Economists at the International Center for Public Policy (ICEPP) were given $209,000 from the World Bank to evaluate policy measures in Pakistan, according to a university release.
The World Bank provides financial and technical support to developing countries. Their two goals are to stop extreme poverty and encourage united prosperity, according to the World Bank website.
Musharraf Rasool Cyan, senior research associate at ICEPP, said the funding will help to implement field experiments in order to test behavioral theories.
“The results of the experiments will create empirical evidence and also generate new insights into how behavior change communication alters choices people make in engaging with public programs,” he said.
Field experiments will be conducted by applying solutions to enhance public health’s service delivery effectiveness, according to Cyan.
“The experiments are designed as randomized controlled trials and will generate empirical evidence which will help understand the mechanisms through which health delivery programs can be made effective in low resource environments,” he said.
Cyan also said the types of incentives being tested on Pakistani people include financial incentives and risk reduction. The goals of these evaluations is to determine if the program objectives have been achieved and to what extent.
“The overall objective is to enhance citizen trust in government and through it help stabilize the region where disaffection with the state has contributed to crisis,” he said. “The evaluations will chart out the extent to which different developmental interventions are affecting citizen trust in the state.”
After experiments are completed, Cyan and his team will inform public policy about their findings through workshops, according to the news release.
