Random Update

Does Price Impact Consumer Demand for Off-net Payments in the Philippines?

Photo: Cashless payment users. © David Dvoracek / Unsplash

Joaquin Emmanuel J. Gonzales, Phillip Roessler, Russell Toth, and Hsin-Tien (Tiffany) Tsai

With IPA and a leading commercial bank, researchers are assessing the relationship between the price of instant account-to-account ("off-net") payments and their use by consumers in the Philippines. Users of the instant payment platform InstaPay will be randomly assigned to be able to make transactions for free, at a low price, a medium price, or a high price. Researchers will estimate the influence of the varying price levels on demand for off-net payments and identify the effects of off-net payments on consumer welfare.

IPA's Embedded Evidence Lab with the Central Bank of Nigeria

Photo: CBN staff collect field data on financial transactions. © 2024 Henry Chukwu

Henry Chukwu and Brian Mwesigwa

IPA and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have established an Embedded Evidence Lab within the bank’s Consumer Protection Department to analyze market trends and serve as a “single source of truth” across different teams. CBN uses these insights in conducting sustainable, data-driven conduct supervision and engagement with industry stakeholders, supporting Nigeria’s financial inclusion efforts, informing policy and program decisions, and cultivating a data-centric culture within the bank. IPA is currently in the process of scaling this work across other financial regulators within Nigeria, ensuring that financial supervision and consumer education programs across the country are grounded in the latest evidence.

Enabling Stage-Based Learning: A Funders' Guide to Maximizing Impact

IPA's Right-Fit Evidence Unit developed this comprehensive guide to help funders optimize learning at each stage of an intervention’s journey toward scale. Read the full guide to learn how stage-based learning can enhance data-driven decisions and lead to better intervention outcomes. Alternatively, download the one-pager for a brief overview of stage-based learning.

Differentiated Learning

This newly launched IPA webpage serves as a comprehensive collection of content and update resources around Differentiated Learning, which blends targeted instruction with universal design for learning and active play-based pedagogy to improve learning outcomes for students.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Crime and Violence Reduction

Another recent landing page on some of IPA's most impactful work covers the use of cognitive behavioral therapy to reduce crime, violence, and antisocial behavior in targeted communities. One of the most successful programs in Liberia which combined therapy with cash transfers has held a sustainable effect 10 years later. This evaluation continues to inform programs in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America.

Empowering Consumers: The Impact of Legal Aid on Mobile Money Disputes

Silver Kayondo, a fintech lawyer in Uganda, has witnessed time and time again ordinary people in Uganda struggling with mobile money issues and receiving little to no help from mobile network operators. To address the dearth of consumer challenges, researcher ​​Matthieu Chemin, with support from IPA's Consumer Protection Research Initiative, partnered with Silver to provide free legal aid to resolve complaints.

IPA's Peace & Recovery Initiative: Emerging Insights from Over Seven Years of Evidence-Building

Since 2017, IPA’s Peace and Recovery Initiative has contributed to the evidence base on how best to address and recover from conflict, violence, and humanitarian crises. As we launch our eighth call for proposals, we encourage innovative research proposals and present five key insights from our portfolio of 80 impact evaluations and related research projects focused on responding to and preventing fragility.

Emerging Evidence from the 2024 World Bank-UNHCR Joint Data Center’s Research Conference on Forced Displacement

The Joint Data Center’s Third Research Conference on Forced Displacement brought together key stakeholders to connect innovative academic research with policy and practice to improve outcomes for forcibly displaced populations and the communities that host them. In this blog, we unpack this research and identify key lessons for policymakers and practitioners.

Improving Solutions to Forcible Displacement Through Evidence: Learning from Impact Evaluations in East Africa

This blog collaboration between IPA's Peace & Recovery team and the UNHCR reflects on a growing number of rigorous impact evaluations on programming for displaced and host populations.