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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.

Returns to Consulting in the Philippines

Researchers in the Philippines are examining the various constraints hindering SME growth and evaluating whether graduate business students can effectively teach management skills and improve small business performance.

Increasing Profits through Subsidized Microenterprise Relocation in Uganda

Those self-employed in microenterprises, who often report low profits and own few assets, account for fifty percent of the labor force in low-income countries. Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the effect of relieving constraints to microenterprise relocation on business...

The Impact of Fee-for-Service Schemes on Health Service Utilization in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Researchers tested a fee-for-service scheme, a type of performance pay, at health facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo to evaluate its impact on health service utilization. While fee-for-service facilities invested more effort in attracting patients, this increase did not translate into...

The Impact of Sexual Harassment Awareness Training on Attitudes and Norms in India

Karmini Sharma
The researcher evaluated the impact of a sexual harassment training on the incidence of sexual harassment, opposite sex relationships, and attitudes and beliefs towards sexual harassment in India. Overall, the training reduced extreme forms of sexual harassment in the short run and intermediate...

Measuring Competition Through Subsidies in Sierra Leone's Cocoa Market

Tristan Reed
In order to measure the level of competition among traders in Sierra Leone’s cocoa market, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of delivering subsidies to cocoa traders on prices that traders paid to cocoa farmers. While the bonus payments did not affect the prices paid...

Housing Lottery to Increase Demand for Formal Government Housing and Improve Welfare in Ethiopia

In low- to middle-income countries around the world, nearly one billion people lived in urban informal settlements as of 2018. Rapid urbanization in most large African cities has led to both more people and a higher proportion of people living in informal settlements over time. Researchers conducted...

Matching Donations to Increase Charitable Giving in the United States

Altruistic individuals may hesitate to give when they doubt the quality of a charity, but knowing that a high-profile donor supports the charity might alleviate these concerns. Researchers evaluated the impact of publicizing a matching grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) on...

Providing Information on the EITC to Increase Amounts Received in the United States

Researchers sought to determine whether providing information on the EITC could increase the amount individuals received by randomizing the information professional tax preparers supplied. They found that providing more information did not increase EITC transfers or annual earnings overall.