Governments increasingly deliver public services through digital platforms embedding procedural frictions—passwords, document uploads, multi-step portals—that disproportionately burden vulnerable families. Arteaga, Kapor, Neilson, and Zimmerman (QJE 2022; AER...

Facility inspections are central to environmental regulation but are costly, infrequent, and detect only a small share of violations. Since 2015, the researchers have partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to apply machine learning (ML)...

This project evaluates whether an AI-enabled courtroom support system can strengthen judicial capacity by reducing administrative burden on judges and improving case processing in Indian courts. The intervention deploys AI-based tools that automate...

Teacher turnover is a major challenge in Rwanda, where approximately 20 percent of primary teachers leave their positions each year. Current centralized placement practices assign teachers randomly to schools within districts, often misaligning teachers'...

Public procurement represents a large share of government spending but often suffers from limited competition and information frictions that disadvantage small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This project evaluates whether artificial intelligence, specifically...

Women micro entrepreneurs in rural Punjab, Pakistan, operate under informational problems, restricted mobility, and psychosocial strain. Baseline data show that, despite strong economic potential, most lack access to market information, business mentorship, or...

In Kenya, most land and property disputes are resolved outside formal courts, yet rising land values and legal reforms have increased the stakes associated with unclear property rights. Informational and procedural barriers often determine dispute outcomes...

Millions of children worldwide struggle to read or do basic mathematics by age 10. While many interventions have been tested–including Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) pioneered by Pratham, and various forms of ed-tech–scaling effective, personalized...

Credible skills certification can improve employment outcomes–especially for low-income workers who often lack credible resume signals. But such assessments only matter if hiring managers both trust and effectively use them. Yet, the link between assessment...

Low-income countries participate in global value chains typically as suppliers of primary commodities, while value is added through processing in richer countries. This pattern keeps income low, and is mirrored within countries: smallholder farmers, who...

The pilot will develop and evaluate AI-enabled community outreach for preventing low-income tenant eviction. Housing insecurity and homelessness threaten the health and social inclusion of marginalized populations around the US and the world. Research...

This project’s multidisciplinary team of economists and data scientists has partnered since 2018 with the French Public Employment Service (PES) to leverage its rich administrative data and operational infrastructure to design and test recommender systems for...

This project investigates the potential of AI to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of job matching in low- and middle-income countries. Partnering with two innovative NGOs in Kenya—Tabiya and Swahilipot—the researchers evaluate “Compass,” an AI-powered...

AI could dramatically increase access to diagnostic health screenings in low-resource settings by predicting health outcomes using low-cost, mobile tests. This project will develop and evaluate the impact of an AI-based referral tool that predicts risk of...

This project will study how to use algorithms to equalize students’ educational opportunities in a tracked high school system. The researchers will use a randomized evaluation in around 400 Italian middle schools to test two conceptually different ways to...