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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.

What the World Bank Can Do About Climate Change

Recent research by the Nobel laureate economist Esther Duflo and co-authors offers a second, related lesson, on what the World Bank can do about climate change based on data from one of the biggest polluters in the world: India.

March 2023 Newsletter

Our March 2023 Newsletter features a policy insight on strengthening women’s empowerment through access to childcare, an African Scholar Spotlight on Japheth Awiti Osotsi Stanley, and introduces a new education consortium in France.

Digital Technology Is A Must For Inclusive Growth

Nodir Ruzmatov explores how digitial technology is essential for inclusive economic growth.

How debit cards helped Indonesia’s poor get more food

Rastra, Indonesia’s national food aid program, is more effective when people experiencing poverty use debit cards at grocery stores rather than receiving bags of food sent to their homes, according to an MIT J-PAL study.

Sanwo-Olu transforming education in Lagos through EKOEXCEL, by Jide Olaniran

Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu has been prioritising education and technology, such as programs like Excellence in Child Education and Learning (EKOEXCEL) which focuses on providing quality education in the public system and upskills teachers by leveraging technology. This underpins a study by Novel...

President Launches “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain”- 2023 With the Theme “Source Sustainability for Drinking Water”

This press release from the Government of India highlights the importance of flagship missions. For instance, “Nobel laureate Michael Kremer, in his study has reported that 1.36 lakh lives of children under five years of age can be saved every year in rural India by providing safe and adequate...

How debit cards helped Indonesia’s poor get more food

Starting about five years ago in Indonesia, instead of rice bags, the poor were sent debit cards to buy the equivalent amount of food at local neighborhood shops. Suddenly millions of Indonesians in the program started receiving the total amount of food intended for them 81 percent of the time...

New research finds ‘formality effect’ in local government letters

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies' support for the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, the renowned behavioral scientist Elizabeth Linos and The People Lab came to Harvard last year. Read about Linos' field-leading research and how it applies to the work of city leaders today.