Researchers evaluated the impact of financial incentives, public health video messages, and access to a vaccine scheduling link on Covid-19 vaccination intentions and vaccine take-up in the United States. None of the interventions led to increases in vaccine take-up after thirty days. In a subsequent study, researchers found that personal reminder messages led to increases in booster vaccination rates while monetary incentives had no additional impact.

In Uganda, researchers introduced a mentoring program to evaluate the impact of interactions between young, successful vocational training graduates and current vocational training students on their employment status and earnings. Students who received mentoring were more likely to be working three months after graduating, and had higher earnings a year after graduating.

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluations to test the impact of different types of public health messaging on the practice of social distancing.

Technology adoption often requires investments over time. As farmers realize new information about the costs and benefits of investments, they may abandon the newly adopted technology shortly after. Researchers partnered with the non-governmental organization Shared Value Africa and Dunavant Cotton Ltd to investigate the effects of subsidies and follow-through rewards on the adoption of an agroforestry tree species.

Can facilitating relationships between small- and medium-sized businesses help them grow? In Jiangxi Province, China, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to study the impact of business relationships on firm performance. Monthly meetings among firms increased sales, profits, and other business outcomes, mainly by facilitating learning and partnership development.

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 evaluated a nationwide debate initiative in Liberia designed to solicit and rebroadcast policy promises from legislative candidates. Results indicated that when leading candidates participated in debates, citizens were more engaged and informed.

Firms in low- and middle-income countries tend to hire mainly from referral networks, which may limit hiring. Online job portals can expand recruitment networks, but firms may be hesitant to hire unfamiliar candidates outside of their network. Researchers partnered with an online job portal in India to evaluate the impact of promotional advertising for job postings, candidate identity verification, or both services on hiring by firms. Only the combination of advertising and verification led to firms hiring more, suggesting that it is important to not only give firms access to a larger candidate pool but also provide them with the opportunity and tools to screen candidates.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to determine whether PLS programs encouraged opening and use of bank accounts in Mexico. The lottery incentive increased the number of bank accounts opened, and accounts opened because of the PLS program were just as likely to be used as accounts opened without these incentives up to five years later.

Researchers evaluated the effects of an information campaign on workers’ awareness of and participation in a program that subsidizes skills-building training in Germany. Results showed that the information campaign doubled workers’ awareness of the program on average, but had no effects on program take-up or on labor market outcomes one to two years later. However, the campaign was successful in encouraging participation in other non-subsidized training services among workers aged below 45 years old.

Researchers in Ghana evaluated the impact of community-led assessments on health insurance enrollment as well as healthcare and health insurance quality. The community engagement intervention improved the medical quality of healthcare, reduced community members’ chances of getting sick, and increased health insurance enrollment among previously uninsured people.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether giving vocational trainees richer information about potential jobs improved their employment outcomes. Researchers provide suggestive evidence that with the information, trainees made better decisions on whether to continue the training: those who saw the program as a poor fit for their job ambitions dropped out, while those who valued the training’s job opportunities stayed.

I n Senegal, researchers are testing whether encouraging women to join vocational training through scholarships and supportive information from past participants and their families can shape women’s work and family aspirations, their employment decisions, and their families’ perspectives on women’s work.

In urban India, researchers are testing whether helping women and men start STEM careers through a job training program improves their employment and earnings, and, for women, enhances economic empowerment and shapes family planning choices.

Child marriage remains prevalent in many countries despite laws prohibiting the practice, leading to negative health and education outcomes for young women and their children. Researchers evaluated the impacts of an incentive program and an adolescent empowerment program on child marriage, teenage childbearing, and level of education in rural Bangladesh. Financial incentives conditional on delayed marriage reduced child marriage and teenage childbearing, and increased girls’ level of education. The empowerment program, on the other hand, did not succeed in delaying marriage.