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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 Demand for Status Goods in Indonesia

Working with a large bank in Indonesia that markets platinum credit cards to high-income customers, researchers designed a series of randomized evaluations to understand the demand for status goods. Overall, researchers found that a substantial part of the demand for the platinum card is explained...

Testing Alternative Job Evaluation Schemes to Improve Civil Servant Work Performance in China

Employers often rely on subjective performance evaluations by supervisors to gauge the performance of workers–particularly in the public sector, where civil servants’ work performance is hard to measure. However, relying on the opinions of local supervisors could cause subordinates to prioritize...

The Effects of a Universal Basic Income during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Kenya

Michael Faye
Alan Krueger
Taking advantage of a pre-existing large-scale evaluation of a universal basic income project in Kenya, researchers measured how different types of cash transfers impact recipients’ income, reported well-being, food security, mental health, and social interaction in the context of the COVID-19...

Addressing Bias by Promoting Women to Management Positions in Bangladesh

Researchers randomly assigned co-supervisors to production lines to evaluate the impact of exposing garment factory workers and supervisors to women managers on factory productivity, supervisor retention, and attitudes toward women. Several months after the intervention, there was no difference in...

Information on Tax Compliance and Perceptions of Equity in Tax Policy in Brazil

Evan Kresch
Laura Zoratto
Researchers are conducting an evaluation that randomized the provision of information in a survey to improve the likelihood that citizens paid their municipal property taxes and understood the role that unequal tax burdens played in determining the likelihood of people paying their full tax burden...

Deferring Wages and Labor Supply in Malawi

Lasse Brune
Researchers partnered with a tea company in Malawi to study the effects of a savings product that allowed workers to defer payment of a part of their wages. The deferred wages program was generally popular and increased savings; in the longer run, it helped workers improve their houses.