How important are the returns to education in determining schooling decisions? Do students have accurate information about these returns when they choose whether to continue schooling? In partnership with the Ministry of Education in the Dominican Republic, researchers are evaluating the impact of informational videos about the benefits of education on the decision of students to invest in additional schooling. Preliminary results suggest that exposure to the videos lead to a decrease in dropout for 8th grade students.

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.

Vaccination programs are considered to be cost-effective strategies to reduce child mortality and morbidity, but in many low-income countries, coverage for routine vaccines remains low. This is due to a range of possible factors including low parent knowledge about the benefits of vaccination, inadequate vaccine supply, and poor supply chain management. In Mozambique, researchers are examining the effectiveness of a mobile application-based solution that uses mobile technology to overcome these challenges and improve vaccination coverage.

Researchers conducted two randomized evaluations to test 1) the impact of providing public spending information on voter attitudes and 2) the impact of cash transfers on parental preferences for education.

Researchers evaluated the impact of providing schools with an unconditional cash grant, a teacher incentive program, or both on student learning. The cash grant had no impact on student learning, while the teacher incentive program had mixed results. However, combining both programs together had an even greater impact on student learning compared to the sum of the effects from each individual component alone.

Informational campaigns and price subsidies are common ways to increase the use of health products in developing countries, but little is known about the effect of combining these tools. In Zambia, researchers investigated whether households’ demand for chlorine at varying subsidy levels was dependent on their knowledge of the product. They found that providing additional information about chlorine significantly increased the impact of price subsidies on demand for the product. However, in the absence of a subsidy, information provision had no significant effect on take-up.

Finding effective strategies to prevent violence and systematic harassment at school can improve student outcomes and wellbeing. Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of two programs aiming to reduce violence and harassment in primary and middle schools in France. Overall, neither program reduced violence or harassment. However, social mediation was effective when the mediator was experienced, and particularly so for students who initially faced higher levels of violence.

Researchers contacted registered voters in a New England town by telephone and asked a portion of these voters to predict whether or not they would vote. This allowed researchers to use a randomized evaluation to measure the impact of making a prediction about future voting behavior on actual voting behavior. The study found no significant effect of prediction-making on voter turnout.

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.

In rural Mexico, researchers examined whether conditional cash transfers (CCTs) protect families against income shocks and promote investment in children's education.

Researchers partnered with the largest public bank in Guatemala to measure the impact of light-touch financial products, such as reminders and suggested ‘default’ savings contribution levels, on the savings behavior of microfinance borrowers. Clients who were prompted to save through default contribution requirements and monthly reminders made more deposits and accumulated greater savings than clients who only had access to a basic savings account.

Self-control problems can lead people to fall short of their personal and professional goals, often resulting in lower than desired workplace productivity. Researchers, in partnership with an Indian data entry firm, conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether self-control problems existed in the workplace and strategies mitigate these problems.

In northern Nigeria, researchers evaluated the impact of three community-based interventions designed to enhance uptake of maternal and child health services: a community health worker program, health educators with the provision of safe birth kits, and health educators with community dramas. While the community health educators increased utilization of maternal and infant care, health practices, and knowledge, none of the interventions improved maternal or child health outcomes.