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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.

Changing Teenage Girls' Aspirations and Educational Attainment through Increased Female Representation in Leadership in India

In 2008, women accounted for 18 percent of parliamentarians worldwide, and only 13 countries had a female head of government. In India, researchers studied the impact of a constitutional amendment that reserved village council leadership positions for women on adolescent girls’ career aspirations...

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...

Measuring the Impact of Clientelism on Voter Behavior in Benin

Christel Vermeersch
Voters in Benin had a preference for clientelist political platforms, but certain subsets of voters such as women, consumers of mass media, and members of social organizations were less receptive to clientelism.

Mobilizing Black Voters Using Direct Mail and Commercial Phone Banks in the United States

Researchers evaluated the impact of direct mail and phone calls on the turnout of Black voters in ten different states. Neither mailings nor phone calls significantly impacted voter turnout, perhaps due to the large volume of political messaging that voters had to navigate.

Demand for Sanitation in Kenyan Urban Slums

Sebastian Galiani
In slums near Nairobi, Kenya, researchers are testing how subsidizing the cost of connecting to the sewer system and providing information about the health benefits of improved sanitation affects the number of landlords who connect to the sewer system.

Research and Impacts of Digital Financial Services

A new paper describes recent evidence on what works for financial inclusion and identifies products and innovations that address key financial market failures facing poor households. Written by J-PAL affiliates Dean Karlan, Rohini Pande, Tavneet Suri, Jonathan Zinman, and co-authors, this paper also...