Researchers in rural Western Uganda tested whether a microfinance program can help women borrowers switch out of subsistence agriculture to other labor activities, such as entrepreneurship or small-scale trading. While microloans helped women switch into service-based jobs including small-scale trading, they had no impact on income, spending, savings, and overall wealth.

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a package of interventions with the aim of improving the quality of nurseries, enhancing nutrition, and empowering women to address poverty and promote early childhood development in Egypt.

Increasing levels of migration to the European Union have created significant challenges for governments to ensure migrants fully integrate and thrive in their host societies, but there is little rigorous evidence that evaluates current programs that promote social inclusion. Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a peer matching program that aims to increase information and improve social capital on migrants’ social attitudes, Swedish language skills, employment, education levels, and general feeling of belonging in Sweden.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of different types of labels to signal product quality on sellers’ ability to develop a reputation for consistently selling high-quality watermelons in China. The more expensive laser-cut label influenced sellers to provide higher quality watermelons than the sticker label. The use of the laser-cut label also led to higher sales profits, whereas the cheaper sticker label had no effect on profits.

Researchers conducted two randomized evaluations to test the impact of coaching teachers on integrating CAL in their elementary and middle school mathematics instruction in two large, diverse school districts in the United States. The intervention led to improved math performance in one evaluation and mixed results in the other, with test-score gains observed in classrooms with higher weekly CAL practice time.