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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.

The Impact of Gender-Targeted Cash Transfers in North Macedonia

Ingvild Almas
Valerie Lechene
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of targeting cash transfers to women on household spending and women’s empowerment. Targeting the cash transfer to mothers increased household spending on food. Women offered the transfers also had stronger measures of empowerment...

Targeting Foundational Skills to Improve Learning at Scale in Zambia

Theresa Lubozha
Researchers studied Zambia's Teaching at the Right Level program, delivered by government teachers nationwide, using a pre-registered cluster-randomized trial and an event study covering 4.4 million exam scores. After two years, the program improved children’s foundational literacy and numeracy...

Cash & Stash: Encouraging Saving at a Check Casher in the United States

Many financial products such as 401k plans have been designed to help US consumers overcome limited self-control and limited attention in order to reach their savings goals. However, reaching low-income consumers with such behaviorally-designed financial products can be difficult. In the Bronx, NY...

Summer Jobs Improve Employment Outcomes for Connected Youth

Researchers studied the impact of a summer jobs program in Chicago on crime, education, and employment. The program dramatically reduced violent-crime arrests, including in the following school year, though it did not influence schooling or formal employment, and may have increased property crime in...

Nudging Consumers to Use Tax Refunds to Repay High-Interest Debt

While many low-income Americans have costly debt, they typically spend only a small proportion of their tax rebates to repay those debts. In partnership with Baltimore CASH, researchers are introducing postcards that encourage low-income tax filers to use their tax rebates to pay off debt, and...

The Impact of Tech-Training and Job Referrals for Youth in Kenya

Kiara Wahnschafft
Access to quality jobs is a pressing concern in sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, researchers partnered with the technology company Sama and Innovations for Poverty Action to conduct a randomized evaluation of Sama’s training and job referral programs.

The Impact of Advanced Payments on Farmer Welfare and Company Profitability in Zambia

Gunther Fink
Researchers are adapting and scaling this seasonal credit product in partnership with a private sector company to evaluate the impact on household wellbeing, consumption patterns, wages, and company profitability in Zambia’s Lusaka, Central, Southern, and Eastern provinces.