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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.

Foreign multinational enforcement of local workplace safety laws in Bangladesh

A researcher partnered with the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a consortium formed by US multinational companies, to evaluate the impact of privately enforcing local labor laws on garment factories in Bangladesh. Enforcing the legally-required creation and operation of workplace safety...

The Impact of Workers' Financial Stability on Their Workplace Productivity in India

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to gauge whether enhanced financial stability impacted worker productivity in India. They found that giving small-scale manufacturing workers financial relief in the form of early wage payments increased their productivity and attention to detail on the...

Impact of Community Information in Identifying High Ability Microentrepreneurs

Identifying high-potential microentrepreneurs in low-income countries remains a challenge due to lack of verifiable information. Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the value of community knowledge in identifying high-potential microentrepreneurs.

Menstruation and Education in Nepal

Researchers introduced a convenient and hygienic sanitary product, reusable menstrual cups, to Nepalese girls in the seventh and eighth grades. Their evaluation addressed several questions: Is menstruation as large a barrier to education as many believe? Does switching to modern sanitary products...

Read India: Helping Primary School Students in India Acquire Basic Reading and Math Skills

Rukmini Banerji
Michael Walton
Researchers partnered with Pratham, an educational NGO, to evaluate the impact of their “Read India” program and its components, which include teacher training, monitoring, learning materials, and village volunteers, on educational attainment. Preliminary results suggest the program had a modest...

Improving Labor Market Opportunities to Increase Women's Employment and Education in India

Researchers provided three years of recruiting services to help young women in randomly selected rural Indian villages get jobs in the business process outsourcing industry. Women who had access to these recruiting services were significantly more likely to be employed outside the home at the end of...

Seed Fairs for the Diffusion of New Crop Varieties in India

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether organizing short learning sessions for villagers about early adopters’ use of a flood-tolerant rice seed variety, Swarna-Sub1, impacted other farmers’ adoption of it. These “farmer field days” were a cost-effective strategy to improve...

The Impact of Private Tutoring Prices on Student Attendance and Performance in India

Priya Mukherjee
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to measure the demand for private tutoring services and estimate how pricing can influence enrollment in these services. Results suggest that higher prices reduced demand for private tutoring and also led to higher drop-out rates over time, with no...