Following the implementation of a policy mandating lower-caste representation in some local village councils in India, researchers evaluated how lower-caste presidents invested in and distributed goods. They found that disadvantaged lower-caste groups received more public goods in councils with an elected leader from their own group.

Researchers designed a field study to identify how information and communication affect intra-household decisions. They found that Filipino spouses who don't control the household spending and savings decisions deposit money into their own accounts in private settings and commit it to consumption for themselves in public settings.

In Uganda, researchers evaluated whether offering financial education or group savings accounts to church-based youth groups increased savings. One year after the intervention ended, they found that total savings and income had increased among youth who were offered financial education, group savings accounts, or both education and group accounts.

In Bolivia, researchers investigated whether alarm boxes, designed to both remind people to save and to keep their savings safe, could have an effect on savings rates among microfinance clients.

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 that none of the messages had any effect on recycling. A parallel intervention, the provision of free plastic recycling bins, proved to be much more effective.

In southern and eastern Ghana, researchers evaluated two youth financial literacy programs to test their impact on savings, labor, academic performance, and financial decision-making. One program integrated financial and social education, while the second only offered financial education. Both programs had a positive impact on savings at school, but no impact on overall savings. Some evidence suggests that the program without the social education component also led children to work more.

Researchers evaluated the expansion of a rural financial services provider in Tamil Nadu, India in order to understand how access to financial services, information, and exposure to risk affect technology adoption and well-being among farming households.

In Nicaragua, researchers examined the impact of a national conditional cash transfer (CCT) program on early childhood health and development. They found that the program caused substantial and lasting improvements in child health and development outcomes. However, it seems that program components other than, or in addition to, the cash transfers appear to drive these effects.

Distributing water cisterns in northeast Brazil led to fewer requests for private benefits from local politicians and fewer votes for incumbent mayors, who typically have more resources to engage in clientelism. Marco Gonzalez-Navarro and J-PAL's Latin America & Caribbean office are now working with the Climate Policy Initiative to support the Ministry of Social Development to design and implement an evaluation of the second deployment of cisterns.

In Uganda, researchers studied the demand for rainwater storage devices, the effectiveness of various marketing strategies in promoting them, and their impact on indicators such as school attendance and women’s participation in the labor market.

In northern Nigeria, researchers evaluated the impact of three community-based interventions designed to enhance uptake of maternal and child health services: a community health worker program, health educators with the provision of safe birth kits, and health educators with community dramas. While the community health educators increased utilization of maternal and infant care, health practices, and knowledge, none of the interventions improved maternal or child health outcomes.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation of a bundled microcredit and health education program, delivered both to mixed-gender and female-only loan groups in Benin, to evaluate its impacts on health knowledge, health behaviors, and social outcomes. The integrated package of group microcredit and health education led to gains in women’s knowledge of both malaria and HIV/AIDS, but those gains did not translate into improvements in health behaviors.

In an ongoing evaluation, researchers are studying the relationship between teacher and student motivation, family participation, and student achievement in rural non-formal education (NFE) centers.