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James A. Levinsohn

  • Study Leverages Peer Effects to Encourage Adoption of Hygienic Latrines

    Consumers often aren’t willing to take a chance on a new product until their neighbors do. A new study investigated the use of targeted subsidies that leveraged such "peer effects" to spark adoption of hygienic latrines, which reduce the spread of pathogens.

    Children in Bangladesh during the fieldwork for the study
  • Community Motivation and Subsidies Increase Toilet Use in Developing World

    A combination of community motivation and subsidies targeted to the poor is the most effective way to increase toilet ownership and use, and decrease open defecation, in developing countries, according to a new study published in the journal Science.