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Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of employment on refugee psychosocial well-being in Bangladesh. The study found that employment generated significant psychosocial value beyond that from cash transfers alone.

Labor movements can improve workers’ lives but face great difficulty in getting workers to agree on common goals and take collective actions. In garment factory workers’ group discussions on minimum wage policies in Myanmar, researchers randomly included union leaders to study whether the presence...

Researchers re-examined data from previous studies in Ghana, India, and Sri Lanka to better understand the impact of credit and cash grant variations on micro-enterprise profits. Their results suggest that the gender gap in micro-enterprise performance was not due to ability, but rather to women’s...

In Nigeria, researchers worked with a financial service provider to evaluate the impact of digital loans on welfare. Being approved for the loans increased subjective well-being after three months, for applicants who normally would have been denied.

In Uganda, where most employees receive their wages in a single monthly payment, researchers are working to evaluate if an alternative, divided payment schedule reduces regretful spending.

Researchers tested whether sharing messages that appealed to negative emotions, like shame or disgust, increased households’ hand washing behavior and willingness to pay for water chlorination in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Negative messaging had no impact on chlorination levels or willingness to pay, but...