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The Impact of Meritocratic Promotions and Pay Progression on Health Care Workers' Productivity in Sierra Leone

Philipp Kastrau
Researchers tested the impact of a meritocratic promotion system and beliefs about pay progression on the productivity of Community Health Workers in Sierra Leone. A combination of meritocracy and the promise of a steep salary increase after promotion led workers to make more health care visits...

Valuing Trust in Shantytowns in Peru

Markus Mobius
Tanya Rosenblat
Adam Szeidl
In collaboration with PRISMA, a Peruvian NGO offering credit through village banks, researchers designed and implemented a new loan product, which required new clients to be sponsored by existing clients, to measure the relative importance of social networks and prices for borrowing in shantytowns...

The Role of Exposure, Social Networks and Marketing Messages in Households' Willingness to Pay for Malaria Prevention in Kenya

This study evaluated the impact of subsidies and two different marketing messages on the take-up of insecticide-treated bed nets by rural households. Take-up did not vary with the framing of marketing messages but was highly sensitive to changes in price. Gaining access to a highly subsidized bed...

Counseling Welfare Recipients in Hauts de Seine, France

Thierry Kamionka
Laurent Lequien
Researchers sought to test whether intensive job counseling with a private provider is an effective means of increasing employment rates, even for a population with such a low attachment to the labor market. Results suggested that job-counseling increased employment rates among counseled individuals...

SMS Reminders for Patient Compliance with Tuberculosis Treatment in Pakistan

Aamir Khan
Shama Mohammed
In this study, researchers evaluated the impact of daily SMS medication reminders on treatment outcomes for tuberculosis patients. The study found that SMS reminders had no impact on treatment outcomes, self-reported adherence to the treatment regime, or self-reported physical and psychological...

Transaction Costs in Charitable Giving in Germany

Steffen Huck
Researchers partnered with the Bavarian State Opera House in Germany to evaluate the impact of a variety of communications strategies on the frequency of donations. They found that including a pre-filled bank transfer form in the letter substantially increased the response rate, perhaps because this...

Recycling Program Take-up and Participation in Northern Peru

Alberto Chong
Jeremy Shapiro
Researchers examined the effect of a series of informational messages on participation in a recycling program in Peru. The messages sought to elicit pressures such as social norms, peer comparison, conformity, authority, and the environmental or social benefits to increased participation. They found...