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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.

Menstruation and Education in Nepal

Researchers introduced a convenient and hygienic sanitary product, reusable menstrual cups, to Nepalese girls in the seventh and eighth grades. Their evaluation addressed several questions: Is menstruation as large a barrier to education as many believe? Does switching to modern sanitary products...

Can Informational Campaigns Raise Awareness and Local Participation in Primary Education in India?

Rukmini Banerji
Stuti Khemani
Researchers examined whether increasing community oversight and participation could improve education outcomes in Uttar Pradesh, India. Mobilizing community members to monitor local schools through Village Education Committees did not increase participation in school governance or improve education...

Contraceptive Adoption, Fertility, and the Family in Zambia

Researchers used an evaluation that varied whether women were given access to contraceptives alone or with their husbands to examine the effect of male involvement in family planning on fertility outcomes. Women who received private access to vouchers for contraceptives were more likely to take up...

Demand for Rainfall Insurance in India

Xavier Giné
Daniel Stein
Jeremy Tobacman
Petia B. Topalova
James Vickery
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test how demand for weather insurance responded to different marketing schemes and price discounts. They found that demand was very price sensitive, but that poor understanding of the product, distrust of insurance agents, and liquidity constraints...

Responses to Degree of Control over Remittances in El Salvador

Diego Aycinena
Claudia Martinez
Researchers partnered with Banco Agrícola to conduct a randomized evaluation that offered a way for Salvadoran migrants to directly channel some fraction of their remittances into savings accounts in El Salvador. Results indicate that a desire for control over remittance uses—in particular the...

Financial and Informational Barriers to Migration in the Philippines

David McKenzie
In the Philippines, researchers tested several interventions designed to ease informational, job search, and documentation barriers to working overseas. They found that some interventions increased the number of participants who searched for work or acquired passports, but none led to increases in...

Using Alarm Boxes to Combine Commitment and Reminders for Savings in Bolivia

In Bolivia, researchers investigated whether alarm boxes, designed to both remind people to save and to keep their savings safe, could have an effect on savings rates among microfinance clients.

Smoothing the Cost of Education: Micro-Savings in Ugandan Primary Schools

In Uganda, researchers tested whether a school-based savings program reduced dropout rates by enabling students and their families to save for school-related expenses. A version of the program that labeled savings for educational purposes, rather than fully committing money to educational expenses...