Blog

News

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.

Gender Gaps in the Diffusion of Agricultural Technology in Malawi

Ariel BenYishay
Maria Jones
Florence Kondylis
Researchers studied the impact of the gender of communicators on the effects of a program to train farmers to communicate information on agricultural technology to other farmers. While there was no gender gap in communicators’ ability to acquire, retain, and use the information about the technology...

Are Agricultural Traders Colluding? Testing the Degree of Competition Among Maize Traders in Kenya

Michael Dinerstein
Researchers conducted three randomized evaluations to measure the degree of competition among wholesale maize traders, understand the implications for social welfare, and test whether new traders could make a market more competitive. Researchers found that traders did not pass through much of a...

Hiring Additional Instructors in Childcare Centers in India Improved Learning and Nutrition

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the impact of adding an additional education-focused worker in early childhood development centers on students’ learning and health outcomes. The program increased the time spent on pre-school education, boosting...

The Impact of Employment and Cash Transfers on Psychosocial Wellbeing in Bangladesh

Erin Kelley
Fatima Zahra
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of employment on refugee psychosocial well-being in Bangladesh. The study found that employment generated significant psychosocial value beyond that from cash transfers alone.

Union Leaders and Factory Workers’ Collective Action in Myanmar

Labor movements can improve workers’ lives but face great difficulty in getting workers to agree on common goals and take collective actions. In garment factory workers’ group discussions on minimum wage policies in Myanmar, researchers randomly included union leaders to study whether the presence...

Online Customer Discrimination against Female Workers in Sub-Saharan Africa

Matthew Pecenco
Edward Rubin
Researchers evaluated the impact of gender-based discrimination on female teleworkers’ productivity in online sales interactions with customers in Africa. When a customer chat representative had a female-sounding name, it led to significantly fewer purchases, and slower and more reserved reactions...

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...