The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of more than 1,000 researchers at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts randomized impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty.
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of more than 1,000 researchers at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts randomized impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty.
Our affiliated professors are based at over 120 universities and conduct randomized evaluations around the world to design, evaluate, and improve programs and policies aimed at reducing poverty. They set their own research agendas, raise funds to support their evaluations, and work with J-PAL staff on research, policy outreach, and training.
Our research, policy, and training work is fundamentally better when it is informed by a broad range of perspectives.
Over half of girls enrolling in the first year of primary school in Uganda drop out before completing all seven years. This research examines a key factor in dropout decisions: school fees. Similar to many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, households in Uganda face term-by-term school fees, making seasonal income fluctuations potentially crucial in enrollment decisions. Existing research suggests that households often prioritize boys' education over girls' in response to income shocks, suggesting that seasonality may lead to differential dropout patterns across genders. This study proposes a randomized experiment to vary the timing of school subsidies across households in rural Uganda. Researchers target approximately 1,500 girls and 500 boys currently enrolled in the fourth and sixth years of primary school in the Eastern Region of the country. To their knowledge, the proposed study would be the first to provide experimental evidence quantifying the role of timing in school investment decisions.