Researchers evaluated the impact of a program aiming to develop the autonomy and decision-making skills of young people interested in starting a company or organization. They found that the program had positive impacts on the employment status, income, and overall confidence of the participants.

In Northern Nigeria, researchers are testing the effect of providing mothers with unconditional cash transfers, coupled with varying levels of information and guidance on nutrition, to encourage parents to use funds for their children’s nutrition and food security.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of offering coupons, facilitated discussion groups, and measuring spoons on fertilizer usage, fertilizer knowledge, and agriculture-related discussions amongst farmers. While discussion groups alone had no impact on fertilizer use, coupons and spoons both increased fertilizer use and led to more knowledge-sharing among farmers.

Researchers are partnering with a financial institution in Paraguay to evaluate the impact of a range of tablet-based applications, which remind people to save and help them make savings goals, on savings behavior of low-income individuals.

In partnership with the Government of Jharkhand, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to study the impact of unconditional, framed cash transfers to pregnant women and lactating mothers on child health.

Researchers used Chicago’s school choice program, which uses a random lottery to allocate slots in elementary schools, to evaluate how the opportunity to attend a higher-quality school impacts academic achievement. They found that lottery winners are more likely to attend higher-performing schools, but they do not have higher test scores than their peers who were not offered slots.

Providing cash grants to low-income households without any strings attached has been proven to have various benefits on the lives of those who receive the transfers, but less is known about how this sudden influx of income affects the local economy and people living nearby. In western Kenya, researchers evaluated the impact of unconditional cash transfers, provided by the organization GiveDirectly, on household well-being and local economic activity. The transfers led to large increases in consumption and assets for recipients, as well as large positive impacts on consumption for non-recipient households and on revenue for firms. These results counter concerns that large cash transfers may harm those who do not receive them.

Researchers are employing an RCT to evaluate whether the establishment of police station-level Women’s Help Desks (WHDs), as well as the deployment of additional female personnel to these WHDs, improves the responsiveness of frontline officers to women, as well as levels of crime and crime reporting.

Understanding the factors that influence voting behavior is a central policy issue. Often voting outcomes directly determine funding of critical public goods such as public education.

A study conducted in Ghana over 15 years evaluated the benefits of secondary school scholarships on both education and health outcomes.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, wage job opportunities are limited, and a vast majority of young people are engaged in low-productive work. Many governments support formal apprenticeship programs to help youth find suitable employment, but there is limited evidence on the direct and indirect effects of these public interventions. Researchers partnered with the World Bank and the government of Cote d’Ivoire to evaluate the impact of a subsidized dual apprenticeship program targeting both youth and firms. The apprenticeship program increased participation among youth in formal apprenticeships, and participating firms hired more formal apprentices after the program was implemented.

Researchers evaluated the impact of trainings for brick kiln owners and operators on air pollution, CO2 emissions, and kiln profitability.

Researchers evaluated the learning impacts of using AI systems to score and comment on essays written for Brazil’s national post-secondary admission exam. In schools where AI technology was introduced, teachers were able to provide more frequent individualized feedback to students, and students’ essay scores improved as a result.

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.