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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.

Default Effects and Follow-On Behavior: Evidence From An Electricity Pricing Program

Peter Cappers
C. Anna Spurlock
Researchers partnered with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in California to evaluate the effects of a variety of enrollment schemes in time-varying pricing plans on electricity consumption. Results show that households which were enrolled in time-varying pricing plans by default tended to...

تأثير القروض والمنح على نمو المشروعات متناهية الصغر في مصر

Mohamed El Komi
أدت الثلاث أنواع من التدخلات ( تقديم القروض او المنح النقدية أو العينية) إلى زيادة حجم الاعمال والنتائج الاقتصادية للمستفيدين، وخاصة بالنسبة للنساء. تركزت تأثيرات الدراسة بين المستفيدين لإيجاد الأفضل أداءً لكل نوع من أنواع تدخلات الدراسة، ووجد الباحثون أن الخصائص التي يمكن ملاحظتها كانت متشابهة بين...

The Impact of a Digital Credit for Small-Scale Farmers in Ghana

Researchers are evaluating the impact of an innovative mobile phone-based digital finance program on loan repayment rates, investment decisions, savings, and use of other financial services, as well as agricultural yields and profits.

Sequencing Two Early Childhood Interventions Back-to-Back in India

Britta Augsburg
Jere Behrman
Monimalika Day
Sally Grantham-McGregor
Prachi Gupta
Pamela Jervis
Prerna Makkar
Rashim Pal
Angus Phimister
Marta Rubio-Codina
Nisha Vernekar
Researchers evaluated the impact of immediately following up an early childhood development intervention for one-to-three-year-old children with a second intervention for three-to-six-year-olds. The early and late interventions each increased IQ and school readiness for children, although there was...

The Impact of Diagnostic Feedback for Teachers on Student Learning in India

Venkatesh Sundararaman
Researchers evaluated whether providing low-stakes diagnostic tests and feedback to teachers led to improved student learning outcomes in India. They found that teachers in intervention schools exerted more effort when observed in the classroom but students in these schools performed no better on...

Farmers and the Fear of Crime: Improving Agricultural Productivity through Farm Protection in Kenya

Julian Dyer
In Kenya, researchers matched farmers with subsidized, trained watchmen to evaluate the effect of improved farm security on farmers’ decision-making, agricultural productivity, and conflict with neighbors. Security was shown to increase and in response, farmers made different cropping, time use, and...