This technical note discusses how behavioral economics insights can be used to enhance the design of health interventions, with emphasis on those addressing non-communicable diseases, by promoting behavioral changes. These interventions are neither sophisticated nor costly, and are particularly suited for cases in which individuals are seemingly not making rational choices about their health. The main contribution of this note is the attempt to orient non-expert practitioners in the analysis of the problem and design of the intervention.

Today, there is a general consensus about the fact that a high level of learning is important for economic growth. However, students in Latin America and the Caribbean have lower scores on standardized learning tests compared to other countries at similar stages of economic development, and much lower than that of the best performing countries. So how does the use of technology in education can help increase student learning? New technologies open opportunities to increase student learning and have the potential to reduce gaps between socioeconomic groups.

We study the socio-economic gradient of child development on a representative sample of low- and middle-income children aged 6-42 months in Bogota, using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, a high quality test based on direct observation of the child's abilities. We find a statistically significant difference between children in the 90th and 10th percentile of the wealth distribution in our sample of 0.33 standard deviations (SD) in cognition, 0.29 SD in receptive language and 0.38 SD in expressive language at 14 months.