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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.

Mobile Phone-Based Messaging and Critical Health Behaviors to Reduce Covid-19 Spread in India

Girija Bahety
Dev Patel
James Richard Potter
Researchers working in India conduct an adaptive randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of a SMS-based information campaign on the adoption of social distancing and handwashing in rural Bihar, India, six months into the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of payments for ecosystem services on crop burning in India

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a PES program that offers financial rewards to paddy farmers for reducing burning of crop residue (or “stubble”) on stubble burning in Punjab, India.

Teachers’ traditional beliefs about gender negatively impact the academic performance of girls in Turkey

Seda Ertac
Ipek Mumcu
To better understand gender inequalities in academic achievement, choice of occupation, and labor market outcomes, researchers studied the effect of teachers’ beliefs about gender roles on student achievement in Istanbul, Turkey. Girls who were taught by teachers with traditional gender views had...

Impacts and Challenges of a Teacher Training Program in Nepal

Julie Schaffner
Uttam Sharma
Training teachers to improve teacher quality and student learning is a common strategy taken by policymakers. In Nepal, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation of a government teacher training program for math and science teachers to evaluate the impact on student learning in secondary schools...

Visualizing Future Benefits to Increase Preventive Health Investment, Savings, and Labor Supply in Kenya

Anett John
Researchers evaluated the impact of light-touch psychological interventions on health and economic outcomes, with a particular focus on the chlorination of drinking water. After twelve weeks, visualizing the future increased objectively measured chlorination; it also reduced diarrhea episodes among...

Offering Amenities to Increase Health Care Demand in Mexico

Researchers conducted an evaluation to test the impact of offering a high-amenity diagnostic consultation for cataracts at different prices on uptake of an underutilized service—cataract surgery—in Mexico. Lower prices for the high-amenity consultation increased exposure to amenities, which...

Information and Social Interaction in Savings Decisions in the United States

This evaluation studied the influence of information and social networks on university employees' decisions to enroll in a voluntary Tax Deferred Account (TDA) retirement plan in the United States. The results indicated that an individual’s decision to participate in the TDA is affected by small...

Cooking Stoves, Indoor Air Pollution, and Respiratory Health in India

While researchers found a meaningful reduction in smoke inhalation in the first year after households received an improved stove, there was no effect over longer time horizons. The difference between the laboratory and field results is due to households’ revealed low valuation of the stoves...