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.

Providing information on wood heating to decrease indoor air pollution in France

Coralie Chevallier
Elise Huillery
Mathieu Perona
Rita Abdel Sater
Researchers evaluated the impact of general and personalized information regarding the relationship between wood burning and indoor pollution on households’ knowledge of pollution and their pollution mitigation efforts. Both general and personalized information increased households’ awareness of...

Price Incentives for Groundwater Conservation in India

Researchers partner with a rural development organization to evaluate financial incentives for voluntary groundwater conservation among smallholder farmers in Gujarat, India.

Group Versus Individual Liability in the Philippines

Xavier Giné
In this study, researchers randomly selected existing group-lending centers to convert to an individual liability model. They found no difference in repayment rates between individuals assigned individual liability and those assigned group liability, no change in overall profitability for the bank...

Measuring the Impact of Microcredit on Borrowing and Business Outcomes in the Philippines

Researchers measured the impact of individual-liability microcredit on marginally creditworthy applicants in the Philippines. They found that increased access to microcredit expanded borrowing and improved risk management and sharing, but it also led clients to shrink their businesses.

Limited Insurance Within the Household in Kenya

Jonathan Robinson
Researchers examined whether intra-household risk-sharing mechanisms such as financial transfers between spouses operate efficiently in Western and Nyanza Provinces of Kenya and found that intra-household insurance to protect against economic shocks was inefficient among daily income earners.

An Entrepreneurial Model of Community Health Delivery in Uganda

In Uganda, an incentivized community health promoter program increased health care access, knowledge, and health-promoting behaviors among households, leading to a 27 percent reduction in child mortality.

The Impact of Risk Information on Adolescent Sexual Behavior and Knowledge in Cameroon

Elise Huillery
Juliette Seban
In Cameroon, researchers evaluated the impact of various HIV prevention interventions delivered through schools on girls and young women’s exposure to risk. The interventions decreased the incidence of pregnancy (a marker for unprotected sex) in the following nine to twelve months by over 25 percent...

Examining Preferences for Inclusive Decision-Making in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, researchers evaluated how temporary exposure to a community driven development program altered citizens’ preferences for inclusive, participatory approaches to decision-making. In this context, exposure to participatory decision-making increased the value that communities assigned to...