In Mexico, researchers evaluated a math tutoring intervention and a cognitive behavioral therapy-based (CBT) program that aimed to encourage students to slow their decision-making processes and to improve academic readiness for secondary school students at risk of dropping out. The study found mixed effects on socio-emotional skills among students, and no effect on math test scores, though take-up was limited.

In Hong Kong, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of indirectly incentivizing protest participation on sustained participation in a political movement and to identify the role social networks play in protest turnout. Indirectly incentivizing participants to attend a political protest increased their participation regardless of how many of their peers received the same incentive. Participants’ subsequent protest participation remained persistently higher a year later, but only when at least half of their social network was also incentivized to attend the initial protest.

In Liberia and Malawi, researchers partnered with Innovations for Poverty Action, GiveDirectly, and USAID to evaluate the impact of an unconditional cash transfer and market access program on food security, spending, income, resilience to health shocks, intimate partner violence, and psychological well-being. In both countries, households that received cash transfers experienced lasting increases in food security, psychological well-being, and resilience to health shocks.

Researchers worked with Innovations for Poverty Action, the Liberian Ministry of Education, and the group of eight private operators to conduct a randomized evaluation to assess the effects of outsourcing management of public schools after one and three years.