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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 Impact of Early Childhood Psychosocial Stimulation on Child Development Outcomes in Odisha, India

Researchers evaluated the impact of an early childhood psychosocial stimulation program on child development outcomes in urban Odisha, India. They found that a home-visiting stimulation program led to greater development outcomes, particularly for boys, stunted children, and children with more...

How Boston’s Summer Employment Program Affects Youth Criminal Justice Outcomes

Researchers evaluated whether Boston’s SYEP had an effect on the criminal justice outcomes of participants and sought to gauge the potential mechanisms driving these effects. The program reduced participants’ violent and property crime-related arraignments.

Impact of Peer Motivation on Worker Productivity in Malawi

Lasse Brune
Researchers at the Lujeri Tea Estates in Malawi evaluated the impact of exposure to more, less, or equally productive peers on tea harvester productivity. They found that increasing the productivity of a worker’s peers meaningfully increased worker productivity, measured in kilograms of tea picked...

Evaluating Transfer Size in a Conditional Cash Transfer Program for Seasonal Migrants in Indonesia

Melanie Morton
Joeri Smits
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a cash transfer program conditional on seasonal migration and an unconditional cash transfer (UCT) program on rural households’ decisions to migrate and migration season earnings in West-Timor, Indonesia. Relative to the UCT, the...

Environmental inspections for pollution regulation enforcement in China

In collaboration with China’s National Environmental Inspection Program, researchers are evaluating the impact of reporting firms’ hourly emissions data to environmental inspectors on the likelihood of firms being inspected, local air pollution, local economic output, and health outcomes.

Mobile Phone Data Compared to Household Surveys to Evaluate the Impact of Cash Transfers in Togo

Emily Aiken
Suzanne Bellue
In Togo, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the effect of cash grants on people's welfare and if using mobile phone data in impact evaluations yielded the same results as survey data. They found that the cash grant program increased food security, mental health, and self-perceived...

Primary School Deworming in Kenya

Researchers evaluated a mass school-based deworming program in Western Kenya, and found that deworming substantially improved health and school participation of treated children, as well as of untreated children in both treatment schools and neighboring schools. The program reduced school...

Free Distribution or Cost Sharing? Evidence from a Malaria Prevention Experiment in Kenya

Researchers investigated the impact of the price of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) on usage and demand in Kenya. Researchers found that cost-sharing considerably dampened demand, and those who were left out under a cost-sharing scheme had very high usage rates when they could access the product...