Energy-efficient technologies, such as compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs), have the potential to save consumers money, but their adoption remains low. Researchers evaluated the impact of information and price on demand for CFLs in two contexts: an online survey platform and a typical retail setting. Information and subsidies increased consumers’ willingness to purchase CFLs. Researchers estimate that CFL subsidies and information may be more beneficial than bans on incandescent lightbulbs.

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 are testing the impact that stress-tolerant seeds, which have better yields than conventional varieties under weather shocks, affect landless laborers.

During periods of high electricity use that strain the grid, electricity customers do not have any reason to conserve because they pay a fixed price per kilowatt hour of power. In this study, the researcher evaluated the impact on electricity usage of a real-time pricing scheme, which charges households different prices throughout the day based on fluctuating wholesale costs. Households charged according to real-time pricing consumed less electricity in response to higher prices, primarily due to lower consumption during peak times.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether organizing short learning sessions for villagers about early adopters’ use of a flood-tolerant rice seed variety, Swarna-Sub1, impacted other farmers’ adoption of it. These “farmer field days” were a cost-effective strategy to improve farmers’ learning about Swarna-Sub1 and increased their take-up of Swarna-Sub1 in the next planting season by 40 percent.

Researchers worked with a large nationwide retailer in the United States to test whether sharing information, and providing subsidies and sales incentives had an effect on the demand for energy efficient water heaters. Results showed that information alone did not increase demand, and a $100 rebate or the combination of a $25 sales incentives and a $100 rebate significantly increased purchases of the water heaters. In this context, providing more information alone was not an effective way of increasing demand for energy efficient durable goods.

A study on parents’ demand for conditionality in a Brazilian cash transfer program revealed that parents are willing to pay to for the conditionality in order to monitor their children’s school attendance.

An evaluation of a microenterprise assistance program, with and without involving male partners, found that it improved women’s economic outcomes, but that depended on the quality of women’s relationships with their intimate partners. While the program had no impact on IPV, involving male partners did improve relationship quality.

In Ethiopia, researchers randomly assigned mostly female jobseekers to receive an industrial job offer or an unconditional cash transfer, meant to spur self-employment. While they found positive impacts of the cash transfers on occupational choice, income, and health in the first year, these effects largely dissipated after five years, suggesting one-time interventions may be insufficient for overcoming barriers to wage- or self-employment.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the effectiveness of providing individualized coaching to university students on their persistence in university courses. Students who were assigned to a coach were more likely to persist in university.

To evaluate the demand for solar electricity, researchers randomly offered solar microgrid connections at different prices to households in rural areas of Bihar, India. Demand for microgrids was highly variable and low when they were offered at market price, likely because there were several other sources of electricity providing similar services.

Researchers partnered with the Government of Paraguay to measure the impact of a new monitoring technology—GPS-enabled cell phones—on the job performance of agricultural extension agents (AEAs). Overall, cell phones improved AEAs’ performance by increasing the share of farmers visited, and researchers found that supervisors possessed useful information regarding which AEA’s performance would improve the most from phone-based monitoring.

In Ethiopia, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to assess the impact of behavioral nudges on household behaviors, like grain and flour storage, cooking, and consumption, as well as on childhood nutrition. They found that households improved grain storage and cooking practices, and children in those households ate more of the improved maize.

Researchers randomly provided free fertilizer to women rice farmers in southern Mali to measure how farmers chose to use the fertilizer, what changes they made to their agricultural practices, and the profitability of these changes. The fertilizer grants led to increased fertilizer use, use of complementary inputs such as herbicides and hired labor, and yields, yet did not lead to substantial increase in profit.