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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.

How Boston’s Summer Employment Program Affects Youth Criminal Justice Outcomes

Researchers evaluated whether Boston’s SYEP had an effect on the criminal justice outcomes of participants and sought to gauge the potential mechanisms driving these effects. The program reduced participants’ violent and property crime-related arraignments.

Impact of Peer Motivation on Worker Productivity in Malawi

Lasse Brune
Researchers at the Lujeri Tea Estates in Malawi evaluated the impact of exposure to more, less, or equally productive peers on tea harvester productivity. They found that increasing the productivity of a worker’s peers meaningfully increased worker productivity, measured in kilograms of tea picked...

Connecting Smallholder Farmers to Agricultural Value Chains in Rwanda

Alan Spearot
Guanghong Xu
Researchers are evaluating the effects of providing farmers with access to maize processing services that could improve maize quality on their input decisions.

Improving Brick Manufacturing in Bangladesh to Promote Clean Air and Better Health

Shoeb Ahmed
Debashish Biswas
Moogdho Mahzab
Sameer Maithel
Mahbubur Rahman
M. Rofi Uddin
Researchers evaluated the impact of trainings for brick kiln owners and operators on air pollution, CO2 emissions, and kiln profitability.

Messaging Strategies to Promote Safe Water and Hygiene in Bangladesh

Kaniz Jannat
David Levine
Stephen Luby
Thomas Polley
Leanne Unicomb
Researchers tested whether sharing messages that appealed to negative emotions, like shame or disgust, increased households’ hand washing behavior and willingness to pay for water chlorination in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Negative messaging had no impact on chlorination levels or willingness to pay, but...

Video-Mediated Agricultural Extension to Increase Technology Adoption Among Farmers in Ethiopia

Gashaw Abate
Tanguy Bernard
Simrin Makhija
David J. Spielman
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a video-mediated extension approach on the uptake of technologies recommended by the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture. The video-mediated instruction increased uptake through improved access to extension and farmer knowledge but...

Commitment Savings Products in the Philippines

Researchers designed and implemented a commitment savings product called a SEED (Save, Earn, Enjoy Deposits) account, which restricted access to savings, thus potentially helping with either self-control or family-control issues. After one year, the commitment savings product led to increased...