2024

Impacts of Demand-Driven Workforce Development

Researchers:
Location:
Illinois, United States
Type:
  • Pilot project
We study the impacts of a major “demand-driven” workforce development program for under- and unemployed job seekers in Chicago. The program, run by Skills for Chicagoland's Future, works with employers to understand their hiring needs, company culture, and...

Barriers to Bankruptcy Relief

Researchers:
Location:
United States
Type:
  • Full project
The consumer bankruptcy system provides significant benefits to high-debt individuals, yet fewer than 1% of US adults file each year. We will run a randomized control trial to estimate the extent to which a lack of information about (1) asset exemptions and...

The Impact of Shelter Diversion

Researchers:
Location:
Florida, United States
Type:
  • Full project
Family Promise of West Michigan, Family Promise of Spokane, and the Lord’s Place, located in West Palm Beach, are three nonprofit organizations dedicated to fighting homelessness in their local communities. As part of this mission, these organizations...

Impact Evaluation of Intensive Homelessness Prevention

Researchers:
Location:
Washington, United States
Type:
  • Full project
This study will evaluate intensive financial assistance to prevent homelessness. The Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) and Mary’s Place, the largest provider of emergency shelter to families in Seattle, will assess a new homelessness...

Unlocking Opportunities: Facilitating Student Transfers from Two- to Four-Year Colleges through Coaching

Researchers:
Location:
Tennessee, United States
Type:
  • Full project
Community colleges enroll nearly half of all new degree-seeking students, as well as a disproportionate share of students with low income, who identify as members of racial or ethnic minority groups, or who would be the first in their families to complete...

2023

Teachers, Tutors, and Technology: A New Recipe for Facilitating Personalized Learning

Researchers:
Location:
United States & Canada
Type:
  • Full project
Tutoring is one of the most effective policies for improving education but is often impractical because of scalability and cost constraints. One solution is to teach teachers to use more effectively Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) for simulating the tutoring...
Education

Impact Evaluation of a High School Mentorship Program

Researchers:
Location:
Maryland
Type:
  • Full project
The Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) has partnered with Thread of Baltimore, Maryland to evaluate their high school mentorship program, an intervention designed to assist underperforming students at risk of dropping out of school. Students...

Disentangling Sources of Bias: Evidence from Advanced Placement Course Recommendations

Researchers:
  • Carey Dimmitt
  • Dania Francis
  • Angela C. M. de Oliveira
Location:
United States of America
Type:
  • Full project
Individuals who earn degrees in STEM fields have better labor market outcomes on average. For some, a STEM education can be a pathway out of poverty, however; minoritized populations in the U.S. are less likely to earn degrees in STEM fields. In this project...

Learning by Creating Math Tutoring Videos (LCMTV)

Researchers:
  • Rohen Shah
Location:
Chicago, IL
Type:
  • Pilot project
Peer tutoring has a potential “double-dividend”: the tutors themselves may be learning from the process. I will pilot a new intervention, Learning by Creating Math Tutoring Videos (LCMTV), which aims to help middle and high school students learn math by...

Understanding Police Alternatives: Demand

Researchers:
  • Bocar Ba
  • Rachel Mariman
Location:
United States of America
Type:
  • Pilot project
Recent events of police brutality have sparked policy demands to “reduce the scope of policing in our society.” However, the details of these demands are challenging to assess because of a lack of data and limited understanding about them. This project employs...

Math FUNdations: A Pilot Study

Researchers:
  • Kalena Cortes
Location:
Texas
Type:
  • Pilot project
Parental engagement in a child’s learning is a key for academic success; however, especially for low-income families, there are several barriers to its frequency and effectiveness. We propose a small-scale randomized control trial (RCT) pilot of a new...

2022

Registering Re-entering Citizens to Vote [Texas]

Researchers:
  • Jennifer Doleac
  • Laurel Eckhouse
  • Eric Foster-Moore
  • Allison Harris
  • Hannah Walker
  • Ariel White
Location:
Texas
Type:
  • Full project
  • Other
Research questions: Can outreach to people with criminal records – a hard-to-find group based on traditional data sources – increase registration and voting behavior for this group? Is outreach to people in their social networks equally or more effective...

