In western Uganda, researchers conducted a series of randomized evaluations that assessed the impact of introducing a combination of post-harvest services, training on agricultural best practices, and access to a market for high-quality maize on farmers’ productivity and profits. Researchers found that the extension services only intervention had little to no impacts on productivity and farmer profits.

In Kenya, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a light-touch positive psychology intervention on psychological well-being and economic decision-making for low-income populations. The intervention had a positive impact on gratitude; however, it had no significant impacts on psychological well-being or decision-making.

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to measure a major preschool construction program underway in Morocco.

In partnership with an education assessment firm, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to isolate the impact of computer-based individualized instruction in India. After nine months, lower-performing students in grades six to eight learned 22 percent of a standard deviation more in math if offered materials that matched their learning levels. For the average student, individualized instruction did not affect math learning.

In this randomized evaluation in Honduras, researchers assessed how the national Programa de Asignación Familiar (Family Allowance Program) CCT program, which provided a combination of transfers to households and transfers to support public goods, influenced voting in local and national elections. In municipalities where households received direct transfers, incumbent mayors faced a higher likelihood of re-election (an increase of 39 percent), but there was no impact on presidential election outcomes for any combination of transfers.

In Ghana, researchers worked with a bank that provides services to low-income customers with limited access to mainstream banking to evaluate the impact of sending pre-recorded informational voice calls and text messages on the adoption of mobile banking. Clients that received messages encouraging mobile banking were more likely to use mobile banking services and repay loans on time, while clients that received messages encouraging savings only had no measurable change in behavior.

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a package of interventions with the aim of improving the quality of nurseries, enhancing nutrition, and empowering women to address poverty and promote early childhood development in Egypt.

Increasing levels of migration to the European Union have created significant challenges for governments to ensure migrants fully integrate and thrive in their host societies, but there is little rigorous evidence that evaluates current programs that promote social inclusion. Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a peer matching program that aims to increase information and improve social capital on migrants’ social attitudes, Swedish language skills, employment, education levels, and general feeling of belonging in Sweden.

Building off of previous quasi-experimental research, researchers conducted three randomized evaluations to test the impact of providing farmers with land tax subsidies, different ways of monitoring water access and the canal’s operations and maintenance, or farming minikits on farmers' use of irrigation on their cultivated land. Researchers found that none of the interventions affected farmers’ choices to adopt irrigation, suggesting that there were more binding factors that constrained farmers’ decision-making.

Researchers tested whether sharing messages that appealed to negative emotions, like shame or disgust, increased households’ hand washing behavior and willingness to pay for water chlorination in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Negative messaging had no impact on chlorination levels or willingness to pay, but the provision of low-cost hand washing facilities did increase hand washing.

Researchers evaluated the effect of Argentina’s lottery-based conscription on draftees’ criminal activity. They found that conscription increased crime rates among draft-eligible Argentinians, especially those serving longer or during times of war.

Researchers evaluated the effect of randomly offering varied wages to bean-sorting workers in rural Malawi. While offering higher wages caused workers to increase their productivity, it did not attract more productive workers.

Youth living in poor urban areas face a number of psychological and social barriers to finding work. In France, over 40 percent of these youth are unemployed, twice as much the national youth unemployment rate. Researchers partnered with the French Public Employment Services to test the effectiveness of a collective job-search program targeting disadvantaged youth. Collective counseling was more effective in helping youth find a stable, full-time job than individual job counseling. The program performed better for jobseekers with higher employment prospects prior to the program, and in groups where participants had similar employment prospects.

Researchers evaluated and compared the impact of two different job search assistance policies on employment outcomes for young job seekers in Addis Ababa. Helping youth signal their skills to employers improved their earnings and job duration four years later, especially for youth who would usually fare the worst in the labor market. Reducing the cost of job search through a transportation subsidy improved the likelihood of having a formal job in the short run, but had no impact after four years.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to improve the quality of job matches in South Africa. They matched applicants to entry-level vacancies using different types of information: workers’ preferences for job types; communication and socio-emotional skills; or grades and work experience.