Researchers are designing and evaluating a soft skills training program that incorporates imagery for entrepreneurs who have experienced violence or other traumatic or challenging life circumstances in Bogotá, Colombia.

Approximately 85 percent of primary school age children in western Kenya are enrolled in school, but only about one-third of students finish primary school. This project was introduced in part to assist families of high-achieving girls to cover the cost of school fees, supplies, and activities.

In Hong Kong, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of indirectly incentivizing protest participation on sustained participation in a political movement and to identify the role social networks play in protest turnout. Indirectly incentivizing participants to attend a political protest increased their participation regardless of how many of their peers received the same incentive. Participants’ subsequent protest participation remained persistently higher a year later, but only when at least half of their social network was also incentivized to attend the initial protest.

Researchers evaluated whether randomly providing financial support for secondary education could improve economic decision-making in addition to educational outcomes for secondary school students in Malawi. Results show that the intervention improved educational outcomes and economic decision-making, especially among 9th grade students.

Researchers partnered with the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM) in Brazil to evaluate the impact of access to research results on policymakers’ demand for research findings and interest in adopting evidence-informed policies. Policymakers were willing to pay for research findings and subsequently updated their beliefs. Those who were invited to an information session on a simple, evidence-informed policy to increase tax compliance were more likely to implement that policy within the next two years.

To better understand gender inequalities in academic achievement, choice of occupation, and labor market outcomes, researchers studied the effect of teachers’ beliefs about gender roles on student achievement in Istanbul, Turkey. Girls who were taught by teachers with traditional gender views had lower math and verbal test scores, which worsened with longer exposure to their teachers; boys did not experience these effects.

Researchers evaluated the impact of hiring extra contract teachers in primary schools in India on student learning. Results show that students in schools with an extra contract teacher performed significantly better than those in comparison schools in both math and language areas. Evidence also suggests that contract teachers in this context faced stronger incentives to perform well than regular teachers.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of providing information to students on enrollment at different quality schools. Students who were provided information applied to and enrolled in different types of schools. However, overall a greater number of students did not enroll in school despite receiving information.

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.

Researchers analyzed the impact of a new reimbursement model to incentivize end-stage kidney disease providers and facilities to provide home dialysis on home dialysis rates. During the first year of the study, there was no statistically significant difference in home dialysis rates between hospital referral regions randomly assigned to the new reimbursement model and those that used the old model.

Researchers are launching a randomized evaluation to explore the impact of interventions that foster friendships and enhance problem solving skills on the mental health and labor market outcomes of young women working in a garment factory.

A number of low-income countries subsidize the price of staple foods such as rice in an effort to improve nutrition, and these programs generally enjoy great public support. However, subsidizing staple foods may cause households to shift to their spending to better-tasting foods that are actually less nutritious. In China, researchers analyzed the impact of food subsidies on nutrition and found no evidence of a positive impact. In fact, the subsidies may even have caused some households to consume fewer calories and important vitamins and minerals.