FIELD EXPERIMENTS
1. Sexual Harassment in Public Spaces and Policing: Experimental Evidence from Urban India (with Sofia Amaral, Girija Borker, Nathan Fiala, Anjani Kumar, and Maria Micaela Sviatschi)
Partners & Donors: World Bank, JPAL-CVI, JPAL-GEA, IFMR, University of Connecticut, Princeton University, ifo Institute, Hyderabad City Police
Location: Telangana, India
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How can gender-based violence (GBV) be prevented? Can increased quantity and quality of police presence help curb GBV? What works in improving victim’s engagement with police services? This project aims to answer these questions through a novel policing program in Hyderabad, India. The Safety, Health and Environment (SHE Teams) Program is a hotspots street police patrolling intervention aimed at addressing and deterring GBV. The researchers and Hyderabad City Police have jointly developed a research program that will evaluate the effect of this program. We aim to test the role of increased police presence through patrolling and policing visibility (i.e. uniformed vs. undercover officers). Our research will address fundamental questions in the economics of crime and gender.
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2. Debiasing Law Enforcement Officers: Evidence from an Expressive Arts Intervention in India (with Sofia Amaral, Girija Borker, and Maria Micaela Sviatschi)
Partners & Donors: International Growth Center, C3, JPAL-CVI, Funds for Innovation in Development, Princeton University, IFMR, ifo Institute, Bihar Police
Location: Bihar, India
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How to prevent gender-based violence (GBV) and address institutional service-delivery related to GBV is not well understood. Our project aims to study one potential solution to address GBV in India – the role of policing quality. Our goal is to showcase the effect of a novel policing program in the Indian state of Bihar where the government led a training program for police officers on legal information, soft and technical skills regarding the handling of GBV crimes. The policy is innovative and the first micro-level program of its kind in the state. It reflects the urgent need to improve policing for GBV through improved service-delivery to victims and by raising awareness and sensitivity about these forms of crime.
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3. Shaping Future Success: Evidence from an Early Childhood Human Capital Formation Intervention (with Lindsey Buck, Rachel Cohen, Natasha Jha, Shwetlena Sabarwal, and Deepak Saraswat)
Partners & Donors: World Bank, and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Nepal)
Location: Nepal
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A large body of literature has found that early childhood interventions have effects on later outcomes in life such as lifetime earnings (Cunha and Heckman 2008), language, cognitive, and emotional skills (Chinen and Bos 2016), and participation in crime and other risky behaviors (Heckman and Masterov 2004). However, the extent to which these impacts last and through what channels they occur is not understood. We aim to study a large-scale intervention in Nepal on teacher, parent, and child outcomes. Using randomization into a treatment that provides teacher and parental training on how to encourage cognitive, physical, linguistic, emotional, and social development in children, we will study outcomes for children, teachers, and parents across 200 ECD schools. We will track children’s long-term development outcomes, as well as changes in teacher and parental investments, knowledge, and practices. We will use this information in order to determine the mechanisms through which children grow and develop, as well as the effectiveness of early childhood interventions in both the short term and the long term.
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Policy Writings and Interviews
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4. Wheels of Change: Transforming Girl's Lives with Bicycles (with Nathan Fiala, Ana Garcia-Hernandez, and Kritika Narula)
Partners & Donors: World Bicycle Relief, UBS Optimus Foundation, Ministry of General Education (Zambia), IPA (Zambia), and University of Connecticut
Location: Zambia
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We study the impact of a program that provides a bicycle to a school-going girl who lives more than 3km from school. We randomized whether a girl receives a bicycle with a small cost to her family to cover replacement parts, a bicycle where these costs are covered by the program and so is zero cost to the family, or a control group. We find that the bicycle reduced average commuting time to school by 35%, decreased absenteeism by 27%, improved math test scores and led to girls expressing higher feelings of control over their lives. We also find evidence that girls who received bicycles with the small cost to her family had higher levels of aspirations, self-image and a desire to delay marriage and pregnancy, possibly due to the girls perceiving the payment from the family as a desire to increase future investment in her. We do not find any impacts on school dropout and grade transition. Heterogeneity analysis by distance to school shows an inverted u-shape for most of the schooling and empowerment results, suggesting that impacts are greatest for girls that live far, but not too far, from school. This also suggests that empowerment outcomes worked through schooling effects.
