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Browse news articles about J-PAL and our affiliated professors, and read our press releases and monthly global and research newsletters. For media inquiries, please email us.

Deferring Wages and Labor Supply in Malawi

Lasse Brune
Eric Chyn
Researchers partnered with a tea company in Malawi to study the effects of a savings product that allowed workers to defer payment of a part of their wages. The deferred wages program was generally popular and increased savings; in the longer run, it helped workers improve their houses.

Increasing Access to Security and Justice through Women's Help Desks in Police Stations in India

Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner
Akshay Mangla
Researchers are employing an RCT to evaluate whether the establishment of police station-level Women’s Help Desks (WHDs), as well as the deployment of additional female personnel to these WHDs, improves the responsiveness of frontline officers to women, as well as levels of crime and crime reporting...

The Impact of Role Models on Parental Aspirations and Investments in Children's Education in Ethiopia

Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether exposing people to a documentary featuring potential role models impacted parents’ educational aspirations for their children or their actual investments in education, and if these impacts varied by gender. Exposing families to the...

The Impact of Social Program Targeting Strategies on Reported and Actual Asset Ownership in Indonesia

Researchers partnered with the Government of Indonesia to conduct a randomized evaluation that tested whether adding questions on flat-screen televisions and cellphone SIM cards to a targeting census would change people’s reporting and actual purchases of those items. The findings suggest that while...

The Impact of Sustained Cognitive Effort on Student Performance in India

Researchers evaluated the impact of practicing sustained cognitive activity on cognitive endurance and school performance in Lucknow, India. Students that spent additional time engaging in sustained cognitive effort received higher grades in all of their classes, improved their performance on tests...

The Impact of a Quiz-Style Information Campaign on Covid-19 Prevention in the United States

Researchers are measuring the impact of a quiz-style information campaign on people’s learning and adherence to Covid-19 health protocols. This study is part of a three-country research in the United States, Ghana, and Zambia program aiming to generate evidence on the best strategies to effectively...

The Impact of Transportation and Information Access on Women's Job Search and Employment in Pakistan

Nivedhitha Subramanian
Kate Vyborny
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of increased access to transportation and assistance with interview scheduling on women’s employment.

The Impact of a School-Based Smoking Prevention Program in Indonesia

Justin White
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to measure the impact of a school-based program that used a non-monetary penalty and regular monitoring to prevent adolescent tobacco use. The program reduced the probability that adolescents smoked, with effects sustained three months after the program...