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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.

Discrimination in the Job Market in the United States

Researchers examined the level of racial discrimination in the United States labor market by randomly assigning identical résumés black-sounding or white-sounding names and observing the impact on requests for interviews from employers. Results found that résumés with white-sounding names received...

Project Generasi: Conditional Community Block Grants in Indonesia

Junko Onishi
Susan Wong
Researchers partnered with the Government of Indonesia to evaluate the impact of community block grants and the additional effect of performance incentives. They found that community block grants improved health and education in Indonesian villages, and adding performance incentives sped up...

Graduating the Ultra-Poor in Peru

Bram Thuysbaert
Researchers evaluated a multi-faceted approach aimed at improving long term income of the ultra-poor in Peru. They found that the approach had long-lasting economic and self-employment impacts and that the long-run benefits, measured in terms of household expenditures, outweighed their up-front...

School Libraries and Language Skills in Indian Primary Schools: A Randomized Evaluation of the Akshara Library Program

Evan Borkum
Fang He
Researchers partnered with the Akshara Foundation in Bangalore, India to evaluate the impact of hiring trained librarians in primary schools on students’ academic achievement. Overall, the intervention had little effect on students' language, math, and science skills and had no impact on student...

Moving to Opportunity or Isolation? Network Effects of a Slum Relocation Program in India

Sharon Barnhardt
Researchers examined results of a housing lottery to measure the impact of relocation on slum residents. They found that offering subsidized suburban housing resulted in neither comprehensive take-up nor higher family income, suggesting that the benefits of improved housing were offset by the costs...

The Impact of Correcting Men's Misperceptions of Beliefs about Gender: Implications for Female Labor Participation and Time Use in India

In India, researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the effects of providing men with correct information about other men’s views of women’s labor market participation.

Using Social Networks and Incentives to Boost Adoption of Farming Technologies in Malawi

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of leveraging social networks to disseminate information about two technologies, pit planting and “Chinese composting,” on farmers’ adoption of these methods. Providing performance-based incentives to peer farmers had the biggest...

Changing Handwashing Behavior with Edutainment in Bangladesh

Kailash Pandey
Chikako Yamauchi
Researchers conducted an evaluation to test the impact of a hand-hygiene edutainment (entertainment education) campaign on handwashing and health in Bangladesh. The campaign improved handwashing and child health but had no impact on hygiene knowledge.