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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.

Financial Coaching in Peru

Researchers will evaluate the impact of the program on the employees’ financial decisions related to credit, savings, and money management.

The Effect of Free Contraception on Fertility in Burkina Faso

Adriana Lleras-Muney
Pauline Rossi
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation among households in rural Burkina Faso to examine whether countries in sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing a slower shift in fertility levels due to lack of access to contraception or households wanting large families. Providing married women with access...

Using Learning Camps to Improve Basic Learning Outcomes of Primary School Children in India

Rukmini Banerji
Marc Shotland
Michael Walton
To test whether TaRL can be implemented at-scale in government schools, researchers partnered with Pratham and the Government of Uttar Pradesh to evaluate the impact of high-intensity learning camps during school hours. The model proved highly effective, bringing about large improvements in student...

The Impact of Cash Transfers and Psychotherapy on Well-being in Kenya

Robert Mudida
Jeremy Shapiro
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of unconditional cash transfers, a psychotherapy program, and their combination on psychological and economic well-being in rural Kenya.

The Impacts of Gender Norms and Women's Relationship Status on Career Ambitions in the United States

Researchers evaluate whether single women exhibit these tendencies in an elite US MBA program by testing whether students reported different ambitions privately and publicly, or if their responses varied when the audience was largely male. Researchers found that when they expected their answers to...

The Effect of Informative Letters on the Prescription and Receipt of Seroquel in the United States

Shantanu Agrawal
Michael Barnett
Frank Tetkoski
David Yokum
This study evaluated the impact of strongly-worded peer comparison review letters sent to high prescribers of quetiapine by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on prescribing behavior and patient-level outcomes. Researchers found that the letters caused substantial and long-lasting...

Sending Text Messages to Parents to Improve Student Achievement in Middle and High Schools in the United States

A randomized evaluation of the text alert program showed that the intervention reduced course failures, increased class attendance and improved in-class exam scores. The effects are larger for students with below-average GPAs and students in high school, and positive effects persist into the second...

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

Gyöngyi Lóránth
Researchers studied the effects of a credit card interest rate increase among low-income subprime borrowers in the UK to assess its impact on credit card demand, overall indebtedness, and borrowers’ ability to pay. They found that following the rate hike, subprime borrowers who appeared to be more...