Blog

News

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 Effect of Prepaid Postage on Voter Turnout in the United States

Andrew Healy
Neil Malhotra
Melissa Michelson
Allison Carnegie Sovey
Ali Adam Valenzuela
Researchers randomly provided postage-paid envelopes to a subset of permanent absentee voters in San Mateo County, California in order to evaluate its impact on voter turnout. The provision of prepaid postage resulted in no net change in voter turnout because it simultaneously decreased the number...

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...

Randomized Evaluation of the Nurse Family Partnership in South Carolina

Farah Allouch
Samuel Ayers
Alyna Chien
Rebecca A. Gourevitch
Michele R. Hacker
Michelle Woodford Martin
Nicolas Perreault
Slawa Rokicki
Chloe Zera
Annetta Zhou
Researchers are evaluating the impact of an intensive nurse home visiting program for low-income mothers on pregnancy and birth outcomes, child health and development, and future life-courses for the family. The program had no effect on adverse birth outcomes or prenatal outcomes such as health care...

The Impact of School Quality Information on Moves to Opportunity in the United States

Researchers added school-quality information onto housing listings on the AffordableHousing.com (formerly GoSection8) website, the largest provider of housing listings for HCV recipients, to evaluate the impact on families search for housing and their residential locations. The researchers found...

Characterizing Firm-Level Discrimination in the United States

Researchers studied hiring discrimination among major employers in the United States by sending fictional resumes, with varying demographic information, to determine whether certain characteristics would lead to different follow-up contact rates. Employers were less likely to contact resumes with...

The Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers on Consumption and Household Balance Sheets in the United States

David E. Broockman
Patrick Krause
Elizabeth Rhodes
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation testing the impact of monthly cash transfers of $1,000 to low-income individuals in Texas and Illinois on household expenditures, debts and assets, and financial health. The study found that receiving the cash transfer increased spending by $310 per...

Increasing Savings and Reducing Credit Card Reliance among Low-Income U.S. Households

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to investigate the demand for commitment savings products or financial counseling, and the impacts these products and services have on savings, among a sample of low- and moderate-income credit union members in New York City.