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Advertising Higher Earnings during Recruitment Processes for Community Service Providers in Uganda

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of expected earnings on candidates’ perception of a community health worker position in Uganda, and on the resulting size and composition of the applicant pool. Fewer socially motivated participants applied when advertised wages were...

The Impact of Community-Based Testing and Free Condom Distribution on HIV Prevention Among Youth in Kenya

Moses Baraza
Thomas Ginn
Grace Makana
Vandana Sharma
In Western Kenya, researchers evaluated the impact of two preventive approaches—community-based testing and free condom provision—on behavioral and biological outcomes. Neither community-based testing, free condoms, nor these interventions offered together reduced the prevalence of sexually...

Impacts of Flexible Loans on Borrower Behavior and Microenterprise Outcomes in Colombia

Lasse Brune
Xavier Giné
Researchers evaluated the impact of a flexible microloan product on new clients' repayment behavior, business outcomes, and client satisfaction. The results showed that the flexible loan led to some shifts in investment behavior but had no average impact on revenue or profits and led to higher...

Graduating the Ultra-Poor in Pakistan

In six countries researchers evaluated a multi-faceted approach aimed at improving the long-term income of the ultra-poor. They found that the approach had long-lasting economic and self-employment impacts and that the long-run benefits, measured in terms of household expenditures, outweighed their...

Politicians, Publicly-Released Audits of Corruption, and Electoral Outcomes in Brazil

Taking advantage of a federal anticorruption program that randomly assigned municipalities to be audited, the researchers compared the electoral outcomes for mayors in two randomly selected groups of municipalities: those that were audited before and those that were audited after the 2004 election...

The Impact of a Gender-Sensitive Training for Police Officers on Gender-Based Violence in India

Researchers are evaluating the impact of a gender-sensitization training for police officers in Bihar, India, using expressive arts techniques, on police officers’ attitudes towards gender-based violence as well as women’s safety and economic agency.

Evaluating the Karnataka Integrated Medical Information and Disease Surveillance System (IMIDSS) in Primary Health Centers in India

Researchers tested whether a monitoring system that recorded employees’ fingerprints at the beginning and end of each day could improve staff attendance and patient health in primary health centers in Karnataka. The monitoring system increased attendance among medical staff, but not doctors, and...

The Impact of Credit-Scoring on Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Lending and Performance in the Philippines

Researchers are working with a large bank in the Philippines, using random assignment to offer loans to SME applicants who fall just below the threshold to be automatically approved for a loan. Comparing firms that received the loans to a similar group that did not will allow for a better...