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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.

Commitment Contracts for Smoking Cessation in the United States

This study will examine whether a combination of positive and negative commitment devices can induce long-term smoking cessation in smokers from a low-to-moderate income background in Connecticut.

Remedial Education to Address Learning Gaps in Secondary Schools in India

Anne Fitzpatrick
Khandker Wahedur Rahman
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of an in-school remedial education program on student learning in Odisha, India. Both the standard and a version that allowed teacher flexibility improved student test scores without reducing grade- level mastery or affecting the...

Participatory Development and Social Preferences: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh

Researchers are conducting a lab-in-the-field study to measure the impact of a community-driven development program in Bangladesh on participants’ preferences and values about fairness, equity, civic engagement, and participatory decision-making.

Strengthening Employment and Family Planning through STEM Career Support in India

Ketki Sheth
In urban India, researchers are testing whether helping women and men start STEM careers through a job training program improves their employment and earnings, and, for women, enhances economic empowerment and shapes family planning choices.

Saving for Multiple Goals with Lockboxes in Malawi

Valentina Brailovskaya
Jonathan Robinson
In Malawi, researchers offered micro-entrepreneurs either single or multiple lockboxes to evaluate the impact of the boxes on savings and other business and financial outcomes. Individuals offered multiple lockboxes saved more than those offered a single lockbox, suggesting that providing lockboxes...

The Impact of Offering Awards on Health Worker Learning in Zambia

Researchers in Zambia introduced different kinds of awards and information on performance rankings into a year-long training for community health workers to evaluate their impact on how much trainees learned. They found that awards focused on offering recognition and improving trainees’ status and...

Contesting Criminal Gang Governance in Medellin: The Impacts of Intensive Municipal Governance and Community Organization on Gang Control and Governing of Neighborhoods

Gustavo Duncan
Benjamin Lessing
In partnership with the City of Medellín, researchers randomly introduced a program that intensified government outreach to gang-controlled neighborhoods. The study found no evidence that the city’s intervention reduced gang rule.