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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.

School's Out: How Summer Youth Employment Programs Impact Academic Outcomes (in Boston)

Researchers evaluated the impact of Boston’s Summer Youth Employment Program, which uses a lottery to provide youth with part-time work and skills training during the summer, on students’ educational outcomes. The program significantly increased high school graduation rates among participating...

Teacher Incentives Based on Students' Test Scores in Kenya

In partnership with International Child Support, researchers designed and evaluated an incentives program that provided salary bonuses to teachers in Kenya based on the performance of their school as a whole on annual district exams. While results show that the incentives program led to an increase...

CARES Commitment Savings for Smoking Cessation in the Philippines

Researchers evaluated the impact of a voluntary commitment savings program that allowed individuals to deposit a self-selected amount of their own money that would be forfeited if they did not quit smoking within six months. Results suggested that individuals who were offered the program were much...

Counseling and Job Placement for Young Graduate Job Seekers in France (Jeunes Diplômés)

Career counseling for young, college-educated job seekers in France helped them find work sooner, but this improvement came at the expense of jobs for those who did not receive counseling, and it did not translate into a long-term increase in employment rates.

The Direct and Indirect Effects of Female Training Interventions in a Traditional Society

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a nursing skills training program targeting female youth based in Assiut and Sohag, Egypt, on employment outcomes on the treated group and more importantly, their local social network.

The Effect of Village-Based Schools in Afghanistan

Dana Burde
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation in Afghanistan to measure the impact of school proximity on the educational outcomes of young students in local villages. Results indicated that the geographic proximity of schools had a dramatic effect on children’s academic participation and...

Reducing Formalization Costs for Small Businesses in Colombia

Camila Navajas Ahumada
Marcela Meléndez
In the context of a recent government policy that reduced costs of formalization, researchers provided information on the formal entry process through workshops and personalized visits to determine the impacts of information on firms’ decision to formalize.