At the onset of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown in the Philippines in April 2020, the Asian Development Bank, in partnership with the Philippine government and the private sector, implemented the Bayan Bayanihan (BB) food relief program which served approximately 162,000 households...

Innovations in big data and algorithms are enabling new approaches to target interventions at scale. We compare the accuracy of three different systems for identifying the poor to receive benefit transfers - proxy means-testing, nominations from community members, and an algorithmic approach...

This paper evaluates the impact of the Café Lumière project launched by the NGO Électriciens sans frontières to address the lack of reliable electricity access in rural Madagascar. The project integrates solar-powered micro-grids and energy platforms to provide affordable electricity and...

In advanced economies, increasing population diversity often fuels hostile attitudes toward immigrants and political polarization. We study a short educational program for high-school students aimed at promoting cultural diversity and improving attitudes toward immigration through active...

The construction of the Suramadu bridge, the longest bridge in Indonesia connecting the islands of Java and Madura, aimed to stimulate regional economic growth in Madura and reduce disparity. However, 13 years after the construction, significant economic progress in Madura has yet to be seen....

Many policy interventions in the environmental sector aim at changing environmental preferences, because these provide the basis for adopting environmental conservation behavior or technologies. To evaluate these changes, standard measurement tools in survey-based impact evaluations have their...

The aim of this research was to evaluate the impact of the financial aid programme at a private university in Venezuela on the outcome variables of post-graduation or social mobility, such as remuneration at the time of graduation and at present, and the probability of entering the labour...

How does the proximity to a metro station affect urban development in Latin America? While the literature assessing the causal impacts of transportation infrastructure has grown in recent years, only a few papers have focused on the effects of metro systems in Latin America and the Caribbean...

We use a randomized controlled trial to examine the short- and mid-term impacts of a best-practice training program on (non-)employment outcomes in Ghana. Overall the program did not affect core labor market outcomes at the extensive (employment) and intensive (hours of work, income) margin, but...

Unemployment presents a significant challenge requiring attention not only in developing countries but also in economically developed ones. Active labour market policies offer a potential solution to address this issue. This study focuses on assessing the impact of the intervention called...

We investigate the impact of a large new public hospital on directly observed waiting times in emergency departments of other public hospitals in Nicaragua. Using a difference-indifferences design, we estimate a significant decrease in waiting time by 42% or 10.1 minutes in nearby hospitals...

Anticipatory humanitarian assistance is a novel approach to aid in the context of weather disasters, drawing on meteorological forecasts. Using a randomized study design, we analyze the impact of anticipatory cash transfers distributed to pastoralist households in Mongolia during an extreme...

In this study, we examine the impact of minimum wages in Vietnam using individual-level data from the 2012-2020 annual Labor Force Surveys. During this period, the average real minimum wage increased by around 4% per year. Overall, we do not find significant effects from minimum wages on...

Based on a randomized controlled trial conducted on extremely poor youths in Nepal, we report the impact of a vocational training program that offered long-duration training combined with incentives for trainers tied to trainees' success. Furthermore, to mimic the practices in the field, a...

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), in partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), implemented the project "Convergence on Value Chain Enhancement for Rural Growth and Empowerment" or Project ConVERGE with the goal of empowering Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries...

This paper studies tax evasion in the form of under-reported wages in Ecuador using microdata from a combination of electronic billing and personal income tax returns filed in 2017. Bringing together this novel combination of data, the study applies the standard method Pissarides and Weber...

The goal of this paper is to provide insights into how scientific evidence can be used for policymaking and put evidence-based agriculture and food policies at the top of research and policy agendas. We illustrate how scientific evidence can be used in a targeted manner for better policymaking...

This analysis applies a regression discontinuity approach combined with remote sensing data to measure the productivity impacts linked to a fruit-fly eradication program, implemented in Peru. For this purpose, satellite imagery was used to estimate a vegetation index over a 10-year span for a...

While the 1995 Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH) regulation transformed the outlook on workplaces in Spain, characterized by a lack of preventive protection, public statistics have reported an increasing trend in the postregulation workplace accident rates. This study uses microdata from...

This study presents a baseline survey for the Rural Agro-enterprise Partnership for Inclusive Development and Growth (RAPID-Growth) project implemented by the Department of Trade and Industry. Operating in six regions of Mindanao and Region VIII, the project focuses on key value chains,...

This paper investigates the retirement response to the pandemic and to the resulting acceleration in the adoption of new technologies. Using the European Union Statistics of Income and Living Conditions datasets and leveraging the natural experiment of many workers being forced to work from home...

Aimed at pandemic preparedness, we construct a framework for integrated epi‐econ assessment that we believe would be useful for policymakers, especially at the early stages of a pandemic outbreak. We offer theory, calibration to micro‐, macro‐, and epi‐data, and numerical methods for...

This paper develops and estimates a dynamic model, which integrates value‐added and school‐choice models, to evaluate grade‐by‐grade and cumulative impacts of the Mexican Prospera conditional cash transfer (CCT) program on educational achievement. The empirical application advances the...

What difference does government support of business R&D make to the rate of innovation? Addressing this important question has deep theoretical roots and broadening practical applications in OECD countries. The analysis of output additionality has been hampered by incomplete data combined with...

Public disclosure laws on politicians' outside income aim to enhance electoral accountability, but their effects remain unclear and may backfire. Using a German disclosure reform, administrative tax data, and a difference-in-difference design, we show that MPs increased their outside income...

While FTA negotiations are proliferating, our paper shows that targeting the appropriate sector is crucial for generating employment opportunities subsequent to FTA. In particular, we show that, countering conventional wisdom, targeting skill-biased exports and not the sector that employs...

This paper examines the effect of temperature on emergency department (ED) visits using administrative data covering 50% of the Hungarian population and 3.52 million ED visits from 2009 to 2017. The results show that ED visit rates increase when average temperatures exceed 10°C, primarily...