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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.

Deferring Wages and Labor Supply in Malawi

Lasse Brune
Eric Chyn
Researchers partnered with a tea company in Malawi to study the effects of a savings product that allowed workers to defer payment of a part of their wages. The deferred wages program was generally popular and increased savings; in the longer run, it helped workers improve their houses.

Increasing Access to Security and Justice through Women's Help Desks in Police Stations in India

Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner
Akshay Mangla
Researchers are employing an RCT to evaluate whether the establishment of police station-level Women’s Help Desks (WHDs), as well as the deployment of additional female personnel to these WHDs, improves the responsiveness of frontline officers to women, as well as levels of crime and crime reporting...

Influencing Higher Education Choices through a Customized Digital Application Platform in the Dominican Republic

Researchers are partnering with the Government of the Dominican Republic to introduce a custom tablet application to prospective students on what tertiary education programs, scholarships, and funding options exist based on their interests and finances, as well as employment rates and earnings...

Cash Transfers and Market Access to Increase Household Welfare in Rural Liberia and Malawi

Dahyeon Jeong
Naresh Kumar
David Park
Alan Spearot
In Liberia and Malawi, researchers partnered with Innovations for Poverty Action, GiveDirectly, and USAID to evaluate the impact of an unconditional cash transfer and market access program on food security, spending, income, resilience to health shocks, intimate partner violence, and psychological...

Encouraging Behavioral Change to Improve Road Safety in Kenya

In Kenya, researchers introduced a messaging campaign on matatus (local buses) to encourage individuals to speak up against reckless driving and reduce road accidents rates. Placing these stickers in the passenger area of matatus decreased insurance claims rates, average speed, and number of road...

Economic and Behavioral Effects of Increasing Sleep Among Low-Income Workers in India

Sleep deprivation has a negative impact on individuals’ physical and psychological well-being. Researchers evaluated whether providing information and encouragement, improvements to home sleep environments, and in some cases financial incentives increased sleep duration, sleep quality, and the...

The Impact of Transportation and Information Access on Women's Job Search and Employment in Pakistan

Nivedhitha Subramanian
Kate Vyborny
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of increased access to transportation and assistance with interview scheduling on women’s employment.

The Impact of a School-Based Smoking Prevention Program in Indonesia

Justin White
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to measure the impact of a school-based program that used a non-monetary penalty and regular monitoring to prevent adolescent tobacco use. The program reduced the probability that adolescents smoked, with effects sustained three months after the program...