Randomised Control Trials
Our programme involves over 30 full-scale and pilot study Randomised Control Trials, which aim to contribute to policy changes that promote development-related goals in a more efficient and effective manner.
Research projects are listed below, or click Read More to find out more about this research activity.
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Engaging Citizens to Address Company-Community Conflict at South African Mines
Issue: Despite being a major source of employment, exports, and tax revenues, mining areas are often sites of protests, riots, and other forms of social conflict: between 2010 and 2013, South African police recorded over 10,000 crowd incidents near commercial…
Community Policing and Public Trust: A Field Experiment in Uganda
Issue: Use of excessive force has diminished trust between citizens and law enforcement in many parts of Uganda. In an effort to improve this dynamic, the state is revisiting a “homegrown” model of community-policing that increases police presence through local patrols and community…
Community Policing and Public Trust: A Field Experiment in Colombia
Issue: Medellín, Colombia is a metropolitan area of more than 3.7 million people, and a place with long history of violence, pressing threats to citizen security, and improving—but still fragile—police-community relations. Lack of trust in the police and the consequent lack of…
Reforming Police Practices in India
Issue: The Indian state of Madhya Pradesh’s police force has a low officer to citizen ratio with multiple vacant positions, and a lack of representation of women in their ranks. Efforts have begun to make police forces more public-oriented, but…
Further information
Overall this research looks at the pressing need to improve the responsiveness and functionality of public and private institutions, which has motivated numerous governments and donors to actively support governance-promoting activities – from citizen information campaigns, to bureaucrat incentives and enhanced personnel policies. Many of these investments are producing gains for citizens in need of effective state services and economic opportunities. However, far too few of these initiatives have been linked to rigorous evaluations that allow stakeholders to identify what specifically is effective and show how a model might be replicated or improved. Moreover, few of the evaluations that do exist have been designed to generate conclusions beyond the specific contexts within which they were implemented.
The Scientific Committee for the RCTs is chaired by Ted Miguel from the CEGA at the University of California, Berkeley in close partnership with François Bourguignon, Research Co-Director of EDI. All research under this area is conducted in partnership with government or public institutions.