Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to measure the demand for private tutoring services, estimate how pricing can influence take-up and enrollment in these services, and examine how enrollment and performance differs by gender and age. Researchers found that demand for tutoring services decreases with increased prices, but that higher initial prices could help identify students who are more likely to utilize the services.

In Kenya, researchers are studying the impacts of a program that combines vocational training with one-time cash grants to boost youth employment and entrepreneurship.

To test this theory, researchers evaluated a multi-faceted approach aimed at improving long term income of the ultra-poor in multiple countries, including Yemen.

Researchers studied the impact of reminder letters addressing possible barriers related to information and behavior on insurance take-up, as well as their impact on health insurance market risk. The reminder letters reducing informational and behavioral barriers to enrollment increased insurance take-up and lowered the average market risk.

Using a technology-based math curriculum, researchers evaluated the impact of different incentive types—rewarding continuous effort in the classroom versus rewarding test performance—on student learning. Results indicate that effort-based incentives can be a more effective and cost-effective way of improving learning than incentives focused on test scores.

Researchers studied the impact of providing personalized and generic information about potential savings via letters and e-mails on enrollee health plan choices.

Researchers sent letters to polling stations announcing smartphone vote-tally audits to evaluate the impact of audits on electoral irregularities such as non-adherence to transparency regulations and falsified vote tallies. Relative to a comparison group, letters increased the number of polling stations posting vote tallies in accordance with the law, reduced fraudulent vote tallies, and decreased the vote share for the incumbent president.

Researchers evaluated an accountability workshop program, which educated citizens on the distribution of extractive industry tax revenues and the formal means of local political participation. The program had mixed results on local government quality, increasing the likelihood of initiating recall against poor-performing mayors but also increasing civil unrest. The workshops also reduced involvement in participatory budgeting, as well as reducing mayors’ discretionary spending efforts.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation of incentives for motorcycle taxi drivers to pay the legal road tolls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Results suggest that financial incentives reduced bribery by seven to ten percentage points.