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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.

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...

What Generates Growth in Microenterprises? Evidence from Sri Lanka

To study the employment limitation of microenterprises, researchers offered microentrepreneurs capital to incentivize them to hire workers. Results showed that a wage subsidy did not lead to lasting increases in employment sales or profits.

Follow-Up Phone Calls to Reduce the Costs of Job Search among Job Seekers in Pakistan

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of reducing the psychological costs of job applications, such as the tendency to postpone applications because completing a task today seems more burdensome than tomorrow, on job application rates and interviews in Lahore, Pakistan...

Phone-Based Tutoring to Support Learning during School Closures: Evidence from Five Countries

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of delivering educational content via mobile phones on student learning in five countries. Mobile-based instruction, especially through phone call tutorials, improved foundational learning...

Police Performance and Public Perception in Rajasthan, India

In this randomized evaluation in Rajasthan, India, researchers examined the effectiveness of five interventions on police performance: limiting administrative transfers; rotating duties and days off; elevating community involvement; incorporating on-duty training; and implementing “decoy” visits by...

Unpacking the Links from Financial Education to Financial Behaviors in India

Fenella Carpena
Jeremy Shapiro
Bilal Zia
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation of a video-based financial education course on participants’ financial behaviors in India to study which components of financial education programs are most effective. While the course alone had no impact on participants’ abilities to carry out financial...

Microfinance to Increase Social Capital and Female Empowerment in India

In India, researchers randomly assigned microfinance clients to monthly or weekly meeting schedules to test whether more frequent meetings could build social capital. They found that weekly meetings lead to higher levels of social interaction that continued beyond the initial loan cycle, which...