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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.

How Messages to Parents Impact Student Performance in Brazil

Nina Cunha
Ricardo Madeira
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation with 9th graders’ parents in São Paulo to investigate whether weekly messages giving updates on a child’s attendance and effort, or messages emphasizing their importance, better motivated parents. Both types of messages led parents to ask more about...

Encouraging the Use of Formal Financial Services of Garment Workers through the Rollout of an Electronic Payment System in Bangladesh

Martin Kanz
Leora Klapper
Researchers randomly assigned employees at garment factories in Bangladesh to either continue collecting their wages in cash, receive direct deposit wage payments into a payroll account, or receive an account but continued to receive wage payments in cash. Exposure to payroll accounts led to...

Leveraging Government Transfers to Offer Low-Risk Microcredit in the Dominican Republic

Despite the initial promise of microcredit, randomized evaluations have found at best modest effects of microloans on poverty. Digitized payments from government cash transfer programs provide a unique opportunity to offer microcredit while addressing some of its shortcomings, potentially reducing...

The Impact of Group Discussion on Hiring Discrimination against Transgender Workers in India

Duncan Webb
Researchers evaluated the impact of group discussions and rights messaging through videos on hiring discrimination against transgender workers in India. Individuals who engaged in group discussions were more likely to hire transgender individuals.

Clinical Decision Support for Radiology Imaging in the United States

Sarah Abraham
Joseph Doyle
Sarah Reimer
Researchers studied the impact of a clinical decision support software system on high-cost imaging orders. They found that clinical decision support reduced the number of high-cost scans targeted by the software but did not change the total number of high-cost scans ordered.

The Impact of Remote Health Outreaches on Contraceptive Use in Uganda

Maria Dieci
Anne Fitzpatrick
Anthony Kamwesigye
Xufeng Liu
Juliana Namutundu
Aggrey Semeere
In partnership with Health Access Connect, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to measure the impact of a community-led primary healthcare outreach program on women’s contraceptive choices, healthcare use, and work decisions in rural Uganda.

Matching Provider Race to Increase Take-up of Preventive Health Services among Black Men in the United States

Owen Garrick
Grant Graziani
Researchers examined the impact of race concordance (when the race of a patient matches that of their physician) and incentives on the take-up of preventive health services by Black men. Results indicate that physician race concordance significantly boosted demand for all preventive health services...

The Effects of Subsidized Trainings on Young Workers and Small Firms: Evidence from Uganda

Researchers evaluated the impact of offering either subsidized vocational training to unemployed youth or subsidized apprenticeships for firms on youth employment and earning outcomes in urban Uganda. Both forms of subsidized training led to greater skill accumulation, higher employment rates, and...