2021

Reducing Perceptions of Discrimination

Researchers:
  • Hannah Ruebeck
Type:
  • Full project
This project focuses on workers’ perceptions of discrimination, specifically (1) providing evidence on the effectiveness of hiring and promotion mechanisms that could reduce perceptions of discrimination; (2) how perceived discrimination affects job...

Learning Curiosity

Researchers:
  • Ariel Kalil
  • Susan Mayer
Location:
Illinois
Type:
  • Full project
We will conduct a RCT called Evaluating Learning Interactions (ELI) to examine the efficacy of two contrasting approaches to help low-income parents improve the school readiness skills of their 3-5 year-old children. ELI is a six-month text-based program...

Identifying and Addressing Structural Racism

Researchers:
Type:
  • Full project
Nearly a half century after the civil rights movement, racial inequity remains a defining feature of U.S. society. We formalize a model of structural racism and empirically test a central implication – that beliefs regarding racial discrimination in one system...

Ensuring High Quality Assessments in the Baby’s First Years RCT

Type:
  • Full project
In response to Covid-related complications, we request funding that will enable us to postpone for 12 months the collection of our capstone lab-based measurements of child functioning in the Baby’s First Years (BFY) RCT. BFY has randomly assigned 1,000 low...

2020

Cash Transfers and Parent-Child Interaction

Researchers:
Location:
Oakland, California
Type:
  • Pilot project
Differences in academic achievement between high and low socioeconomic status (SES) children arise at a very early age. Understanding the factors that give rise to these differences is essential for understanding the intergenerational transmission of poverty...

Understanding the Importance of Summer Learning in a Pandemic

Researchers:
  • Sean Corcoran
  • Chloe Gibbs
  • Sarah Kroeger
  • James Sullivan
Location:
New York, New York
Type:
  • Full project
This study seeks to better understand the role of individualized, virtual summer instruction in redressing learning losses resulting from the COVID-19 school closures. In particular, we are interested in the potential for virtual learning to combat the...

Santa Clara Pre-Arraignment Representation and Review (PARR) Evaluation

Researchers:
  • Johanna Lacoe
  • Steven Raphael
Location:
Santa Clara, California
Type:
  • Full project
The California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley is conducting an evaluation of the Santa Clara Public Defender’s Office Pre-Arraignment Representation and Review (PARR) Project, which provides early legal representation to low-income felony defendants. Normally...

Parent Engagement & Action for Kindergarten Success (PEAKS)

Researchers:
  • Ariel Kalil
  • Susan Mayer
Location:
Illinois
Type:
  • Pilot project
We propose a pilot of a new intervention, Parent Engagement and Action for Kindergarten Success (PEAKS), which aims to improve the school readiness of low-income children not enrolled in preschool. PEAKS will use behavioral tools designed to increase parent...

Registering Returning Citizens to Vote

Researchers:
  • Jennifer Doleac
  • Laurel Eckhouse
  • Eric Foster-Moore
  • Alison Harris
  • Hannah Walker
  • Ariel White
Location:
United States of America
Type:
  • Full project
Can outreach to people with criminal records -- a hard-to-find group based on traditional data sources -- increase registration and voting behavior for this group? Does the success of such outreach efforts vary across key subgroups? How do these effects...

2019

Registering Re-entering Citizens to Vote

Researchers:
  • Jennifer Doleac
  • Laurel Eckhouse
  • Eric Foster-Moore
  • Allison Harris
  • Hannah Walker
  • Ariel White
Type:
  • Pilot project
Millions of people in the US are eligible to vote despite past felony convictions, but their voter participation rates are extraordinarily low. Efforts to register and mobilize this population have foundered due to data limitations. In this pilot project, we...

