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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.

The Impact of Contraceptive Subsidies for Individuals in the United States

Jennifer Barber
Lea Bart
Vanessa Dalton
Daniel Eisenberg
Paula Fomby
Vanessa Lang
Alexa Prettyman
In this randomized evaluation, researchers partnered with Planned Parenthood of Michigan to give vouchers for contraception to evaluate the impact of contraceptive costs on method choice. Those who received the vouchers were more likely to buy contraceptives and buy more expensive methods than those...

Do Robotic Calls from Credible Sources Influence Voter Turnout or Vote Choice?

James G. Gimpel
Daron R. Shaw
To test the impact of an automated phone call from a credible source on voters’ preferences and behavior, researchers delivered the message to random voters in two concurrent randomized evaluations. The call did not increase voter turnout or change voter preferences, suggesting that automated phone...

Socio-Emotional Learning for At-Risk Students in Urban Schools in Lima

Ines Kudo
Researchers evaluated the impact of teaching socio-emotional skills to schoolchildren on their emotional well-being, learning, life satisfaction, and long-run labor outcomes.

Graduating the Ultra-Poor in Ethiopia

Nathanael Goldberg
Researchers present results from six randomized control trials of an integrated approach to improve livelihoods among the very poor. The impact on the poor households lasted at least a year after all implementation ended.

Video-Mediated Agricultural Extension to Increase Technology Adoption Among Farmers in Ethiopia

Gashaw Abate
Simrin Makhija
David J. Spielman
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a video-mediated extension approach on the uptake of technologies recommended by the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture. The video-mediated instruction increased uptake through improved access to extension and farmer knowledge but...

The Role of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivations for Tax Compliance in Germany

Researchers partnered with a Protestant church district in metropolitan Bavaria, Germany, to conduct a field experiment to reveal taxpayers’ motivations to comply with a local church tax. Researchers found that simplifying the tax notification, highlighting the possibility of tax enforcement, and...

The Impact of a Credit-Building Loan Product and Credit Counseling on Low-Income Borrowers in the United States

Jeremy Burke
Kata Mihaly
Credit-building loan products (CBLs) have begun to proliferate in the U.S. marketplace, but there is little evidence on the effects of these products on consumers and lenders. IPA and RAND worked with researchers to evaluate the impacts of a CBL offered at a credit union in Missouri, both alone and...

The Effect of Social Pressure on Individuals' Financial Decisions in Central Malawi

Researchers evaluated the effect of social pressure to share income on farmers’ spending decisions by varying whether income from large cash prizes was received in a public or private setting. Receiving prize money in a public setting induced individuals to spend one-third more of their money in the...