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Normalizing Mask-Wearing: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Bangladesh

May 6, 2021

Virtual

MULTIMEDIA

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  • Researchers at Yale University and the Stanford Medical School, along with IPA and local partners, have run a large, 350,000-person, randomized control trial in rural Bangladesh to evaluate ways to increase mask-wearing in communities and to measure its impact on covid-19 transmission rates.

    The research identified the precise combination of mask design, distribution and promotion strategies that led to sustained increases in mask-wearing in the community. Their work answers questions such as:

    • Which interventions increase mask-wearing the most?
    • Do social nudges or incentives increase mask-wearing?
    • Does mask promotion inadvertently decrease social distancing?
    • What kinds of masks work best? 
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    Mushfiq Mobarak

    Professor of Economics, Yale University

    A Professor of Economics at Yale University, Mushfiq Mobarak is the founder and faculty director of the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE). He is also affiliated with Innovations for Poverty Action, the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT, and the International Growth Centre (IGC) at LSE. He conducts field experiments exploring ways to induce people in developing countries to adopt technologies or behaviors that are likely to be welfare improving. He also examines the complexities of scaling up development interventions that are proven effective in such trials.

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    Magnus Lindelow

    Practice Manager, Health, Nutrition and Population, West and Central Africa, World Bank

    Magnus Lindelow is the Practice Manager for Health, Nutrition and Population for West and Central Africa in the World Bank. Previously, Lindelow has worked in East Asia, Latin America and East and Southern Africa. He holds a DPhil degree in Economics from Oxford University and has published books and research articles on health system reform, impact of health sector programs, distributional issues in the health sector, public finance, service delivery, poverty and other topics.

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    Hans Timmer

    CHIEF ECONOMIST, SOUTH ASIA REGION, WORLD BANK

    Hans Timmer is the World Bank's Chief Economist for South Asia. He assumed this position on January 1, 2019. Before that, he was the Chief Economist for the Europe and Central Asia region of the World Bank. Under his management in ECA, a series of regional reports, most recently, Toward a New Social Contract and Critical Connections, and a series of regional economic updates are produced. Prior to these positions, Timmer was Director of the World Bank's Development Prospects Group. Timmer is a quantitative international macroeconomist and econometrician with 30 years of management experience in leading teams of modelers, forecasters, and policy analysts. His experience ranges from long-term structural analyses of the economic impact of environmental policies, trade policies, and tax reforms, to short-term monitoring of the business cycle and analysis of monetary and fiscal policies.

  • Mushfiq Mobarak (Yale University) presented the findings of a cluster-randomized trial of community-level mask promotion in rural Bangladesh and discussed strategies on how to increase mask usage through cost-effective community-level interventions | Presentation

Details

  • Topic: Normalizing Mask-Wearing: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Bangladesh
  • Date: Thursday, May 6, 2021
  • Time: 10:30 - 11:45 AM ET
  • CONTACT: Office of the Chief Economist in South Asia 
  • sarchiefeconomistoffice@worldbank.org

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