It can be challenging to determine the right set of incentives—particularly non-monetary—to improve outcomes for beneficiaries.

In Mexico, where the dropout rate for students is nearly 40 percent, Rafa De Hoyos Navarro and his team ran an intervention in which students in a treatment group received information on the economic benefits of finishing high school (which students tend to underestimate). While there was no impact on graduation rates, there was a .25 standard deviation impact on test scores, mostly concentrated on math scores—a significant effect, and an impressive demonstration of a simple communication intervention for improving student outcomes.