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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.

The Impact of Tech-Training and Job Referrals for Youth in Kenya

Kiara Wahnschafft
Access to quality jobs is a pressing concern in sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, researchers partnered with the technology company Sama and Innovations for Poverty Action to conduct a randomized evaluation of Sama’s training and job referral programs.

The Impact of Advanced Payments on Farmer Welfare and Company Profitability in Zambia

Gunther Fink
Researchers are adapting and scaling this seasonal credit product in partnership with a private sector company to evaluate the impact on household wellbeing, consumption patterns, wages, and company profitability in Zambia’s Lusaka, Central, Southern, and Eastern provinces.

Text Messages as Reminders for Antiretroviral Medication Adherence in Kenya

Researchers introduced text message reminders to evaluate their effect on Kenyan patients taking their antiretrovirals consistently and not skipping doses. Patients who received weekly text messages were more likely to take their medicine 90 percent of the time and were less likely to skip doses for...

Improving Economic Outcomes and Well-being through Unconditional Cash Transfers and Goal-Setting in Kenya

Research has shown that people living in poverty are more likely to experience a range of psychological barriers that might constrain economic success. These barriers may include lower aspirations and goals, a perception that their actions have limited impacts on their circumstances, time...

Student Incentive Structures in Malawi

Hyuncheol Kim
Hyuk Harry Son
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of two different performance-based incentives on students’ test scores, motivation, and behavior in Malawi. They find that tournament-style incentives that rewarded the top performers among a large group lowered test scores and student...

Digital Monitoring and Health Service Provision in Sierra Leone

In many countries, rural populations access social services through decentralized systems that hire community-based workers with high monitoring needs, leaving little time for supervisors to perform other essential functions. Researchers are evaluating the impact of a phone-based e-monitoring app...

Safe Cities: Improving the Citizen-Police Interface in Pakistan

Researchers partnered with the Punjab Safe Cities Authority to evaluate how to improve citizen’s access to and experience with police services.

The Impact of Workers' Financial Stability on Their Workplace Productivity in India

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to gauge whether enhanced financial stability impacted worker productivity in India. They found that giving small-scale manufacturing workers financial relief in the form of early wage payments increased their productivity and attention to detail on the...