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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.

Impacts and Challenges of a Teacher Training Program in Nepal

Julie Schaffner
Uttam Sharma
Training teachers to improve teacher quality and student learning is a common strategy taken by policymakers. In Nepal, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation of a government teacher training program for math and science teachers to evaluate the impact on student learning in secondary schools...

Offering Amenities to Increase Health Care Demand in Mexico

Researchers conducted an evaluation to test the impact of offering a high-amenity diagnostic consultation for cataracts at different prices on uptake of an underutilized service—cataract surgery—in Mexico. Lower prices for the high-amenity consultation increased exposure to amenities, which...

The Lightbulb Paradox: Consumer Behavior and Public Policy in the U.S. Electricity Market

Energy-efficient technologies, such as compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs), have the potential to save consumers money, but their adoption remains low. Researchers evaluated the impact of information and price on demand for CFLs in two contexts: an online survey platform and a typical retail...

Providing Vision Screening and Free Eyeglasses in Elementary Schools in the United States

Jongwook Lee
Kristine West
Researchers evaluated the impact on educational outcomes of providing enhanced vision services to low-income elementary school children. Providing vision screening and free eyeglasses significantly increased achievement in two of the three districts studied, while screening without the provision of...

Comparing the Impacts of Industrial Jobs and Self-Employment in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, researchers randomly assigned mostly female jobseekers to receive an industrial job offer or an unconditional cash transfer, meant to spur self-employment. While they found positive impacts of the cash transfers on occupational choice, income, and health in the first year, these effects...