J-PAL affiliate Benjamin Olken (MIT) devised a method to measure corruption and used it to evaluate alternative strategies to reduce corruption on Indonesian roadbuilding projects. The evaluation tested two types of strategies: encouraging community participation and increasing the probability of centrally-administered audits. The results suggest that community participation should not be seen as a panacea for corruption, while also demonstrating that even entrenched corruption can be reduced.

To examine these issues, researchers randomly assigned 49 villages in Indonesia to choose local infrastructure projects through either a direct election or a representative-based meeting. Choosing local infrastructure projects by direct election, rather than through representatives, had a small effect on the types of projects selected but a large impact on citizen satisfaction.

Researchers examined whether increasing community oversight and participation could improve education outcomes in Uttar Pradesh, India. Mobilizing community members to monitor local schools through Village Education Committees did not increase participation in school governance or improve education outcomes, but training local volunteers to teach basic reading outside school had a positive impact on student learning.

Researchers evaluated the impact of increased access to microcredit on the economic and social well-being of women and their families in Hyderabad, India. They found that microcredit had mixed effects on business activities and little to no effect on women’s empowerment or children’s education.

Researchers studied the impact of a community driven development program in Sierra Leone in the short and long-run and contrasted it with a technocratic approach to delegate the management of development projects to high skill individuals. In the short term, the CDD program increased the stock of higher quality local public goods, but did not lead to fundamental changes in local institutions or decision-making in the shorter term. The technocratic selection intervention improved local project management relative to the traditional status quo and the long-term institutional reform through the CDD intervention.

Researchers estimated the impact of a microcredit program, which was randomly rolled out in rural areas of Morocco. Thirteen percent of the households in treatment villages took a loan, and none in comparison villages did. Among households identified as more likely to borrow, microcredit access led to a significant rise in investment in assets used for self-employment activities, and an increase in profit, but also to a reduction in income from casual labor. Overall, there was no gain in income or consumption.

Researchers found that matching gifts were an effective fundraising tactic, increasing the likelihood of donation and total donations, but larger match ratios did not return more donations than smaller match ratios.

Researchers partnered with the Government of Indonesia to evaluate the impact of community block grants and the additional effect of performance incentives. They found that community block grants improved health and education in Indonesian villages, and adding performance incentives sped up improvements in health.

While researchers found a meaningful reduction in smoke inhalation in the first year after households received an improved stove, there was no effect over longer time horizons. The difference between the laboratory and field results is due to households’ revealed low valuation of the stoves. Households failed to use the stoves regularly or appropriately, did not make the necessary investments to maintain them properly, and use ultimately declined over time.

Researchers partnered with SKS Microfinance to measure the impact of bundling a health insurance product with microloan renewals on health insurance take-up, and health care use and spending. They found that the requirement to purchase health insurance substantially reduced microcredit clients’ loan renewal rates, meaning that people were willing to give up credit to avoid buying insurance.

Researchers examined the impact of an initiative to promote savings, through financial incentives, reminders, and messaging, on the savings behavior of the urban poor in Peru. Preliminary results found that the initiative increased the probability that clients reached their savings goals; negatively framed messages appear to be more effective than positive messages in getting people to save.

Researchers are examining the impact of offering health insurance through a microfinance institution on clients’ health behaviors and health outcomes, as well as on the institution’s profit, client retention, and default rates.

Researchers tested the assumption of price inelastic demand using a randomized evaluation in South Africa. The results suggest that the demand curves were downward sloping, and steeper for price increases relative to the lender’s standard rates. Researchers also found that loan size was far more responsive to changes in loan maturity than to changes in interest rates.

Researchers evaluated the impact of a door-to-door deposit-collecting service, which regularly collected funds from clients’ homes to be deposited at a local bank, on clients’ savings. Results demonstrated that clients who lived farther from a bank were more likely to take up the service, and clients who took up the service significantly increased their savings.

This study measured the effect of receiving free subscriptions to either a liberal or conservative-leaning newspaper on voters’ political knowledge and opinions in the United States. Results demonstrated that neither subscription had an impact on voters' political knowledge, but that both subscriptions caused voters to increase their support for the Democratic presidential candidate. This suggests that the informational effect of news exposure was stronger than the effect of the slant.