Distributing water cisterns in northeast Brazil led to fewer requests for private benefits from local politicians and fewer votes for incumbent mayors, who typically have more resources to engage in clientelism. Researchers and J-PAL's Latin America & Caribbean office are now working with the Climate Policy Initiative to support the Ministry of Social Development to design and implement an evaluation of the second deployment of cisterns.

Researchers evaluated the effect of social pressure to share income on farmers’ spending decisions by varying whether income from large cash prizes was received in a public or private setting. Receiving prize money in a public setting induced individuals to spend one-third more of their money in the first week than they would have had they received the money in private.

In India, where particulate matter pollution is a pressing issue, researchers are investigating whether increased transparency about industrial firms’ pollution emissions can improve the enforcement of environmental laws and reduce pollution.

Researchers worked with the Government of Nicaragua to evaluate the long-term impact of time-limited CCTs on education, reproductive health, and labor market outcomes. Ten years later, people whose families were offered cash transfers when they were younger children had higher labor force participation and earnings on average than people whose families were offered cash transfers when they were older children.

Although 20 percent of the population in New Delhi, India live in slums and represent an important voter group for politicians, public service provision in slums remains inadequate. In an ongoing study, researchers evaluated whether providing information to government officials and slum dwellers can lead to higher accountability and improved service delivery.

Researchers worked with First Valley Bank in the Philippines to evaluate the impact of varying the interest rate and account ownership requirements on demand for commitment savings accounts. While savings account take-up was 23 percent, neither the interest rates nor the ownership requirements affected individuals’ demand for accounts.

Researchers are conducting phone surveys to understand the effects of a community policing intervention on citizens' trust in the state and how that affects their willingness to comply with COVID-19 related measures in Uganda.

Researchers evaluated two programs to explore factors that may influence the amount of remittances people send: a temporary discount on the transaction fee and the provision of information about the returns to education in their home country. While the information about education did not change remittance amounts, the fee discount led to a substantial increase in the number of remittance transactions and the total amount remitted.

Researchers evaluated the impact of informational reminders and price discounts on bank clients’ overdraft usage in Turkey. While messages on the availability of overdraft protection services increased usage, messages promoting an overdraft discount actually reduced overdraft usage, potentially because the discount message reminded individuals of the costs associated with an overdraft.

Researchers evaluated whether the intensity of personalized interaction between borrowers and loan officers in India influenced borrowers’ repayment behavior. They found that clients with personal relationship managers at the bank had better repayment behavior but were not more satisfied with their loans overall.

Researchers are testing the relative effect on knowledge and savings behaviors of training customers through business correspondent agents and giving customers financial information directly, using an innovative mobile-based information platform.

Researchers are evaluating the impact of default deposits, SMS reminders to save, and short financial training for bank clients in low-income urban areas in Chile on saving and spending decisions.

Researchers studied the impact of an innovative taxpayer recognition program that appealed to business owners’ desires for social recognition on firms’ value-added tax (VAT) compliance and payment rates in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Preliminary results suggested that in areas where some firms were already paying taxes, sharing information on compliance in the area increased compliance and payments from neighboring firms that had not been making tax payments.

Researchers studied the short- and long-run effects of these reports on electricity use and found that reports reduced energy consumption by about 2 percent across twelve utilities. The reports had the strongest effect in the short-run, but the program had enduring effects among households that were dropped from the program after two years.

Researchers examined whether intra-household risk-sharing mechanisms such as financial transfers between spouses operate efficiently in Western and Nyanza Provinces of Kenya and found that intra-household insurance to protect against economic shocks was inefficient among daily income earners.