Jessica Leight
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 989128 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Jessica Leight |
| NOMBRES | Jessica |
| APELLIDO | Leight |
| FIRMA | LEIGHT J |
| AFILIACIONES | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1691-9682 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 28 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 27 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 28 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2004 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 2 |
If you want to have sex you can, if you don’t, you don’t have to”
Gender-transformative programing targeting couples is an important strategy to reduce intimate partner violence (IPV), but questions around efficacy and safety remain. This qualitative study explores indications of change and unintended consequences of the gender-transformative Unite for a Better Life (UBL) intervention, using data from the couples’ and control arms of a cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) in Ethiopia. The cRCT found no im…
The effects of cash and group therapy in the context of conflict
The prevalence of depression remains high in low-income contexts, particularly those affected by conflict. This paper reports on a randomized controlled trial conducted in rural Ethiopia assessing the effects of a psychological (group therapy) intervention delivered by non-specialist health staff, as well as a large one-time cash transfer delivered post-therapy. The trial includes three arms comparing group therapy, cash, and both jointly to a st…
The effect of teacher training and community literacy programming on teacher and student outcomes
Motivated by extremely low levels of basic reading skills in sub-Saharan Africa, we experimentally evaluate two interventions designed to enhance students’ early-grade literacy performance in rural Mozambique: a relatively light-touch, scalable teacher training in early-grade literacy including the provision of pedagogical materials, and teacher training and materials in conjunction with community-level reading camps. Using data from 1,596 third …
Can a light-touch graduation model enhance livelihood outcomes? Evidence from Ethiopia
Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Cash for Work
While a growing literature analyzes the economic effects of cash for work programs in developing countries, there remains little evidence about the longer-term effects of these interventions. This paper presents findings from a randomized controlled trial evaluating a three month intervention providing public works employment in rural Tunisia. The evaluation design incorporates two dimensions of randomization – community-level randomization to tr…
Scalable Nutrition Interventions in a Graduation Model Program
We explore the effect of different models of scalable nutrition services embedded within a light-touch graduation program implemented at scale in Ethiopia. The graduation program provided poor households enrolled in Ethiopia’s national safety net, the Productive Safety Net Program, with additional livelihood programming including savings groups and agricultural and livestock value-chain training. In addition, extremely poor households received a …
Men can cook
Covid-19 school closures and mental health of adolescent students
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, entailing widespread school closures as well as acute disruptions to household livelihoods, had substantial consequences for adolescent well-being in low-income countries. We present novel evidence about the prevalence of mental health challenges among adolescent students in rural Mozambique using data from an in-person survey conducted in 105 schools in 2021, immediately following the post-pandemic school reop…
Community Health Educators and Maternal Health
The slow pace of improvement in service delivery and health outcomes for pregnant women and newborns in developing countries has been a major concern for policy makers in recent decades. This paper presents the results from a randomized controlled trial of a community health worker program designed to enhance uptake of child and maternal health services in Northern Nigeria. Three interventions were evaluated: the deployment of community health ed…
Effectiveness of community mobilisation and group-based interventions for preventing intimate partner violence against women in low- and middle-income countries
Advancing the Agency of Adolescent Girls
More than 98 million adolescent girls are not in school. Can girls influence their schooling without changes in their family's economic environment? In Rajasthan, India, we examine the impact of a school-based life skills program that seeks to address low aspirations, narrow societal roles for girls and women, restricted networks of social support, and limited decision-making power. We find the intervention causes a 25% decline in school dropout …
Barriers to appropriate complementary feeding and the use of ultra‐processed foods
Children's consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) is increasing in Ethiopia, but relatively little is known about the specific feeding practices that underlie this pattern. The objective of this study was to explore patterns of consumption of UPF by infants and young children within a broader context of inappropriate complementary feeding practices in extremely poor households in rural Oromia, Eastern Ethiopia. A formative qualitative study w…
The effects of text reminders on the use of family planning services
INTRODUCTION: Reduction of unmet need for contraception is associated with enhanced health outcomes. We conducted a randomised controlled trial in Mozambique analysing the effects of text messages encouraging use of family planning services. METHODS: This trial was conducted within a sample of women served by the Integrated Family Planning Program implemented by Population Services International, in which community health workers provide clinic r…
