In many countries, national exit exams can allow youth who are not in school to achieve secondary school equivalency, potentially impacting their ultimate educational attainment and labor market outcomes. Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of offering stipends for exit exam preparatory courses on students’ exam completion and subsequent education, labor market, and marital outcomes.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of employment on refugee psychosocial well-being in Bangladesh. The study found that employment generated significant psychosocial value beyond that from cash transfers alone.

Researchers evaluated the impact of performance scorecards on the speed of delivery and the payment of bribes. Results show that the intervention increased on-time service delivery, but did not decrease bribe payments on average; bribes among high-performers increased.

Researchers partnered with the Government of Pakistan to conduct two parallel randomized evaluations to test the impact of providing supplemental teaching materials on the quality of student learning and teachers’ effectiveness. Overall, the eLearn Classroom intervention improved student achievement and students’ attendance for grade 8 students. Conversely, providing grade 6 students with individual eLearn Tablets worsened their test scores.

In this randomized evaluation in Romania, researchers compared the roles of preferences and information in households’ decision-making, with regard to high school selection. Results suggest that households provided with information on school quality tend to choose schools that have a greater academic impact on their children. However, households’ preferences for other school attributes also factor into their decision-making, including peer quality, location, and, most importantly, curriculum.

Researchers studied a policy reform in Boston, Massachusetts, that allowed effective charter schools to replicate their school models at new locations. Results showed that charter schools reproduced their effectiveness at new campuses by following similar sets of standardized protocols, demonstrating the feasibility of charter school replication.

In this randomized evaluation in Zimbabwe, researchers studied how social media messages targeting misinformation can affect people’s beliefs about and responses toward Covid-19. The study found that these messages increased participants’ knowledge of Covid-19 information by 7 percentage points and reduced potentially harmful behavior, or noncompliance with lockdown guidelines, by 30 percentage points.

In Peru, researchers are delivering cash grants and business training to Venezuelan migrant entrepreneurs and assessing the impacts on the short- and long-term success of enterprises as well as migrants’ food security, health, and income.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to gauge whether a short-term reading tutoring program could improve a range of student educational outcomes in the short- and medium-term (up to eight years after the program). They found that the program increased language test scores in the short term and improved several outcomes in the medium term, including reducing students’ probability of dropout, increasing their probability of graduating on time from primary and secondary school, and improving attendance, grades and test scores.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the impact of adding an additional education-focused worker in early childhood development centers on students’ learning and health outcomes. The program increased the time spent on pre-school education, boosting learning in math, reading, and executive function. It also allowed the main worker to devote more time to health and nutrition, reducing severe malnutrition and stunting.

Researchers conducted a correspondence study assessing property managers’ responses to rental listing inquiries from prospective tenants with distinctively Black, Hispanic/Latinx, or white names in the United States. Property managers were significantly less likely to respond to messages from prospective Black or Hispanic/Latinx renters than white ones.

Researchers partnered with a large payday lender in Indiana to conduct an evaluation to better understand consumers’ decision-making. The results suggest that average borrowers can anticipate their probability of taking loans in the future. However, people focus too much on the present when making decisions about payday loans, a behavior that they would like to change.

Researchers introduced a randomized information intervention to see if providing information on how different allocation methods work would shift the preferences of beneficiaries of a Nepalese land allocation program. On average, the information intervention did not change preferences for how land should be allocated, and about half of participants still preferred allocation methods that were less likely to match them with their desired plot of land.