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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.

Messaging Strategies to Promote Safe Water and Hygiene in Bangladesh

Kaniz Jannat
David Levine
Thomas Polley
Leanne Unicomb
Researchers tested whether sharing messages that appealed to negative emotions, like shame or disgust, increased households’ hand washing behavior and willingness to pay for water chlorination in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Negative messaging had no impact on chlorination levels or willingness to pay, but...

Video-Mediated Agricultural Extension to Increase Technology Adoption Among Farmers in Ethiopia

Gashaw Abate
Simrin Makhija
David J. Spielman
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a video-mediated extension approach on the uptake of technologies recommended by the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture. The video-mediated instruction increased uptake through improved access to extension and farmer knowledge but...

De-biasing Over-Optimism about Covid-19 Risks to Limit Vulnerable Individuals' Risky Behavior in India

Researchers are evaluating the impact of providing different types of information about the health risks of Covid-19 on individuals’ risky behavior among diabetic and hypertensive individuals in Tamil Nadu, India, with special attention to de-biasing over-optimism about personal health risk.

Alleviating Loneliness Among Female Migrant Garment Workers in India

Researchers are launching a randomized evaluation to explore the impact of interventions that foster friendships and enhance problem solving skills on the mental health and labor market outcomes of young women working in a garment factory.

Providing Primary Education for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in Guinea Bissau

Peter Boone
Ila Fazzio
Jenny Hsieh
Robin Lumsdaine
Researchers evaluated the impact of creating schools offering four years of primary education, in lieu of the government, on early grade reading and math skills in rural Guinea Bissau. The intervention led to substantial improvements in literacy and numeracy.

Impacts of Nonpartisan Political Information on Electoral Accountability in Mexico

Leveraging the increasingly widespread use of social media, researchers conducted a large-scale randomized evaluation to test the direct and indirect impact on electoral accountability of a nonpartisan information campaign delivered via Facebook ads during the 2018 Mexican municipal elections...

Valuing Trust in Shantytowns in Peru

Markus Mobius
Tanya Rosenblat
In collaboration with PRISMA, a Peruvian NGO offering credit through village banks, researchers designed and implemented a new loan product, which required new clients to be sponsored by existing clients, to measure the relative importance of social networks and prices for borrowing in shantytowns...

The Role of Exposure, Social Networks and Marketing Messages in Households' Willingness to Pay for Malaria Prevention in Kenya

This study evaluated the impact of subsidies and two different marketing messages on the take-up of insecticide-treated bed nets by rural households. Take-up did not vary with the framing of marketing messages but was highly sensitive to changes in price. Gaining access to a highly subsidized bed...