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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.

The Impact of Providing Land Tax Subsidies, Local Monitoring, and Minikits on Irrigation Use in Rwanda

Maria Jones
Florence Kondylis
John Loeser
Building off of previous quasi-experimental research, researchers conducted three randomized evaluations to test the impact of providing farmers with land tax subsidies, different ways of monitoring water access and the canal’s operations and maintenance, or farming minikits on farmers' use of...

Identifying Information Asymmetries in a Consumer Credit Market in South Africa

Researchers sought to understand different types of information asymmetries and how they relate to loan default rates in South Africa. Borrowers given high interest rates had a greater incentive to default as it was more costly to repay the loan, but there was little evidence that borrowers...

The Impact of Emergency Rental Assistance on Housing Stability during Covid-19 in the United States

Researchers leveraged existing randomization to evaluate the impact of ERA programs during the pandemic in four urban areas in the United States on measures of housing stability, financial security, and mental health. Receipt of rental assistance increased rent payment in the short term and modestly...

Changing Teenage Girls' Aspirations and Educational Attainment through Increased Female Representation in Leadership in India

In 2008, women accounted for 18 percent of parliamentarians worldwide, and only 13 countries had a female head of government. In India, researchers studied the impact of a constitutional amendment that reserved village council leadership positions for women on adolescent girls’ career aspirations...

Measuring the Impact of Clientelism on Voter Behavior in Benin

Christel Vermeersch
Voters in Benin had a preference for clientelist political platforms, but certain subsets of voters such as women, consumers of mass media, and members of social organizations were less receptive to clientelism.

The Impacts of Computer-Based Individualized Instruction on Math Learning in India

Andreas de Barros
Alejandro Ganimian
In partnership with an education assessment firm, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to isolate the impact of computer-based individualized instruction in India. After nine months, lower-performing students in grades six to eight learned 22 percent of a standard deviation more in math if...