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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.

Unconditional Cash Transfers and Civic Engagement in Kenya

Citizen participation in local civic affairs and in decision-making processes around village resources can be a way to align policies with local preferences, hold politicians accountable, and improve public service delivery. In rural Western Kenya, researchers are partnering with GiveDirectly to...

Subsidized Housing to Change the Economic Outcomes and Social Integration of Syrian Refugees in Jordan

Samuel Leone
Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation of a subsidized housing assistance program for refugees in Jordan to assess its impact on their economic outcomes, psychological well-being, long-term migration decisions, and social integration into their host community.

Influencing Higher Education Choices through a Customized Digital Application Platform in the Dominican Republic

Researchers are partnering with the Government of the Dominican Republic to introduce a custom tablet application to prospective students on what tertiary education programs, scholarships, and funding options exist based on their interests and finances, as well as employment rates and earnings...

The Impact of Emergency Cash Assistance in a Pandemic

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation in Colombia to assess the effects of emergency cash assistance on the well-being of households. Recipients of the UCT experienced improved financial health, food access, and psychological well-being. Colombia’s newly implemented mobile money system...

Incentives for Milk Cleanliness and Production Quality for Cooperatives in India

Ashish Shenoy
Much economic activity in low-income countries takes place through cooperative or collective organizations. Researchers in the Indian state of Karnataka conducted a randomized evaluation to study whether collective incentive payments to village cooperatives of dairy farmers could increase milk...

Increasing Take-Up of the Earned Income Tax Credit

Across six randomized evaluations, researchers studied the impact of low-cost, low-touch informational interventions, or “nudges,” on take-up of the federal and state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in California. None of the interventions had an impact on EITC take-up, suggesting that information...

Improving Youth Employment with Job Information during Vocational Training in India

Wiji Arulampalam
Apurav Yash Bhatiya
Bhaskar Chakravorty
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether giving vocational trainees richer information about potential jobs improved their employment outcomes. Researchers provide suggestive evidence that with the information, trainees made better decisions on whether to continue the training...

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...