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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.

Housing Lottery to Increase Demand for Formal Government Housing and Improve Welfare in Ethiopia

In low- to middle-income countries around the world, nearly one billion people lived in urban informal settlements as of 2018. Rapid urbanization in most large African cities has led to both more people and a higher proportion of people living in informal settlements over time. Researchers conducted...

The Impact of Virtual Summer Instruction on Student Learning Loss during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States

Sean Corcoran
Sarah Kroeger
COVID-19 school closures have led to widespread student learning loss in the United States. Researchers are evaluating the impact of individualized, virtual summer instruction on redressing these losses. This project is ongoing. Results forthcoming.

Cash Transfers’ Effects on Food Consumption in Mexico

Carlos Chiapa
Silvia Prina
Irvin Rojas
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of the anti-poverty cash transfer program, PROSPERA, on food consumption for families living in poverty in Mexico. Households consumed enough food both before and after receiving the cash transfer.

Text Messages as Reminders for Antiretroviral Medication Adherence in Kenya

Researchers introduced text message reminders to evaluate their effect on Kenyan patients taking their antiretrovirals consistently and not skipping doses. Patients who received weekly text messages were more likely to take their medicine 90 percent of the time and were less likely to skip doses for...

Student Incentive Structures in Malawi

Hyuncheol Kim
Hyuk Harry Son
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of two different performance-based incentives on students’ test scores, motivation, and behavior in Malawi. They find that tournament-style incentives that rewarded the top performers among a large group lowered test scores and student...

Digital Monitoring and Health Service Provision in Sierra Leone

In many countries, rural populations access social services through decentralized systems that hire community-based workers with high monitoring needs, leaving little time for supervisors to perform other essential functions. Researchers are evaluating the impact of a phone-based e-monitoring app...

Finding Missing Markets: An Agricultural Brokerage Intervention in Kenya

Researchers evaluated whether a package of services, designed to help link smallholder farmers to commercial banks, retail farm suppliers, transportation services, and exporters, could help small farmers in Kenya adopt, finance, and market export crops, and thus make more income. One year after the...

Small Individual Loans and Mental Health in South Africa

This evaluation examined the direct impact of providing small consumer loans to marginally creditworthy individuals in South Africa on their credit access, investment, and well-being, as well as the profitability of these loans for lenders. Results found approving loans for marginally creditworthy...