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5. All Pain and No Gain: When Goal Setting Leads to More Effort but No Gains in Test Scores (with Asadul Islam, Sungoh Kwon, Eema Masood, Shwetlena Sabarwal, and Deepak Saraswat)
Partners & Donors: World Bank, and Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (Zanzibar)
Location: Zanzibar
AEA RCT Registry
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We conduct an at-scale randomized control trial among 18,000 secondary students in Zanzibar (Tanzania) to examine the effects of personal best goal-setting on student outcomes. We also test the impact of combining goal setting with non-financial rewards conditional on students meeting the goals they set. We find that goal-setting has a significant positive impact on student time use, study effort, and self-discipline. However, we do not find any significant impacts on test scores. This is partially because nearly two-thirds of students do not set realistic goals. We find that effects on time use, study effort, and discipline are weaker when goal-setting is combined with non-financial rewards. This suggests that tying goal-setting to extrinsic incentives could weaken its impact. We also find stronger impacts for female students, and from students coming from weaker socio-economic backgrounds. These results demonstrate that goal-setting can have positive impacts on student outcomes, especially for the relatively disadvantaged. However, for maximizing impacts goal-setting may need to be combined with guidance on setting realistic goals and extrinsic rewards tied to goals may need to be avoided.
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Policy Writings and Interviews
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6. Understanding Behavioral Barriers to Demand for Domestic Violence Service (with Sofia Amaral, Lindsey Buck, and Maria Micaela Sviatschi)
Partners & Donors: Princeton University
Location: USA
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Rates of domestic violence (DV) are increasing rapidly in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. What are the barriers that victims of DV face in reporting and leaving abusive relationships? How can policymakers eliminate the obstacles that victims face? This project aims to answer these questions through a novel intervention that targets information constraints, belief updating, and victim self-blaming. We use Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to survey a set of 8000 women and look at common barriers that women face when in an abusive relationship; we then provide treatments that give victims access to resources for reporting, information about the health status of their relationships, and videos that break down self-blame and encourage self-esteem building. Our research attempts to analyze what the most important barriers are for victims of domestic violence, and how they can reduce self-blaming, increase emotional and psychological wellbeing, and ultimately report or leave abusive relationships.
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7. Science on the Move: How ‘Experiential Learning’ Shapes Human Capital (with Nitin Bharti, Samreen Malik, and Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay)
Partners & Donors: Government of Uttar Pradesh, JPAL-LAI, NYU Abu Dhabi, and Agastya International Foundation
Location: Uttar Pradesh, India
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While many developing economies have made progress in providing access to education, the provision of quality education that delivers life-long learning, learning-how-to-learn, and developing the ability to apply knowledge to unfamiliar circumstances is essentially absent. In collaboration with the Agastya Foundation, we conducted a randomized controlled trial in public schools in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to evaluate an intervention that provides alternative science-based pedagogy—described as discovery-based pedagogy—in 68 "treatment" schools, which are then compared to 64 "control" schools.
We aim to evaluate the impact of the intervention on students' life-long learning skills, which are transferable and go beyond academic success. Transferable skills are not taught using a textbook but have to be developed through the teaching and learning experience. This alternative pedagogy focuses on whether the intervention resulted in improvement in students' overall creativity, curiosity, confidence, commitment, and content-based learning, as well as their scientific skills.
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Policy Writings and Interviews
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8. When Kids Teach Parents: Impact of Environmental Education on Household Behaviors (with Shubhro Bhattacharya, Sara M. Constantino, Nirajana Mishra, Shwetlena Sabarwal, Dighbijoy Samaddar, and Raisa Sherif)
Partners & Donors: World Bank, and the Max Planck Society
Location: Patna, Bihar
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This study investigates the spillover effects of an environmental education program on non-participants, specifically the transmission of pro-environmental behaviors between children and parents. Through a randomized experiment involving 1,545 child-parent pairs in Patna, India, we examine whether program participation increases environmental knowledge, efficacy, and behaviors.