Women's empowerment, maternal depression, and stress
Objective: Though there is a wide array of evidence that women's empowerment is associated with more positive health and nutritional outcomes for women and children, evidence around the relationship with mental health or subjective well-being remains relatively limited. The objective of this paper is to explore this relationship in longitudinal data from rural Burkina Faso. Methods: We analyze the association between empowerment measured using th…
The role of poultry transfers in diet diversity
Poultry has gained renewed attention as a promising value chain for women because it is an asset that is widely accessible to women, has low start-up costs, and provides a good source of nutritious animal-sourced foods for children in chicken meat and, especially, eggs. The current study presents evidence from an experimental intervention that randomly provided women either a poultry package transfer of vaccinated, improved-breed chickens and rel…
Community-level spillover effects of an intervention to prevent intimate partner violence and HIV transmission in rural Ethiopia
BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with adverse health and psychosocial outcomes. We analysed the spillover effects of Unite for a Better Life (UBL), an intervention evaluated in a cluster randomised controlled trial using a double-randomised design; previous evidence suggests UBL reduced IPV in rural Ethiopia among direct beneficiaries. METHODS: Villages (n=64) were randomly allocated to control, or to receive UBL delivere…
Exporting Out of Agriculture
This paper analyzes the effect of China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 on structural transformation at the local level, exploiting cross-sectional variation in tariff uncertainty faced by county economies pre-2001. Using a new panel of 1,800 Chinese counties from 1996 to 2013, we find that counties more exposed to the reduction in tariff uncertainty postaccession are characterized by increased exports and foreign direct inves…
Intimate partner violence and maternal health services utilization
Women experiencing physical intimate partner violence show lower levels of utilization of maternal health services in a large sample of developing and middle-income countries. Given that reduced utilization of maternal health services is correlated with maternal and neonatal health outcomes, this pattern suggests that IPV prevention may be an important component of interventions targeting enhanced maternal and neonatal health
Like father, like son, like mother, like daughter
Can community service grants foster social and economic integration for youth? A randomized trial in Kazakhstan
How light is too light touch
This paper reports on the effects of a training-based intervention seeking to increase household engagement in poultry production in Burkina Faso, analyzing data from a large-scale cluster randomized trial in which 1798 households in 60 communes were observed over a period of three years. The intervention SELEVER - entailing a short series of trainings for households as well as capacity building for local animal health and credit services - had l…
Maternal Education, Parental Investment, and Noncognitive Characteristics in Rural China
The importance of noncognitive skills in determining long-term human capital and labor market outcomes is widely acknowledged, but relatively little is known about how educational investments by parents may respond to children’s noncognitive characteristics. This paper evaluates the parental response to noncognitive variation across siblings in rural Gansu Province, China, employing a household fixed effects specification; the noncognitive measur…
Increasing immunization compliance among schools and day care centers
This paper reports on the results of a randomized controlled trial in which researchers collaborated with a department of health in a mid-size city to evaluate the effectiveness of targeted communications highlighting descriptive social norms to increase immunization compliance across 700 schools. Schools were randomly selected to receive a twice-annual immunization compliance report card reporting in detail their compliance rates compared to oth…
“That’s a woman’s problem”
BACKGROUND: Maternal and newborn mortality continue to be major challenges in Nigeria. While greater participation of men in maternal and newborn health has been associated with positive outcomes in many settings, male involvement remains low. The objective of this analysis was to investigate male involvement in maternal and newborn health in Jigawa state, northern Nigeria. METHODS: This qualitative study included 40 event narratives conducted wi…
Sibling Rivalry
This article evaluates the strategies employed by households in rural China to allocate educational expenditure to children of different physical endowments, examining whether parents use educational funding to reinforce or compensate for these differences. Climatic shocks are employed as an instrument for endowment, measured as height-for-age, allowing for the identification of the impact of quasi-exogenous variation in endowment on parental all…
Long-run impacts of land regulation
Men can cook
How light is too light touch
This paper reports on the effects of a training-based intervention seeking to increase household engagement in poultry production in Burkina Faso, analyzing data from a large-scale cluster randomized trial in which 1798 households in 60 communes were observed over a period of three years. The intervention SELEVER - entailing a short series of trainings for households as well as capacity building for local animal health and credit services - had l…
Maternal Education, Parental Investment, and Noncognitive Characteristics in Rural China
