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Researchers evaluated whether offering market vendors cash grants to pay off existing debt and financial training influenced future borrowing behavior. While market vendors were less likely to borrow and borrowed in smaller amounts in the short-term, most returned to debt within six weeks.

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...

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of access to credit and business training on entrepreneurs’ business outcomes and households’ resilience to cope with the consequences of COVID-19. Research is ongoing; results are forthcoming.

In Senegal, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to study the effect of providing management advice and a one-time cash transfer on agricultural productivity and farmers’ investment in their businesses. Receiving both the cash transfer and management advice had positive impacts on yields...

Identifying and training effective managers is crucial for improving both firm productivity and worker well-being. Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of different combinations of managerial screening and training tools on business and worker well-being outcomes.

In rural India, researchers are testing whether helping women access public employment and receive wages through direct deposit into individual bank accounts can increase their chances of being employed, their control over earnings, and ultimately their family planning decisions.

This evaluation measured the determinants of insurance enrollment as well as the impacts of having insurance for informal sector workers by randomly varying the costs and convenience of signing up for a government health insurance program available to formal and informal sector workers in Nicaragua...

Researchers evaluated the impact of increased access to microcredit on the economic and social well-being of women and their families in Hyderabad, India. They found that microcredit had mixed effects on business activities and little to no effect on women’s empowerment or children’s education.