Our experimental design includes four child-parent groups: control, child-only participation, parent-only participation, and child and parent participation. This allows us to analyze both the direct impact of program participation and its indirect effects within families.
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Policy Writings and Interviews
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9. Shaping Minds: The Transformative Effects of Theater‑Based Learning (with Ritam Chaurey, Sara M. Constantino, Shantanu Khanna, Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay, and Raisa Sherif), accepted at The Journal of Development Economics (based on pre-analysis plan)
Partners & Donors: District Administration of Champawat (Uttarakhand Government), Rang Kaarwaan, JPAL-LAI, Center for Emerging Markets at Northeastern University, and Rhombus Power Inc.
Location: Champawat, Uttarakhand
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Despite progress in addressing barriers to human capital in the last two decades, significant learning gaps persist. A new line of research suggests that holistic skills are associated with positive impacts on later life outcomes. However, there is little evidence supporting the effectiveness of existing traditional classroom-based instructional strategies in improving non-cognitive and socio-emotional skills. In this study, we conduct a randomized control trial in 96 schools in Uttarakhand, India to estimate the causal impacts of an experiential learning pedagogy in secondary schools. The curriculum consists of a total of 15 hours of arts and theater-based instruction delivered over 10 sessions across a six month period. We measure the impacts on socio-emotional skills, cognitive abilities, and learning outcomes.
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10. Building Entrepreneurial Mindsets: Evidence from a Large-Scale Educational Intervention in India (with Sofia Amaral, Aakash Bhalothia, Ritam Chaurey, Isis Gaddis, Gaurav Khanna, Samreen Malik, Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay, Nishith Prakash, and Raghav Rakesh)
Partners & Donors: Government of Andhra Pradesh, World Bank, YRISE, NYU Abu Dhabi, and Johns Hopkins University
Location: Andhra Pradesh, India
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The importance of entrepreneurial skills extends beyond individuals who aspire to enter the business world. With the evolving nature of most high-return jobs, there is a growing need for an entrepreneurial mindset that encompasses a range of cognitive and non-cognitive skills. However, there is a lack of data and experimental evidence on whether an entrepreneurial mindset can be instilled (especially in high school students), whether the current at-scale implementation has been effective, its impact on entrepreneurial traits, and whether such skills are effective in closing the existing skill gaps across genders.
To address this gap, we leverage a unique opportunity to work with the Government of Andhra Pradesh on the rollout of the Entrepreneurial Mindset Development Program (EMDP). The program consists of a special curriculum, delivered to Grade 9 students over 220 working days, to train students on their entrepreneurial mindset. Working closely with the Government of Andhra Pradesh and implementing NGOs, we aim to assess the program’s impact on the students’ entrepreneurial mindset, cognitive and non-cognitive skills, their ability to prepare and deliver an entrepreneurial idea, their hypothetical choice of labor, choice of major going forward, and their intention to pursue work that is different from traditional labor (i.e., not self-employed).
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Policy Writings and Interviews
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11. Building Teacher Capacity or Outsourcing Pedagogy? Experimental Evidence from Science Education Reform (with Ariel Gomez, Vinay Jha, Sandeep Kumar, Santosh Gautam, and Soham Sahoo)
Partners & Donors: JPAL-LAI, Notre Dame University, and Northeastern University
Location: Uttar Pradesh, India
AEA RCT Registry
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Despite making great strides in expanding access to education, developing countries like India continue to lag in measures of actual student learning. To understand how the quality of education mediates learning, this randomized control trial evaluates a pedagogical intervention that trains science teachers in rural Uttar Pradesh, India. The curiosity-based curriculum emphasizes practical techniques along with foundational principles on effective answer-seeking, guided research, constructive feedback, and peer-to-peer communication.
The researchers assess whether active teaching approaches increase student recall of course material, curiosity, student engagement, critical thinking, and other soft skills foundational to developing students’ intrinsic motivation to learn.
