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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.

Branchless Banking Agents’ Profile, Limitations, and Potential for Agent Network Expansion and Improvement”

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation in East Java, Indonesia to investigate the impact of the level and transparency of financial incentives on the take-up of these new banking services. They found that larger incentives caused an increase in take-up, but only when the incentives were not...

Vouchers to Help Farmers Access Rental Equipment Markets in India

Partnering with one of the biggest providers of rental agricultural equipment in India, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of providing agricultural equipment vouchers and cash transfers on farmers’ use of machines, their decision to reallocate household labor or hire...

The impact of payments for ecosystem services on crop burning in India

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a PES program that offers financial rewards to paddy farmers for reducing burning of crop residue (or “stubble”) on stubble burning in Punjab, India.

Digital Credit Literacy Campaign in Malawi

Valentina Brailovskaya
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a financial literacy interactive voice response campaign on loan outcomes. The intervention boosted knowledge and slightly improved loan repayment, but it also raised loan demand, increasing the overall risk of default.

Teacher Incentives Based on Students' Test Scores in Kenya

In partnership with International Child Support, researchers designed and evaluated an incentives program that provided salary bonuses to teachers in Kenya based on the performance of their school as a whole on annual district exams. While results show that the incentives program led to an increase...

Microcredit in Rural Morocco

Researchers estimated the impact of a microcredit program, which was randomly rolled out in rural areas of Morocco. Thirteen percent of the households in treatment villages took a loan, and none in comparison villages did. Among households identified as more likely to borrow, microcredit access led...

Combining Microcredit with Health Education in Benin

Bobbi Gray
Bram Thuysbaert
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation of a bundled microcredit and health education program, delivered both to mixed-gender and female-only loan groups in Benin, to evaluate its impacts on health knowledge, health behaviors, and social outcomes. The integrated package of group microcredit...

How to Teach English: Testing Two Method of Instruction in India

Fang He
Margaret McLeod
Researchers partnered with the Indian NGO Pratham to evaluate whether different technologies and implementation methods can increase students’ English test scores. Overall, the interventions were effective at increasing students’ knowledge of English.