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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 Impacts of In-kind Food Transfers versus Electronic Vouchers on Poverty Reduction in Indonesia

SUDARNO SUDARNO
Sudarno Sumarto
Researchers partnered with the Government of Indonesia to measure the impact of replacing the delivery of their food assistance program from in-kind transfers to electronic vouchers on household welfare. The reform was more effective in delivering assistance to targeted beneficiaries and helped...

Contracting for Health in Cambodia

Indu Bhushan
Erik Bloom
David Clingingsmith
Rathavuth Hong
Elizabeth King
Brad Schwartz

Testing Legislator Responsiveness to Citizens and Firms in the Vietnamese National Assembly

Responsive governments have the ability to make laws and decisions that reflect their constituents’ preferences. However, legislators may lack necessary information about constituents’ opinions and may therefore be unable to meet their demands. Researchers measured whether providing targeted...

Direct Democracy and Local Public Goods in Indonesia

To examine these issues, researchers randomly assigned 49 villages in Indonesia to choose local infrastructure projects through either a direct election or a representative-based meeting. Choosing local infrastructure projects by direct election, rather than through representatives, had a small...

Can Transferring Policing Power to Community Members Improve Legal Protection in Papua New Guinea?

Jasper Cooper
Researchers are using a randomized evaluation in Papua New Guinea to study the impact of the Community Auxiliary Police (CAP), a program that devolves policing powers to carefully selected community members.

Social Integration Effects of Pre-Migration Information Sessions in the Philippines

Toman Barsbai
Victoria S. Licuanan
Andreas Steinmayr
Erwin Tiongson
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to investigate whether an expanded and more thorough version of an orientation program in the Philippines improved socioeconomic outcomes and facilitated settlement for migrants upon moving to the United States. The research team found that though the...

Financial Literacy, Access to Finance, and the Effect of Being Banked in Indonesia

Thomas Sampson
Bilal Zia
Researchers worked with Bank Rakyat Indonesia and the Microfinance Innovation Center for Resources and Alternatives to measure the impact of incentives and financial education on savings account take-up. Results indicated that the financial education program was not an effective tool for promoting...

Labeled Remittances from Workers to Improve Household Allocation Compliance in the Philippines

Researchers are evaluating the impact of providing the option of labeled remittances to Filipino workers in the United Arab Emirates on the amount of remittances sent and what those remittances are used for by their recipients.