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12. Sorting it Out: Contribution‑Action Gap in Waste Segregation in Urban India (with Ahana Basistha, and Raisa Sherif)
Partners & Donors: Max Planck Society, and Patna Municipal Corporation
Location: Patna, India
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Poor urban waste management has severe negative effects on health and economic outcomes. An effective approach to address this issue is the implementation of waste segregation at the source, followed by adequate processing of the separated components. Co-opting households' participation in segregating waste is essential to the success of such systems. We conduct a randomized controlled trial among households in the Indian state of Bihar to examine the effects of light-touch messaging interventions on household waste segregation. We find that while interventions increase contributions to waste segregation organization, they do not change actual segregation levels.
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Policy Writings and Interviews
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13. Can ‘Guilt’ Change Police Attitude towards Gender‑Based Violence? (with Sofia Amaral, Kimberly Chaney, Victoria Endl‑Geyer, and Abhilasha Sahay)
Partners & Donors: University of Connecticut, and Madhya Pradesh Police
Location: Madhya Pradesh, India
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This study investigates the impact of a psycho-social intervention designed to address potential prejudices and biases among police officers handling gender-based violence (GBV) cases in India. In collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh police department, we conducted a lab-in-the-field experiment where male and female officers were randomly confronted about their mishandling of a fictitious GBV case. The results reveal a gender-specific response to the intervention: female officers showed increased emphasis on the victim's account and were more likely to pursue GBV complaints, while male officers exhibited a counterproductive reaction, placing less emphasis on victim statements and showing no significant change in complaint registration. These divergent outcomes may be attributed to baseline differences in bias levels, with female officers initially displaying milder bias against GBV victims compared to their male counterparts, over half of whom demonstrated strong bias. Given the male-dominated nature of policing, female officers might perceive and react to a work environment bias stronger than their own, leading to a debiasing effect when confronted. Conversely, male officers' responses align with backlash behavior, likely driven by those with strong initial biases. This research illuminates the potential of behavioral nudges in addressing biases among public sector workers and highlights how the effectiveness of such interventions can be influenced by the degree of underlying bias.
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Policy Writings and Interviews
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14. Talk Therapy and Human Capital in Adolescence: Evidence from a Low-Resource Setting (with Eric Edmonds, Priya Mukherjee, Nikhilesh Prakash, and Shwetlena Sabarwal)
Partners & Donors: World Bank, and Centre for Mental Health and Counselling - Nepal
Location: Nepal
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We examine the impact of a randomized therapy intervention on Nepalese adolescents at risk of school dropout. Our study is the largest of its kind (N = 1,707) and is novel in that participation does not require a preexisting diagnosis. Ninety percent of those offered therapy participated, with younger adolescents demonstrating higher compliance. Among those who complied, therapy significantly reduced psychological distress, improved emotional regulation, and enhanced life perspective, even in individuals without baseline mental health issues. However, these improvements in well-being did not lead to increased school attendance or better cognitive performance, suggesting that additional interventions may be necessary to enhance educational engagement in low-resource settings.
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Policy Writings and Interviews
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15. Can Destigmatizing Mental Health Increase Willingness to Seek Help? Experimental Evidence from Nepal (with Lindsey Lacey, Nirajana Mishra, Priya Mukherjee, Nikhilesh Prakash, Nishith Prakash, Diane Quinn, Shwetlena Sabarwal, and Deepak Saraswat), forthcoming in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management
Partners & Donors: World Bank, and Centre for Mental Health and Counselling - Nepal
Location: Nepal
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We conducted a randomized control trial to study the impact of two information messages aimed at reducing the stigma associated with mental illness on the willingness to seek mental healthcare among adults in Nepal. The first intervention shares information about the prevalence of mental health issues and the efficacy of treatment. The second intervention shares information about the mental health struggles of a Nepali celebrity and how he benefited from treatment. We find three results. First, compared to a no-information control group, both interventions increase participants’ stated willingness to seek mental health treatment. This effect is driven by participants with high personal and anticipated stigma, less severe symptoms of depression and anxiety, and who hold strong beliefs about conformity to masculinity. Second, the impact on participants’ stated willingness to seek mental health treatment mirrors their willingness to pay for counseling. Third, participants are, on average, more likely to report willingness to seek help when the enumerator is female.
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