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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 Impact of a Workplace Wellness Program in Illinois

Researchers evaluated the effects of a large-scale workplace wellness program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on employee health behaviors, self-reported health status, productivity, and total medical expenditures. The researchers found that financial incentives increased...

Impacts of Flexible Loans on Borrower Behavior and Microenterprise Outcomes in Colombia

Lasse Brune
Xavier Giné
Researchers evaluated the impact of a flexible microloan product on new clients' repayment behavior, business outcomes, and client satisfaction. The results showed that the flexible loan led to some shifts in investment behavior but had no average impact on revenue or profits and led to higher...

The Value of Communication for Mental Health

Re searchers used a randomized evaluation to measure the impact of providing mobile calling credits to low-income adults on well-being outcomes in Ghana. Overall, the mobile credit intervention increased the ability for individuals to meet unexpected communication needs, particularly when delivered...

The Effect of Higher Credit Card Interest Rates on Borrowers’ Demand and Debt in the UK

Gyöngyi Lóránth
Borrowers categorized as subprime, or financially risky, are generally seen as heavily reliant on debt and, consequently, as vulnerable to interest rate increases. Researchers studied the effects of a credit card interest rate increase among low-income subprime borrowers in the UK to assess its...

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...