In Kenya, researchers partnered with a telecom operator to evaluate the impact of a commitment savings account, called the “High Hopes” Lock-Savings Account, on account usage, savings and loans, and school enrollment. The study found that many parents used the accounts–usage rates increased by about 25 percentage points–and that among those who took up the account, total financial savings increased by three to four times. Parents who saved were also 18-24 percentage points more likely to enroll their children in high school. However, the results were nearly the same for a more conventional mobile savings account that did not offer the commitment bonus, suggesting that easy access to a means of saving, even absent behavioral incentives, was enough to affect parents’ decisions.

Researchers partnered with the Ugandan government to evaluate the impact of a public private partnership (PPP) program with low-cost private secondary schools on absorbing large increases in secondary school enrollment in Uganda. The PPP program led to both greater private school enrollment and higher student performance, with improved performance potentially being linked to increased input availability and positive household-driven selection of PPP student participants.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to evaluate the impact of computer-assisted learning (CAL) on student test scores. The CAL program improved students’ math and language test scores, but increasing the time students spent on CAL did not lead to additional gains.

Community-based approaches to development, also called community-driven development (CDD), seek to empower local communities to identify and implement the projects they most need. Researchers evaluated the impact of a national community-driven development program in the Philippines on governance, social capital, and socio-economic welfare.

In partnership with Avanti Fellows, this study evaluates the impact of the Sankalp program, which provides teachers with resources and training to blend their instruction with video-based learning materials, on student’s math and science test scores.

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of offering stipends for exit exam preparatory courses on students’ exam completion and subsequent education, labor market, and marital outcomes.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to measure the impact of peer referrals by current patients on the screening and identification of tuberculosis cases in India. Peer referrals and outreach by current patients to identified peers were more effective than health-worker led contact-tracing, while combining these interventions with financial rewards was a cost-effective strategy to improve tuberculosis screening and detection.

To better understand how to measure and report depression, researchers randomized the order of questions in a national survey to examine the effect of triggering memories of difficult events, such as conflicts, shocks, and death, on reported levels of depression across households in Nigeria. They found that having his/her painful memories triggered, respondents who experienced an adverse event were more likely to report symptoms of depression.

Using a technology-based math curriculum, researchers evaluated the impact of different incentive types—rewarding continuous effort in the classroom versus rewarding test performance—on student learning. Results indicate that effort-based incentives can be a more effective and cost-effective way of improving learning than incentives focused on test scores.

In this study, researchers evaluated scalable methods to improve student retention and performance in an online course, with the goal of improving meaningful access to this resource.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to look at the effect of private connections in a setting where most households already had access to high-quality water through public taps. They found that households had a high willingness to pay for piped water, and while home water connection had no impact on waterborne illness, households' self-reported happiness improved substantially.

Researchers evaluated the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project (MDICP), which sought to explore the demand for, and the impact of, learning one’s HIV status. While even very small incentives encouraged people to return for their HIV test results, rapid testing in the home had the greatest impact on program take-up. However, for most people, learning their HIV status did not substantially change long-term behavior.

Researchers are partnering with the government to provide training to local leaders geared towards shifting attitudes regarding gender and gender-based violence and increasing skills to detect and prevent its incidence. They will evaluate the impact of this training on the incidence of gender-based violence and on women’s physical and mental health.