The importance of noncognitive skills in determining long-term human capital and labor market outcomes is widely acknowledged, but relatively little is known about how educational investments by parents may respond to children’s noncognitive characteristics. This paper evaluates the parental response to noncognitive variation across siblings in rural Gansu Province, China, employing a household fixed effects specification; the noncognitive measur…
Sibling Rivalry
This article evaluates the strategies employed by households in rural China to allocate educational expenditure to children of different physical endowments, examining whether parents use educational funding to reinforce or compensate for these differences. Climatic shocks are employed as an instrument for endowment, measured as height-for-age, allowing for the identification of the impact of quasi-exogenous variation in endowment on parental all…
The role of poultry transfers in diet diversity
Poultry has gained renewed attention as a promising value chain for women because it is an asset that is widely accessible to women, has low start-up costs, and provides a good source of nutritious animal-sourced foods for children in chicken meat and, especially, eggs. The current study presents evidence from an experimental intervention that randomly provided women either a poultry package transfer of vaccinated, improved-breed chickens and rel…
The Political Dynamics of Agricultural Liberalisation in the US-Chile Free Trade Agreement
The 2003 US-Chile free trade agreement, regarded by many as consistent with Chile's long-held trade liberalisation strategy, nonetheless engendered a surprisingly vigorous debate focused on the proposed elimination of the bandas de precio protecting traditional agricultural crops. Opposition to the agreement, mounted by the conservative Alianza por Chile, offers an intriguing political case study that suggests that populist posturing surrounding …
Rejecting Revanchism
The Political Dynamics of Agricultural Liberalisation in the US-Chile Free Trade Agreement
The 2003 US-Chile free trade agreement, regarded by many as consistent with Chile's long-held trade liberalisation strategy, nonetheless engendered a surprisingly vigorous debate focused on the proposed elimination of the bandas de precio protecting traditional agricultural crops. Opposition to the agreement, mounted by the conservative Alianza por Chile, offers an intriguing political case study that suggests that populist posturing surrounding …
Long-run impacts of land regulation
Sibling Rivalry
This article evaluates the strategies employed by households in rural China to allocate educational expenditure to children of different physical endowments, examining whether parents use educational funding to reinforce or compensate for these differences. Climatic shocks are employed as an instrument for endowment, measured as height-for-age, allowing for the identification of the impact of quasi-exogenous variation in endowment on parental all…
Increasing immunization compliance among schools and day care centers
This paper reports on the results of a randomized controlled trial in which researchers collaborated with a department of health in a mid-size city to evaluate the effectiveness of targeted communications highlighting descriptive social norms to increase immunization compliance across 700 schools. Schools were randomly selected to receive a twice-annual immunization compliance report card reporting in detail their compliance rates compared to oth…
“That’s a woman’s problem”
BACKGROUND: Maternal and newborn mortality continue to be major challenges in Nigeria. While greater participation of men in maternal and newborn health has been associated with positive outcomes in many settings, male involvement remains low. The objective of this analysis was to investigate male involvement in maternal and newborn health in Jigawa state, northern Nigeria. METHODS: This qualitative study included 40 event narratives conducted wi…
Maternal Education, Parental Investment, and Noncognitive Characteristics in Rural China
The importance of noncognitive skills in determining long-term human capital and labor market outcomes is widely acknowledged, but relatively little is known about how educational investments by parents may respond to children’s noncognitive characteristics. This paper evaluates the parental response to noncognitive variation across siblings in rural Gansu Province, China, employing a household fixed effects specification; the noncognitive measur…
Community-level spillover effects of an intervention to prevent intimate partner violence and HIV transmission in rural Ethiopia
BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with adverse health and psychosocial outcomes. We analysed the spillover effects of Unite for a Better Life (UBL), an intervention evaluated in a cluster randomised controlled trial using a double-randomised design; previous evidence suggests UBL reduced IPV in rural Ethiopia among direct beneficiaries. METHODS: Villages (n=64) were randomly allocated to control, or to receive UBL delivere…
Exporting Out of Agriculture
This paper analyzes the effect of China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 on structural transformation at the local level, exploiting cross-sectional variation in tariff uncertainty faced by county economies pre-2001. Using a new panel of 1,800 Chinese counties from 1996 to 2013, we find that counties more exposed to the reduction in tariff uncertainty postaccession are characterized by increased exports and foreign direct inves…
Intimate partner violence and maternal health services utilization
Women experiencing physical intimate partner violence show lower levels of utilization of maternal health services in a large sample of developing and middle-income countries. Given that reduced utilization of maternal health services is correlated with maternal and neonatal health outcomes, this pattern suggests that IPV prevention may be an important component of interventions targeting enhanced maternal and neonatal health
