In partnership with a local dairy cooperative, researchers utilized a combination of evaluations and surveys to measure dairy farmers’ responses to various price and timing incentives. They found that farmers willingly declined daily payments at higher milk prices in favor of monthly payments at lower prices, a practice that allowed them to save and acted as a commitment device to meet their saving goals.

Researchers are partnering with a bank and a mobile money operator in the Dominican Republic to evaluate the impact of credit scoring models designed specifically for women on access to credit.

In this randomized evaluation in Zimbabwe, researchers studied how social media messages targeting misinformation can affect people’s beliefs about and responses toward Covid-19. The study found that these messages increased participants’ knowledge of Covid-19 information by 7 percentage points and reduced potentially harmful behavior, or noncompliance with lockdown guidelines, by 30 percentage points.

Researchers evaluated the impact of direct mail and phone calls on the turnout of Black voters in ten different states. Neither mailings nor phone calls significantly impacted voter turnout, perhaps due to the large volume of political messaging that voters had to navigate.

Researchers evaluated the effects of introducing price increases during peak periods and also real-time information about electricity usage to residential customers in the United States. Households that received feedback about usage reduced consumption and individuals were more responsive to pricing events that happened with more advance notice.

Researchers worked with the NGO Seva Mandir to measure the impact of an incentives program that aimed to improve Assistant Nurse Midwife (ANM) attendance in rural clinics in Udaipur. Although the incentive program initially led to a large improvement in attendance, effects faded after the first six months, at least in part due to implementation challenges.

Researchers introduced a convenient and hygienic sanitary product, reusable menstrual cups, to Nepalese girls in the seventh and eighth grades. Their evaluation addressed several questions: Is menstruation as large a barrier to education as many believe? Does switching to modern sanitary products increase attendance and school performance among girls?

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of lottery-based financial awards given to young individuals who tested STI-negative on their likelihood of contracting HIV and engaging in risky sexual behavior. The intervention provided frequent rewards at short intervals to bring the benefits of safe sex closer to the present and used a lottery design to try to target higher-risk individuals. Lottery-based financial incentives reduced the prevalence and incidence of HIV by 12 percent and 21 percent respectively, and their impact was largest among individuals with a high tolerance for risk.

In Uganda, researchers evaluated whether offering financial education or group savings accounts to church-based youth groups increased savings. One year after the intervention ended, they found that total savings and income had increased among youth who were offered financial education, group savings accounts, or both education and group accounts.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of targeting cash transfers to women on household spending and women’s empowerment. Targeting the cash transfer to mothers increased household spending on food. Women offered the transfers also had stronger measures of empowerment through increasing women’s control of household resources.