Homelessness Prevention Through Eviction Diversion: an RCT

Researchers:
  • Renee Danser
  • Jim Greiner
Location:
Miami, FL
Type:
  • Full project
Evictions, both informal and court-ordered, are one of the most common pathways to homelessness, but proven interventions to interrupt this pathway are few. Two of three rigorous studies completed in this area show that providing a lawyer to a defendant in...

Registering Re-entering Citizens to Vote

Researchers:
  • Jennifer Doleac
  • Laurel Eckhouse
  • Eric Foster-Moore
  • Allison Harris
  • Hannah Walker
  • Ariel White
Location:
United States
Type:
  • Pilot project
Millions of people in the US are eligible to vote despite past felony convictions, but their voter participation rates are extraordinarily low. Efforts to register and mobilize this population have foundered due to data limitations. In this pilot project, we...

Labor Demand for Workers with a Criminal Conviction

Researchers:
Location:
United States
Type:
  • Full project
In this project, we provide new evidence on the reasons that firms are unwilling to hire workers with a past criminal conviction, as well as what types of policies might increase employment rates among these workers. The context for our study is a large online...

A Pilot Study to Increase Take-up of Overdose Reversal Drugs

Researchers:
  • Mireille Jacobson
  • David Powell
Location:
United States
Type:
  • Pilot project
Despite widespread public attention to the opioid epidemic and numerous policies to prevent opioid misuse, overdose deaths in the United States increased 16 percent per annum between 2014 and 2017. Public health authorities consider naloxone, a prescription...

2018

Improving Educational Achievement Through Better Sleep Habits

Researchers:
  • Sally Sadoff
Type:
  • Full project
The proposed study investigates how technology-assisted behavioral interventions can help individuals improve their sleep habits in order to improve educational outcomes. In prior work, we find that incentives for meeting sleep goals increase sleep and also...

My Student’s Team

Researchers:
  • Todd Rogers
Type:
  • Full project
Strong relationships with non-parental adults are associated with greater student success. Despite this, many children receive little educational support from adults in their families’ social networks – even from those with whom they have relationships. This...

Labor Demand for Workers with a Criminal Conviction

Researchers:
Type:
  • Full project
In this project, we provide new evidence on the reasons that firms are unwilling to hire workers with a past criminal conviction, as well as what types of policies might increase employment rates among these workers. The context for our study is a large online...

2017

Understanding the Potential of Summer Jobs Programs: A Pilot Replication and Expansion Experiment in Philadelphia

Researchers:
Location:
Philadelphia, PA
Type:
  • Pilot project
Sara Heller (University of Pennsylvania), in collaboration with the Philadelphia Youth Network, the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office, and the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, is conducting a pilot study of WorkReady, a summer jobs program for...

Leveraging Education Technology to Increase Community College Transfer Rates

Researchers:
  • Kelli Bird
  • Ben Castleman
Type:
  • Full project
Community colleges enroll approximately 40 percent of all US undergraduates and they enroll a disproportionate share of low-income and first-generation college students in higher education. For instance, low-income college students are three times more likely...

The Effect of Letters of Recommendation in the Youth Labor Market

Researchers:
Location:
New York City, NY
Type:
  • Full project
Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs) are city-run programs which provide youth with paid work during the summer. These programs have been shown to improve important youth outcomes including criminality, incarceration, and mortality. However, researchers...

The Big Word Club Evaluation

Researchers:
Type:
  • Full project
  • Other
This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a classroom-based program intended to increase the vocabulary of preschool and primary school children. The program, called the Big Word Club (BWC), consists of videos, books and activities intended to help...

Costs of Failure to Appear for Arraignment

Researchers:
  • Helen Ho
Type:
  • Pilot project
  • Project development grant
In a jurisdiction where failure to appear (FTA) at an arraignment leads to a default judgment against the defendant, additional fines, suspension of drivers’ licenses, and a warrant, about one-third of defendants nevertheless FTA. In collaboration with a large...

