The Yale Research Initiative on Innovation & Scale (Y-RISE) advances research on the effects of global development policy interventions at scale. While evaluation techniques for pilot-scale programs are well developed, complexities arise when we contemplate scaling up interventions to create policy change.
Y-RISE identifies and tests promising policy interventions and, as they grow, conducts research on the challenges and implications of scale. We are organized around five research networks on the spillover effects, political economy reactions, and Macro/Growth and Welfare implications of policy interventions, external validity of trial results, and the capacity and demand for policy implementation.
In partnership with NGOs and governments, Y-RISE researchers progressively grow successful programs, devising and employing new techniques to measure the changes induced by scale. Y-RISE produces scholarship, guidance for policymakers, and in the process, facilitates large-scale implementation of tested programs. A prime example of our work is the No Lean Season program on seasonal migration, developed by Y-RISE Faculty Director Mushfiq Mobarak.
Challenges and Implications of Scale
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Large-scale programs change the behavior of government, political leaders and constituents
Can we scale with confidence that programs will work in a different time and place?
Policy Implementation and Institutional Capacity
Generating policy demand, and delivering at scale
Climate Adaptation - Safe Drinking Water
Twenty million people in coastal Bangladesh are at risk from drinking water with very high levels of salinity. Can an entrepreneurial model feasibly provide safe drinking water at scale?
With rising sea levels, tidal flooding & storm surges, fresh water is getting rapidly contaminated by salt water, leading to health risks such as hypertension and pre-eclampsia.
Existing solutions are small-scale, at household level and rely on subsidies that are unsustainable at scale.
Y-RISE is partnering with BRAC to test a market-based solution around identifying, training and financing small entrepreneurs to jump-start new water businesses.
At scale..
- What is the right-sized solution that ensures financial sustainability while minimizing market power?
- How does the large-scale entry of new entrepreneurs affect water prices?
- Do existing entrepreneurs create barriers for new entrepreneurs?
Bundled Health Services
In Sub-Saharan Africa, 150 million people live more than an hour away from a health center. Fixed costs of transportation to reach remote rural populations, such as those in Sierra Leone, are often the largest cost component of health interventions. Can delivering a bundle of health services increase take up & consequently improve population health?
In 2022, mobile vaccination teams in Sierra Leone quickly increased COVID-19 vaccination five-fold in two days at $32/person (Meriggi et al). The largest fixed cost was transportation.
Given fixed costs, it would be much more cost-effective to deliver a bundle of health services and products in the same trip.
Y-RISE research affiliates are partnering with the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Concern Worldwide to test the feasibility of delivering a bundle of health services (Routine Immunization, Vitamin A, Deworming, ORS/Zinc, Chlorine) to rural populations.
In evaluating bundled health services...
- What are the implementation complexities of bundling services at scale?
- What are the effects on health, human capital accumulation, and labor productivity?
- What are the health spillovers to non-direct beneficiaries?
Soft-Skills Training for Small Entrepreneurs
Small and medium sized entrepreneurs can improve their businesses’ profits and sales by improving skills such as leadership, resilience, agency and self-confidence. How can these programs be scaled with fidelity and what may be at-scale effects of training entrepreneurs?
Effectiveness of training implementation is key which is hard to achieve consistently at scale. Further, questions around complementarities between capital and training need to be addressed.
Y-RISE research affiliates are leading studies in India and Bangladesh to resolve several scaling complexity questions around this training.
Scaling complexities
- How does a cascade model interact with trainer characteristics?
- Do short-term estimates translate into long term effects?
- What are general equilibrium effects of training at scale?