subsequently, on constituents’ perception of their performance. They found that while constituents credited leaders for the sanitation program when the funding source was unknown, they did not credit local leaders when funding information was made transparent.
Environment, Energy, & Climate Change
Default Effects and Follow-On Behavior: Evidence From An Electricity Pricing Program
Catherine Wolfram, Meredith Fowlie
, C. Anna Spurlock, Annika Todd, Patrick Baylis, Peter Cappers
Environment, Energy, & Climate Change, Political Economy & Governance
Protecting Fisheries through Enforcement and Information Campaigns in Chile
Mushfiq Mobarak
, Andres Gonzalez-Lira
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of enforcement visits to fish markets and a consumer information campaign on the illegal sale of hake fish. They found that both the information campaign and enforcement visits reduced hake availability and consumption.
Political Economy & Governance, Environment, Energy, & Climate Change
Replacing an inefficient policy of free agricultural electricity in India
Nick Ryan
, Anant Sudarshan
Policymakers may continue economically inefficient policies for several reasons including subsidizing a particular sector, reducing inequities etc. These policies can reduce welfare for the population as a whole and in some cases can be replaced by more efficient alternatives that continue to serve policymaker goals.