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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.

Real-world experiments in messaging show that getting low-income people the help they need is more effective when stigma is reduced

There are pervasive stereotypes that Americans who are low income and access government assistance are lazy, lack a work ethic and are even morally inferior. This stigma has been shown to have many negative consequences. But until now, there’s been little research on whether this stigma influences...

Massive public-health experiment sends vaccination rates soaring

The rate of vaccination against COVID-19 rose sharply in villages in Sierra Leone where health officials held mobile vaccination clinics.

Harvard study follows nonviolent Bexar County inmates who were given free bail

For more than a year, a local nonprofit has been asking certain inmates inside the Bexar County jail if they’d like to participate in a years-long study that gives them a 50-50 chance of getting bailed out of jail for free.

Illustrating India’s complex environmental crises

A CAST Visiting Artist project traces the history of cause and effect that have led India to its current crossroads.

Reflecting on COP28 — and humanity’s progress toward meeting global climate goals

MIT delegates share observations and insights from the largest-ever UN climate conference.

AI 'work-free society' may not be happier, says Banerjee of MIT

Can technological advances make people happier when income inequality and low growth are already growing problems in developed countries? Abhijit Banerjee, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2019, says that public...

January 2024 North America Newsletter

J-PAL North America's January newsletter features a blog post on bias in administrative data, results from a food-as-medicine program, and a blog announcing J-PAL North America's involvement in an ed-tech learning community.

Malnutrition: Scaling digital behaviour change interventions

Behavioural interventions on digital platforms have the potential to improve child malnutrition at a large scale in rural India right now. While this may seem like an indirect or simplistic approach to solving a complex nutrition problem, research from Africa and South Asia suggests that behavioural...