Blog

News

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.

Governance Interventions to Improve Public Health Delivery in Uganda

Joshua Greenberg
The researcher conducted a pilot randomized evaluation to test the feasibility of a regular community accountability meeting program and a politician health leadership program, as well as the feasibility of associated data collection activities. Both interventions realized considerable stakeholder...

Impact of Information on the Returns to Education on the Demand for Schooling in the Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic, researchers investigated families’ perceptions of the returns to education and whether providing information on the actual returns to education would change their schooling decisions. They found that students significantly underestimated the returns to secondary education...

Financial Training for Mineworkers in South Africa

Jeremy Shapiro
Financial access in South Africa has expanded rapidly in recent years and policymakers have identified financial education as a means to improve financial literacy and inclusion. To test this, researchers evaluated the impact of a financial literacy workshop on miners’ financial understanding...

Learning beyond school: the impact of a remedial learning and literacy program on out-of-school girls in Pakistan

This project used a randomized evaluation to study the effect of a learning program targeting adolescent girls on their education, aspirations, and empowerment.

The Effect of School Choice on Academic Achievement in the United States

Julie Berry Cullen
Researchers used Chicago’s school choice program, which uses a random lottery to allocate slots in elementary schools, to evaluate how the opportunity to attend a higher-quality school impacts academic achievement. They found that lottery winners are more likely to attend higher-performing schools...

Publicizing Tax Credits for Political Contributions in the United States

Robert G. Boatright
Michael J. Malbin
In Ohio, researchers tested the effect of an informational mailing on the number of tax filers claiming the political contribution tax credit. They found that the campaign generated a moderate increase in the number of individuals claiming the credit, but at a cost of over US$2000 per filer.

Certification, Teacher Effectiveness, and Student Learning in the United States

Steven Cantrell
Jon Fullerton
Certified teachers were no more likely than non-applicants to be effective at improving students’ test scores, but were more effective than unsuccessful applicants. Researchers found that estimates of teacher effectiveness based on test scores from previous years were a strong predictor of student...