Impact Evaluation of Bridges to Success

Researchers:
Location:
Rochester, NY
Type:
  • Full project
More than 43 million people in the United States live in poverty. Poverty is particularly pervasive in the city of Rochester, NY where rates are more than twice the national average. The Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative (RMAPI), in partnership with the...

Beyond Bail: Using Behavioral Science to Improve Timely Court Appearance

Researchers:
  • Aurelie Ouss
  • Anuj Shah
Location:
New York City, NY
Type:
  • Full project
In 2014, nearly 40% of individuals issued a ticket for a violation in New York City did not show up to court, and were issued an arrest warrant as a result. Given this stiff penalty, it might seem that people would only miss court if they deliberately chose to...

2016

2015

Incentives and Coaching for Student Achievement

Researchers:
Type:
  • Pilot project
Financial incentives for students have recently been tested as a possible solution to poor student achievement. Past research has shown modest effects on average, and suggestive evidence that incentives for inputs (that is, student effort) outperform...

One Summer Chicago Plus: Scaling and Unpacking a Successful Youth Summer Jobs Program

Location:
Chicago, Il
Type:
  • Full project
Marianne Bertrand (University of Chicago), in collaboration with the Chicago Department of Family & Support Services, is conducting a large-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the summer jobs program One Summer Chicago Plus (OSC+). OSC+ offers part-time...

Understanding the Potential of Summer Jobs Programs: A Pilot Replication and Expansion Experiment in Philadelphia

Researchers:
Location:
United States
Type:
  • Pilot project
Sara Heller (University of Pennsylvania), in collaboration with the Philadelphia Youth Network, the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office, and the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, is conducting a pilot study of WorkReady, a summer jobs program for...

Financial Distress Research Project

Researchers:
  • Jim Greiner
  • Dalié Jiménez
Location:
United States
Type:
  • Full project
In the United States, low- and moderate-income (“LMI”) individuals experience personal financial crisis through the lens of law. Small claims court debt collection, bankruptcy court, and contract negotiations with creditors dominate the experience. But LMI...

2014

The Welfare Effects of Behavioral Energy Conservation Programs

Researchers:
Type:
  • Pilot project
The success of interventions aiming to encourage pro-social behavior is often measured by how the interventions affect behavior rather than how they affect welfare. We propose a natural field experiment to measure the welfare effects of one especially policy...

Stay the Course: An Innovative Approach to Increasing Community College Persistence and Graduation Rates

Researchers:
Location:
Fort Worth, Texas
Type:
  • Full project
This study will evaluate a community college intervention program that is currently being implemented with a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design on a campus in Fort Worth, Texas. The program is designed to address the “life barriers” – as distinct from...

The Welfare Effects of Behavioral Energy Conservation Programs

Researchers:
Location:
United States
Type:
  • Pilot project
The success of interventions aiming to encourage pro-social behavior is often measured by how the interventions affect behavior rather than how they affect welfare. We propose a natural field experiment to measure the welfare effects of one especially policy...

Improving Academic Outcomes for Disadvantaged Youth: A Randomized Experiment in Chicago

Researchers:
Location:
United States
Type:
  • Full project
JPAL-NA affiliate Jens Ludwig (University of Chicago) is carrying out a large-scale RCT with the Chicago Public Schools and Match Education of Boston to test whether intensive, individuated instruction (two-on-one daily tutoring for an hour a day) can improve...

2013

Improving Academic Outcomes for Disadvantaged Youth: A Randomized Experiment in Chicago

Researchers:
Type:
  • Full project
JPAL-NA affiliate Jens Ludwig (University of Chicago) is carrying out a large-scale RCT with the Chicago Public Schools and Match Education of Boston to test whether intensive, individuated instruction (two-on-one daily tutoring for an hour a day) can improve...

Tax Policy Insights from an Informational Intervention

Researchers:
Type:
  • Pilot project
This project will study how tax-code complexity and information frictions impact college enrollment. The project will be based on a randomized control trial (RCT) conducted in collaboration with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB)...

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