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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.

Leveraging Teacher Incentives to Improve Student Performance and Reduce Dropout in Uganda

Daniel O. Gilligan
Naureen Karachiwalla
Ibrahim Kasirye
Derek Neal
Primary school teachers in Uganda face public scrutiny and high pressure around primary school exit exam results. As a result of the incentives around students being successful on this exam, teachers focus their energy on students who could receive passing marks and encourage lower-performing...

The Roles of Water Treatment Subsidies and Community Health Workers in Improving Child Health and Chlorine Usage in Malawi

Basimenye Nhlema
Zachary Wagner
Aaron Wolf
Emily Wroe
Researchers partnered with Partners in Health (PIH) to conduct a randomized evaluation to test the impact of monthly coupons and different CHW delivery methods on chlorine usage and child health outcomes in Southern Malawi. They find that the coupon program had stronger impacts on both outcomes and...

Addressing Intimate Partner Violence Through Cash Transfers in Mali

Melissa Hidrobo
Shalini Roy
Researchers evaluated the effect of an unconditional cash transfer program targeting mostly men on intimate partner violence in a context where nearly forty percent of households are polygamous. Polygamous households receiving the transfer experienced less physical and emotional violence, while...

The Impact of Social Program Targeting Strategies on Reported and Actual Asset Ownership in Indonesia

Researchers partnered with the Government of Indonesia to conduct a randomized evaluation that tested whether adding questions on flat-screen televisions and cellphone SIM cards to a targeting census would change people’s reporting and actual purchases of those items. The findings suggest that while...

Mitigating the Economic and Mental Health Impacts of Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected health systems and economies across the world. Low-income communities have experienced particularly detrimental impacts, as a lack of financial stability further exacerbated augment the crisis. In partnership with the mental health care center SCARF, researchers...

The Impact of Mobile-Based Market Information on Informal Cross-Border Trading in Kenya and Uganda

Eleanor Wiseman
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether reducing information disparities by giving access to critical market information through a mobile phone platform would improve traders’ profits and decrease incidences of corruption and bribery. Access to the mobile phone platform...

Impact of Job Uncertainty and Work Experience on Job Seeker Performance, Employment, and Earnings in Malawi

In Lilongwe, Malawi, researchers provided applicants for a health interviewer job with a random chance of receiving a back-up job, regardless of their success in being hired as a health interviewer, to measure (a) the impact of uncertainty on job search performance and (b) the returns to work...

Integration through friendship – evidence form a peer matching program in Sweden

Increasing levels of migration to the European Union have created significant challenges for governments to ensure migrants fully integrate and thrive in their host societies, but there is little rigorous evidence that evaluates current programs that promote social inclusion. Researchers are...