Do nudges work? Experimental evidence from Sanitation and Financial Inclusion

Nudges/ behavioral interventions are increasingly being relied upon as effective tools for policymakers to change behaviors. However, designing and evaluating the effectiveness of nudges at scale has always been a challenge. Teams withing IDinsight have been experimenting with nudges in Sanitation and Financial Inclusion. We would conduct two lectures as a part of this session:

Nudges in Financial Inclusion

Our results indicate that low-touch SMS reminders work, but only when there is a supportive environment for the agents. This could be key given the importance of banking agents during COVID19. Also, the audience can expect a good old academic-style seminar, where we'll discuss the key parts of the research design, implementation, and results.

Nudges in Sanitation

Our results indicate that the nudges didn't work and that our data provide some clues about why: we measured open defection in a new way that allows us to understand the behavior at a detailed level. This data provides new descriptive insights on open defecation in India and leads us to posit that the behavioral factors preventing latrine use may be different from what prior research had suggested, and this behavior may not be particularly amenable to nudges.