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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.

Human-AI Cooperation to Improve Tutoring in the United States

Dora Demszky
ana ribeiro
Carly Robinson
Rose E. Wang
In collaboration with FEV Tutor, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to study whether Tutor CoPilot, an AI language model tool, could enhance tutoring quality and improve student learning outcomes in math. Researchers found that tutor access to Tutor CoPilot improved student learning...

The Impact of Incentives and Marketing on Commercial Toilet Use in Nairobi, Kenya

Johann Caro Burnett
Judy Chevalier
Applying lessons from psychology and neuroscience, researchers evaluated whether a combination of economic incentives, repetition-inducing constraints, and a marketing campaign could increase the usage of hygienic, commercial latrines among residents of an informal settlement in Nairobi. There was...

Real-Time Pricing to Reduce Electricity Use in the United States

During periods of high electricity use that strain the grid, electricity customers do not have any reason to conserve because they pay a fixed price per kilowatt hour of power. In this study, the researcher evaluated the impact on electricity usage of a real-time pricing scheme, which charges...

The Value of Regulatory Discretion: Estimates from Environmental Inspections in India

Researchers are evaluating the impact of making environmental inspections of high-polluting industrial plants more frequent and removing regulator discretion in selecting plants for inspection on regulatory compliance and pollution emissions in Gujarat, India.

Using GPS-enabled Cellphones to Monitor Agricultural Extension Agents in Paraguay

Researchers partnered with the Government of Paraguay to measure the impact of a new monitoring technology—GPS-enabled cell phones—on the job performance of agricultural extension agents (AEAs). Overall, cell phones improved AEAs’ performance by increasing the share of farmers visited, and...

Tablet-Based Financial Education in Colombia

Matthew Bird
Lina Cardona-Sosa
Pablo Lavado
Researchers collaborated with Fundación Capital and the Government of Colombia to conduct a randomized evaluation of LISTA, a tablet-based financial education program designed for participants in Colombia's government CCT program, to study its impact on financial knowledge and behavior. LISTA had...

The Impact of Cash Incentives and Health Messaging on Covid-19 Vaccination Rates in Ghana

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether health messaging or cash incentives of different amounts encouraged adults to get a Covid-19 vaccine in rural Ghana. When offered cash, adults were more willing to get vaccinated, but only the smaller cash amounts spurred adults to...

Reducing the Incidence of Vote Buying in Uganda

During the 2016 Ugandan elections, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation of an anti-vote-buying campaign to study voter behavior and electoral outcomes. Overall, the campaign did not reduce the extent of vote buying, but it had substantial effects on electoral outcomes.