Like father, like son, like mother, like daughter
Can community service grants foster social and economic integration for youth? A randomized trial in Kazakhstan
How light is too light touch
This paper reports on the effects of a training-based intervention seeking to increase household engagement in poultry production in Burkina Faso, analyzing data from a large-scale cluster randomized trial in which 1798 households in 60 communes were observed over a period of three years. The intervention SELEVER - entailing a short series of trainings for households as well as capacity building for local animal health and credit services - had l…
The effects of text reminders on the use of family planning services
INTRODUCTION: Reduction of unmet need for contraception is associated with enhanced health outcomes. We conducted a randomised controlled trial in Mozambique analysing the effects of text messages encouraging use of family planning services. METHODS: This trial was conducted within a sample of women served by the Integrated Family Planning Program implemented by Population Services International, in which community health workers provide clinic r…
Women's empowerment, maternal depression, and stress
Objective: Though there is a wide array of evidence that women's empowerment is associated with more positive health and nutritional outcomes for women and children, evidence around the relationship with mental health or subjective well-being remains relatively limited. The objective of this paper is to explore this relationship in longitudinal data from rural Burkina Faso. Methods: We analyze the association between empowerment measured using th…
The role of poultry transfers in diet diversity
Poultry has gained renewed attention as a promising value chain for women because it is an asset that is widely accessible to women, has low start-up costs, and provides a good source of nutritious animal-sourced foods for children in chicken meat and, especially, eggs. The current study presents evidence from an experimental intervention that randomly provided women either a poultry package transfer of vaccinated, improved-breed chickens and rel…
Covid-19 school closures and mental health of adolescent students
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, entailing widespread school closures as well as acute disruptions to household livelihoods, had substantial consequences for adolescent well-being in low-income countries. We present novel evidence about the prevalence of mental health challenges among adolescent students in rural Mozambique using data from an in-person survey conducted in 105 schools in 2021, immediately following the post-pandemic school reop…
Community Health Educators and Maternal Health
The slow pace of improvement in service delivery and health outcomes for pregnant women and newborns in developing countries has been a major concern for policy makers in recent decades. This paper presents the results from a randomized controlled trial of a community health worker program designed to enhance uptake of child and maternal health services in Northern Nigeria. Three interventions were evaluated: the deployment of community health ed…
Effectiveness of community mobilisation and group-based interventions for preventing intimate partner violence against women in low- and middle-income countries
Advancing the Agency of Adolescent Girls
More than 98 million adolescent girls are not in school. Can girls influence their schooling without changes in their family's economic environment? In Rajasthan, India, we examine the impact of a school-based life skills program that seeks to address low aspirations, narrow societal roles for girls and women, restricted networks of social support, and limited decision-making power. We find the intervention causes a 25% decline in school dropout …
Barriers to appropriate complementary feeding and the use of ultra‐processed foods
Children's consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) is increasing in Ethiopia, but relatively little is known about the specific feeding practices that underlie this pattern. The objective of this study was to explore patterns of consumption of UPF by infants and young children within a broader context of inappropriate complementary feeding practices in extremely poor households in rural Oromia, Eastern Ethiopia. A formative qualitative study w…
Men can cook
The effect of teacher training and community literacy programming on teacher and student outcomes
Motivated by extremely low levels of basic reading skills in sub-Saharan Africa, we experimentally evaluate two interventions designed to enhance students’ early-grade literacy performance in rural Mozambique: a relatively light-touch, scalable teacher training in early-grade literacy including the provision of pedagogical materials, and teacher training and materials in conjunction with community-level reading camps. Using data from 1,596 third …
Can a light-touch graduation model enhance livelihood outcomes? Evidence from Ethiopia
Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Cash for Work
While a growing literature analyzes the economic effects of cash for work programs in developing countries, there remains little evidence about the longer-term effects of these interventions. This paper presents findings from a randomized controlled trial evaluating a three month intervention providing public works employment in rural Tunisia. The evaluation design incorporates two dimensions of randomization – community-level randomization to tr…
Medicine (16 obras) · Economics (12 obras) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (11 obras) · Psychology (11 obras) · Economic growth (8 obras) · Environmental health (8 obras) · Geography (8 obras) · Political science (8 obras) · Global Maternal and Child Health (6 obras) · Intervention (counseling (6 obras)