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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.

High Hopes: Saving for High School with a Mobile-Money Lock-Box in Kenya

In Kenya, researchers partnered with a telecom operator to evaluate the impact of a commitment savings account, called the “High Hopes” Lock-Savings Account, on account usage, savings and loans, and school enrollment. The study found that many parents used the accounts–usage rates increased by about...

Union Leaders and Factory Workers’ Collective Action in Myanmar

Labor movements can improve workers’ lives but face great difficulty in getting workers to agree on common goals and take collective actions. In garment factory workers’ group discussions on minimum wage policies in Myanmar, researchers randomly included union leaders to study whether the presence...

Soliciting Preferences for Improved Volunteer Retention, Performance, and Employability in Kenya

Willa Friedman
Guthrie Gray-Lobe
Researchers are conducting an evaluation of the Government of Kenya’s G-United youth volunteer program to test the effect of randomly placing students in locations they prefer on the retention of volunteers in the program, their job performance, and their employment outcomes after the program.

Improving Women’s Labor and Welfare Outcomes through Microfinance in Uganda

Researchers in rural Western Uganda tested whether a microfinance program can help women borrowers switch out of subsistence agriculture to other labor activities, such as entrepreneurship or small-scale trading. While microloans helped women switch into service-based jobs including small-scale...

The Impact of Free Dental Health Services on Employment in Chile

Cristián Larroulet
Andrea Repetto
Researchers evaluated the impact of access to a package of free dental services on employment levels for urban residents of Santiago, Chile. Results found that participants with access to these services had better dental health, and that self-esteem and short-term employment increased among women...

Community Policing, Citizen Feedback, and Public Trust in Pakistan

Ali Hasanain
It is unclear whether a gender-differentiated intervention may be more effective in reducing some or all types of crime. To better understand this issue, researchers are working with the local police force in two districts in Pakistan to study its effects on trust levels and occurrence of crime.

The Impact of Role Models on Parental Aspirations and Investments in Children's Education in Ethiopia

Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether exposing people to a documentary featuring potential role models impacted parents’ educational aspirations for their children or their actual investments in education, and if these impacts varied by gender. Exposing families to the...

Using Text Messages to Prevent the Spread of Covid-19 in India

Girija Bahety
Sebastian Bauhoff
Dev Patel
James Potter
Researchers tested whether reminders delivered via text message improved knowledge and adoption of social distancing and handwashing. They found no evidence that individuals changed their self-reported behaviors; this finding may highlight limited effectiveness of SMS-based information campaigns...