During periods of high electricity use that strain the grid, electricity customers do not have any reason to conserve because they pay a fixed price per kilowatt hour of power. In this study, the researcher evaluated the impact on electricity usage of a real-time pricing scheme, which charges households different prices throughout the day based on fluctuating wholesale costs. Households charged according to real-time pricing consumed less electricity in response to higher prices, primarily due to lower consumption during peak times.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether organizing short learning sessions for villagers about early adopters’ use of a flood-tolerant rice seed variety, Swarna-Sub1, impacted other farmers’ adoption of it. These “farmer field days” were a cost-effective strategy to improve farmers’ learning about Swarna-Sub1 and increased their take-up of Swarna-Sub1 in the next planting season by 40 percent.

Researchers worked with a large nationwide retailer in the United States to test whether sharing information, and providing subsidies and sales incentives had an effect on the demand for energy efficient water heaters. Results showed that information alone did not increase demand, and a $100 rebate or the combination of a $25 sales incentives and a $100 rebate significantly increased purchases of the water heaters. In this context, providing more information alone was not an effective way of increasing demand for energy efficient durable goods.

A study on parents’ demand for conditionality in a Brazilian cash transfer program revealed that parents are willing to pay to for the conditionality in order to monitor their children’s school attendance.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation of the ways in which information dissemination within social networks affected farmers’ adoption of a weather insurance product in rural China. Results suggest that social networks had a significantly positive effect on insurance take-up, driven by the diffusion of knowledge about insurance. These effects were larger when people who were the first to receive financial education were more central to the social network.

In Argentina, a researcher evaluated whether informing students of their potential could be a cost-effective way to increase motivation and improve educational outcomes among secondary school students. They found that the intervention did not impact students’ perceptions of the difficulty of school tasks, school climate, academic performance, or future education plans.

Researchers tested the independent impact of two channels, social learning (when someone purchases an asset after a peer expresses a desire to purchase the same asset) and social utility (when someone feels he can gain more from an asset because his peer owns it), on financial decisions in Brazil. Both social learning and social utility had significant effects on decisions to invest in a newly designed real estate asset.

Researchers conducted two randomized evaluations to test 1) the impact of providing public spending information on voter attitudes and 2) the impact of cash transfers on parental preferences for education.

Researchers evaluated a cap-and-trade program in the United States to determine if the initial allocation of permits among firms affected how much firms decided to pollute. Evidence was consistent with, but not proof of, the economic theory that firms make decisions to reduce emissions based on their abatement costs and not the initial distribution of permits.

The collection of delinquent fines is a massive public administrative challenge. In the United Kingdom for instance, unpaid court fines amounted to more than £600 million in 2011. Managing noncompliant accounts and dispatching bailiffs to collect fines in person is costly. Researchers used a randomized evaluation to test the effectiveness of mobile phone text messaging as a relatively inexpensive alternative method to encourage people to pay their outstanding fees. Text message reminders significantly increased average payment of fines, and were particularly effective when they addressed the recipient by name.

In Mexico, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the effect of providing plot-specific or general soil quality analyses and input recommendations, agricultural extension services, and flexible or inflexible in-kind grants on smallholder farmers’ adoption and knowledge of improved practices and fertilizer combinations, yields, profits, and attitudes toward innovation. In the short run, they did not find differences on farmers’ fertilizer adoption when comparing specific and general input recommendations, nor when comparing flexible and inflexible in-kind grants. However, farmers with greater grant spending flexibility had substantially higher adoption of improved practices two years after the intervention ended.

This study evaluated the efficacy of three different types of emails in encouraging group membership: an impersonal email, a personalized email, and a personalized email that included an element of social pressure. Researchers found that membership increased most among recipients of the social pressure email followed by recipients of the personalized email.

In order to assess the effects of online advertising, researchers evaluated the impact of a high volume of Facebook advertising on name recognition and favorability of political candidates. E xposure to Facebook ads did not increase recognition of a candidate’s name or increase positive assessments of the candidate.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation in Rwanda to examine how important aspects of cultural practice do or do not change in the wake of exposure to media messages delivered through a radio soap opera drama. While the radio program had little effect on changing individual beliefs and attitudes, it did have a strong impact on listeners’ willingness to express dissent and the ways they resolved communal problems.

In a series of three evaluations throughout the United States, researchers evaluated the effect of group composition on individual participants’ political views. They found little evidence that the ideological and demographic complexion of the group influenced post-discussion opinions.