Evaluations

Policy Publications

Search our database of policy briefcases, bulletins, and evidence reviews. Briefcases summarize the results and policy recommendations from one randomized evaluation, while bulletins synthesize the broader policy lessons emerging from multiple evaluations on the same topic. Evidence reviews summarize an existing academic literature review, like a handbook chapter or white paper, for a policy audience.

Displaying 1-9 of 19
Sign pointing towards emergency room

Understanding Medicaid Expansion: The Effects of Insuring Low-Income Adults

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Last Updated:
January 29, 2014
The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment found that covering the uninsured with Medicaid increased the use of health care, including primary care, hospitalizations, and emergency room visits; diminished financial strain; and reduced depression. There was no statistically significant impact on physical...
Two women sit face to face. The woman on the left holds a pedometer and is speaking to the woman on the right.

Stepping Up to Combat Urban Diabetes

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Last Updated:
July 7, 2021
Providing financial incentives to walk at least 10,000 steps per day led to increased exercise and moderate physical and mental health improvements among diabetics and prediabetics in India, with "threshold" contracts being especially effective for diabetics who are more impatient.
Health care workers in Sierra Leone put on personal protective equipment during the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak.

Health Care Communities Can Count On

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March 9, 2021
  • Darin Christensen
  • Oeindrila Dube
  • Johannes Haushofer
  • Bilal Siddiqi
  • Maarten Voors
Community monitoring and nonfinancial award programs for health clinics in Sierra Leone improved clinic utilization, patient satisfaction, and reporting during the 2014 Ebola crisis. Community monitoring improved child health and reduced mortality among Ebola patients.
A young child receiving immunization drops

Customizing Performance Pay to Overcome Health Worker Procrastination in Pakistan

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Last Updated:
January 6, 2021
  • James Andreoni
  • Michael Callen
  • Karrar Hussain
  • Muhammad Yasir Khan
  • Charles Sprenger
Tailoring performance-based incentives according to health providers’ innate characteristics reduced procrastination and increased polio vaccination in Pakistan.
women holding hand out to receive medication

On Track: Health Care, Patient Data, and Provider Performance

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Last Updated:
June 8, 2020
Biometric tracking increased the likelihood that patients adhered to recommended tuberculosis treatment, improved health worker attendance, and reduced misreporting of patient data by health workers.

HCDI Evidence Wrap-up

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Last Updated:
March 26, 2020
This publication describes some work to date supported by J-PAL North America’s US Health Care Delivery Initiative (HCDI). It summarizes the results of several randomized controlled trials supported by HCDI, as well as several publications related to studies supported by HCDI.
A healthcare worker and mother with a baby in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the Business of Saving Lives

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Last Updated:
February 5, 2019
In Uganda, an incentivized community health promoter program increased health care access, knowledge, and health-promoting behaviors among households, leading to a 27 percent reduction in child mortality.
Young women take a group photo

Reducing Pregnancy Among Adolescents

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Last Updated:
June 12, 2018
Across a range of programs, interventions that successfully changed the calculus of costs and benefits of unprotected sexual activity and childbirth delayed pregnancy among adolescents. Some programs directly altered costs and benefits while others shifted perceptions of them.

Responding to Risk: HIV Prevention and Male Circumcision

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Last Updated:
December 17, 2015
In rural Malawi, providing information about voluntary medical male circumcision and HIV transmission risk reduced risky sexual behavior among uncircumcised men, but did not increase take-up of circumcision. A subsequent evaluation of a voucher program in urban Malawi found that providing...