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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.

School Electricity and Native Language Digital Media to Improve Student Learning in Tanzania

Making electricity and learning materials in students’ native language more widely available in schools may be beneficial to student learning, but existing evidence is sparse. Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of school electrification, delivered alongside mixed...

Forgive and Forget: The Impact of Medical Debt Forgiveness on Financial Outcomes in the United States

In this randomized evaluation, researchers evaluated the impact of a medical debt relief program (that buys and relieves a portion of individuals’ medical debt) on measures of mental and physical health, health care utilization, and financial well-being—including financial distress, credit score...

The Impact of Offering Pay-as-you-go Car Insurance on Covering Drivers in California

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of introducing a pay-as-you-go car insurance contract, which reduces minimum purchase requirements, to uninsured drivers in California. Applicants who were offered this type of insurance were nearly twice as likely to purchase car...

Unconditional Cash Transfers and Civic Engagement in Kenya

Michael Walker
Citizen participation in local civic affairs and in decision-making processes around village resources can be a way to align policies with local preferences, hold politicians accountable, and improve public service delivery. In rural Western Kenya, researchers are partnering with GiveDirectly to...

Scaling a Bundled Village Input Fair to Build Markets for Agricultural Inputs in Mali

Partnering with Innovations for Poverty Action, Soro Yiriwaso, and UNRIA, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of scaling the bundled VIF model from the previous study on the purchase and use of inputs by small-scale farmers as well as the profitability of agro-dealers.