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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.

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...

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 an Emissions Trading Scheme on Economic Growth and Air Quality in India

In India, researchers evaluated the impact of the first emissions trading scheme for particulate matter on air quality, industry compliance costs, and industry profits. Compliance with the market was high, and participating firms substantially reduced their particulate matter emissions without large...

Community Policing, Citizen Feedback, and Public Trust in Pakistan

Ali Hasanain
It is unclear whether a gender-differentiated intervention may be more effective in reducing some or all types of crime. To better understand this issue, researchers are working with the local police force in two districts in Pakistan to study its effects on trust levels and occurrence of crime.