Search our database of 1090 randomized evaluations conducted by our affiliates in 91 countries. To browse summaries of key policy recommendations from a subset of these evaluations, visit the Policy Publications tab.

senior citizens wearing masks waiting for the Covid-19 vaccine

De-biasing Over-Optimism about Covid-19 Risks to Limit Vulnerable Individuals’ Risky Behavior in India

Seema Jayachandran
Rebecca Dizon-Ross
Ariel Zucker
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Encouraging Interregional Contact to Foster National Identity in Spain

Manuel Bagues
Christopher Roth

The Impact of Job Networks on Women’s Recruitment in Malawi

Jeremy Magruder
Lori Beaman
Niall Keleher
teacher facing a white board and students sitting behind her in a classroom

Scripted Teacher Lessons on Student Learning in Chile

Costas Meghir
Ana Reynoso
Marina Bassi
A family stands outside their home

The Impact of Social Program Targeting Strategies on Reported and Actual Asset Ownership in Indonesia

Abhijit Banerjee
Rema Hanna
Benjamin A. Olken
Sudarno Sumarto
group of Ethiopian women lighting candles

The Impact of a Gender-Transformative Participatory Intervention on Intimate Partner Violence and HIV Risk Behaviors in Ethiopia

Vandana Sharma
Jessica Leight
Fabio Verani
Samuel Tewolde
Negussie Deyesa
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The Role of the VAT for Tax Enforcement

Dina Pomeranz

The Value Added Tax (VAT) system, which generates a paper trail on transactions between firms, facilitated tax enforcement by spreading the impact of enforcement measures up the production chain in a study with over 400,000 firms in Chile.

men on boats fishing

Savings Accounts to Smooth Consumption for Low-Income Microentrepreneurs in Chile

Dina Pomeranz
Felipe Kast

Researchers examined the effects of free savings account access on savings account use, indebtedness, consumption, and well-being. Easy access to savings accounts reduced participants’ reliance on borrowing, helped them manage fluctuations in income, and increased their self-reported well-being.

Three men talking over paperwork outdoors

Formal Rainfall Insurance for the Informally Insured in India

Mushfiq Mobarak
Mark Rosenzweig

Researchers evaluated how informal insurance within Indian sub-castes affects the demand for formal rainfall insurance, and subsequent risk-taking among households employed in agriculture. Informal insurance both increased and decreased the demand for formal rainfall insurance, depending on the...

Powering Small Retailers: The Adoption of Solar Energy under Different Pricing Schemes in Kenya

Tavneet Suri
William Jack

Kenya, East Africa's largest economy, is struggling with an ageing energy infrastructure and low connectivity to the power grid. William Jack and affiliate Tavneet Suri (MIT) study the impact of off-grid solar power on small retailers in Nairobi.

Smiling men in a market in the Philippines

Financial Education vs. Access to Finance Among Filipino Migrants

Dean Yang
Rashmi Barua
Paolo Abarcar

International remittances are an important financial tool for many developing countries, and many organizations offer financial products or financial education services to help families manage the remittances they receive. Researchers provided families with financial products and financial education...

Internal Revenue Service building in the United States

Improving Take-Up of Tax Benefits in the United States

Dayanand Manoli
Saurabh Bhargava

In the United States, many people who are eligible for social and economic benefits do not claim those benefits. Researchers partnered with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to test the effectiveness of different messages to taxpayers designed to encourage them to claim certain tax benefits.

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Evaluating an Exporting Scheme in Tunisia

Aminur Rahman
Eric Verhoogen
Giacomo di Giorgi
To promote export diversification, the Tunisian government is implementing a $22 million export matching-grant scheme, TASDIR+. TASDIR+ aims to increase exports and promote export diversification toward higher value-added exports and new markets. This study is using a randomized controlled trial to...
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Sending Reminders to Improve Tax Filing Decisions Among Low-Income Individuals in the United States

Dayanand Manoli
John Guyton
Brenda Schafer
Michael Sebastiani
Pat Langetieg
Mark Payne
This study examines how reminders to file taxes affect tax filing decisions among low-income individuals who did not appear on a filed tax return. The results of two randomized evaluations demonstrate that one-time reminders increase tax filing—both to claim tax refunds as well as to voluntarily pay...