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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.

Phone-Based Tutoring to Support Learning during School Closures: Evidence from Five Countries

Micheal Ainomugisha
Sai Pramod Bathena
Colin Crossley
Claire Cullen
Thato Letsomo
Moitshepi Matsheng
Rene Marlon Panti
Shwetlena Sabarwal
Tim Sullivan
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of delivering educational content via mobile phones on student learning in five countries. Mobile-based instruction, especially through phone call tutorials, improved foundational learning...

Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) to Reduce Risky Sexual Behaviors and Increase Schooling Investments in Malawi

Erick Gong
Berk Ozler
Researchers introduced a Voluntary HIV Counseling and Testing (VCT) program to young females in Malawi to determine whether the program affects risky sexual behavior and school performance. They found no overall effect of VCT on risk of sexually transmitted infections or achievement test scores...

Research and Impacts of Digital Financial Services

A new paper describes recent evidence on what works for financial inclusion and identifies products and innovations that address key financial market failures facing poor households. Written by J-PAL affiliates Dean Karlan, Rohini Pande, Tavneet Suri, Jonathan Zinman, and co-authors, this paper also...

Relationship Banking in India

Researchers evaluated whether the intensity of personalized interaction between borrowers and loan officers in India influenced borrowers’ repayment behavior. They found that clients with personal relationship managers at the bank had better repayment behavior but were not more satisfied with their...

J-PAL Africa Project Incubation Fund – 2017 Round

J-PAL Africa, located in SALDRU in the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town, has a pool of funds to support researchers to carry out exploratory research work on policy relevant questions related to South Africa. This work should lead to the development of a full research proposal for...

The Impact of Drought-Tolerant Rice on Local Labor Markets in India

Researchers are testing the impact that stress-tolerant seeds, which have better yields than conventional varieties under weather shocks, affect landless laborers.

The Value of Postsecondary Credentials in the Labor Market

Amira Abulafi
Claudia Goldin
For-profit (and often online) universities account for nearly half of all postsecondary growth over the last decade, yet relatively little is known about how employers value and compare these education types. To test this, researchers randomly submitted resumes with different characteristics and...