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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.

Promoting Sustainable Farming Practices in Malawi

Ariel BenYishay
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of leveraging social networks to disseminate information about two technologies, pit planting and “Chinese composting,” on farmers’ adoption of these methods. Providing performance-based incentives to peer farmers had the biggest...

The Impact of Emergency Cash Assistance in a Pandemic

Pablo Querubin
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to measure the effects of the transfer on recipients’ physical and mental health, food access and security, financial security, parental investment in their children’s education, political attitudes, and other outcomes. The transfer had positive (albeit...

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...

Testing the Effectiveness of Payments for Ecosystem Services to Enhance Conservation in Uganda

Eric Lambin
Charlotte Stanton
In Uganda, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the effectiveness of a program in which landowners were paid to not cut forest trees on their property. During the study period, landowners who were offered contracts to conserve forest cleared 4 percent of forested land, compared to 9...

Empowering Parents to Improve Education Quality in Rural Mexico

Harry Anthony Patrinos
Eduardo Rodríguez-Oreggia
Researchers in Mexico evaluated the impact of providing parent associations with larger grants and more information on educational outcomes. Providing information to parent associations reduced students’ disciplinary actions in schools without improving students’ test scores.