Researchers examined the level of racial discrimination in the United States labor market by randomly assigning identical résumés black-sounding or white-sounding names and observing the impact on requests for interviews from employers. Results found that résumés with white-sounding names received 50 percent more callbacks than those with black-sounding names, indicating that, all other things being equal, considerable racial discrimination exists in the American labor market.

Researchers worked with a large private school network in Pakistan to evaluate the effects of performance raises on outcomes such as teacher behavior, student learning, and student socioemotional development. They found that, compared to flat payments, performance pay attracted more high-quality teachers. In terms of types of performance pay, those based on objective and subjective measures (supervisor observations and student test scores, respectively) were equally effective at increasing student test scores, but objective performance pay negatively affected student socioemotional development, whereas subjective performance pay had a small positive effect.

Researchers evaluated the relationship between mobile money usage and violence in Afghanistan. Results suggest that access to a mobile salary payment system increased mobile money usage, but expectations of violence significantly decreased usage and increased cash savings instead.

Researchers evaluated the impact of a program aiming to develop the autonomy and decision-making skills of young people interested in starting a company or organization. They found that the program had positive impacts on the employment status, income, and overall confidence of the participants.

Researchers evaluated the impacts of increased exposure to financial markets on participants’ financial literacy and investment behavior in Israel, and found it reduced the gender gap in financial literacy and confidence. They found that engaging in financial markets increased participants' understanding of basic financial concepts, and reduced the gender gap in financial literacy, self-assessed financial knowledge, and subsequent stock investment.

In Mexico, researchers evaluated the impact of PROGRESA, a national CCT program, on both school enrollment and child wages.

Fostering youth entrepreneurship could help decrease youth unemployment. However, entrepreneurs face a number of barriers to launching and expanding their businesses. Researchers introduced a youth entrepreneurship reality TV show to evaluate the effects of a television show and entrepreneurial support activities on viewers’ attitudes, business practices, and employment status.

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.

Vocational training is often advocated as a means of maintaining and improving the qualifications of the labor force. However, it is also possible that time spent in vocational training simply displaces time spent working or looking for employment. Researchers evaluated the impact of a vocational training program in Denmark on employment and wages. They found that vocational training temporarily increased unemployment among participants, and had no significant impact on wages.

Researchers examined the impact of doubling teacher salary on student and teacher performance in Indonesia. This intervention had some positive effects on teachers: they reported higher levels of satisfaction with their jobs and less financial stress and were less likely to have a second job. However, doubling teacher salary had no effect on teacher knowledge, student test scores, or self-reported teacher attendance.

In Malawi, researchers evaluated the impact of a vocational training program on youth's skills, economic outcomes, and well-being. While the training generally improved skills and well-being, it had more positive effects for men compared to women, and had no impact on labor market outcomes in the short run for either gender.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether exposing people to a documentary featuring potential role models impacted parents’ educational aspirations for their children or their actual investments in education, and if these impacts varied by gender. Exposing families to the documentary increased parental aspirations for educational attainment as well as investments in education, but it did not close the gender gap for either.