Blog

News

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.

The Impact of Bid Training on Small Firm Growth in Liberia

Fei Ao
Vinayak Iyer
Golvine de Rochambeau
Researchers evaluated the impact of a bid training program on the business performance of local small and medium-sized firms. The bid training led firms to bid on and win more contracts, with the positive impacts concentrated on a quarter of firms.

Accelerating Changes in Norms about Social Distancing to Combat COVID-19

James Riddell IV
Tanya Rosenblat
Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluations to test the impact of different types of public health messaging on the practice of social distancing.

The Impact of a Peer Information Sharing Strategy to Combat the Spread of Covid-19 in Zambia

Researchers are measuring the impact of a peer information sharing strategy on people’s learning and adherence to Covid-19 health protocols. This study is part of a three-country research program in Zambia, Ghana, and the US aiming to find evidence on the most effective strategies to communicate...

The Illusion of Sustainability: Comparing Free Provision of Deworming Drugs and Other "Sustainable" Approaches in Kenya

This study in Kenya found that cost-sharing and health education were not effective alternatives to a total subsidy of deworming drugs.

Can Higher Prices Stimulate Product Use? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Zambia

Researchers in Zambia found that the use of chlorine decreased with higher prices, but this decline was partially offset by better targeting of the product to families who were more likely to use it. Additionally, there was no evidence that higher offer prices screened out poorer or less educated...

Financial Incentives and an Adolescent Empowerment Program to Reduce Child Marriage in Rural Bangladesh

Nina Buchmann
Shahana Nazneen
Xiao Yu Wang
Child marriage remains prevalent in many countries despite laws prohibiting the practice, leading to negative health and education outcomes for young women and their children. Researchers evaluated the impacts of an incentive program and an adolescent empowerment program on child marriage, teenage...

School Choice in Andhra Pradesh, India

Venkatesh Sundararaman
In India, researchers measured the impact of providing vouchers to attend private schools on student learning. Students who won vouchers had test scores that were 0.13 standard deviations higher across all subjects.