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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.

Conditional Cash Transfers and HIV/AIDS Prevention in Malawi

Hans-Peter Kohler
Researchers evaluated whether offering individuals financial incentives to maintain their HIV-negative status could be an effective HIV prevention strategy in rural Malawi. The conditional cash transfer had no effect on HIV status or on self-reported sexual behavior. The receipt of the cash...

The Impact of Enhanced Business Training for High-Potential Entrepreneurs in Colombia

Small and medium enterprises are thought to be an important source of innovation and employment in developing countries, but entrepreneurs face a number of barriers to expanding their businesses. In Colombia, researchers are examining the impact of a combination of training, mentorship, and...

Delivering Clean Water to Households in India

Fiona Burlig
Amir Jina
More than two billion people around the world lack access to clean drinking water, and current approaches to increasing access have fallen short. Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of delivering clean water directly to households on the valuation of clean water, and...

The Effects of Kindergarten Classroom on Earnings in the United States

John Friedman
Nathaniel Hilger
Emmanuel Saez
Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach
Danny Yagan
Researchers measured the effect of class size, teacher quality, and classroom quality on earnings and other future outcomes for children participating in the Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) project in Tennessee. The study found that smaller class sizes raised college attendance, more...

Reducing Imbalanced Fertilizer Use Through Rule-Of-Thumb Instructions in Bangladesh

Mahnaz Islam
Fertilizer use has been promoted to boost agricultural productivity and increase farmers’ yields and income. Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation among rice farmers in Bangladesh to evaluate the impact of providing leaf color charts and basic training on the quantity and timing of...

Human-AI Cooperation to Improve Tutoring in the United States

Dora Demszky
ana ribeiro
Carly Robinson
Rose E. Wang
In collaboration with FEV Tutor, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to study whether Tutor CoPilot, an AI language model tool, could enhance tutoring quality and improve student learning outcomes in math. Researchers found that tutor access to Tutor CoPilot improved student learning...

The Effect of Information on Employee Evaluation in the United States

Researchers evaluated the effect of distributing “value-added” teacher evaluations to principals in New York City. Their findings suggest that principals found the reports useful and used them to inform their overall perceptions of teacher effectiveness.

Information Disclosure, Incentives, and Energy Costs in the United States

Richard Sweeney
Researchers worked with a large nationwide retailer in the United States to test whether sharing information, and providing subsidies and sales incentives had an effect on the demand for energy efficient water heaters. Results showed that information alone did not increase demand, and a $100 rebate...