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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.

Do Robotic Calls from Credible Sources Influence Voter Turnout or Vote Choice?

James G. Gimpel
Daron R. Shaw
To test the impact of an automated phone call from a credible source on voters’ preferences and behavior, researchers delivered the message to random voters in two concurrent randomized evaluations. The call did not increase voter turnout or change voter preferences, suggesting that automated phone...

Socio-Emotional Learning for At-Risk Students in Urban Schools in Lima

Ines Kudo
Researchers evaluated the impact of teaching socio-emotional skills to schoolchildren on their emotional well-being, learning, life satisfaction, and long-run labor outcomes.

The Role of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivations for Tax Compliance in Germany

Researchers partnered with a Protestant church district in metropolitan Bavaria, Germany, to conduct a field experiment to reveal taxpayers’ motivations to comply with a local church tax. Researchers found that simplifying the tax notification, highlighting the possibility of tax enforcement, and...

The Impact of a Credit-Building Loan Product and Credit Counseling on Low-Income Borrowers in the United States

Jeremy Burke
Kata Mihaly
Credit-building loan products (CBLs) have begun to proliferate in the U.S. marketplace, but there is little evidence on the effects of these products on consumers and lenders. IPA and RAND worked with researchers to evaluate the impacts of a CBL offered at a credit union in Missouri, both alone and...

The Effect of Social Pressure on Individuals' Financial Decisions in Central Malawi

Researchers evaluated the effect of social pressure to share income on farmers’ spending decisions by varying whether income from large cash prizes was received in a public or private setting. Receiving prize money in a public setting induced individuals to spend one-third more of their money in the...

Generating Skilled Self-Employment in Uganda

Sebastian Martinez
Researchers used a randomized evaluation to measure the impact of a government program that gave groups of young people US$400 per person in return for a proposal to start a skilled trade. Recipients invested the cash and significantly increased their incomes for several years. However, nine years...

The Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers on Health Outcomes in the United States

David E. Broockman
Patrick Krause
Elizabeth Rhodes
Researchers evaluated the impact of a US$1,000 monthly unconditional cash transfer to individuals with low incomes for three years on health outcomes including nutrition, sleep, health care access and use, and physical and mental health. Those who received the large cash transfer spent more on...

Empowering Female Migrant Workers to Access Quality Overseas Placement Services in Indonesia

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of providing information about the quality of migration agencies to potential migrants on migration choices and welfare. Information reduced the rate of migration in the short term, which lowered workers’ use of low-quality agencies...