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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.

Unpacking the Links from Financial Education to Financial Behaviors in India

Fenella Carpena
Jeremy Shapiro
Bilal Zia
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation of a video-based financial education course on participants’ financial behaviors in India to study which components of financial education programs are most effective. While the course alone had no impact on participants’ abilities to carry out financial...

Providing Sexual and Reproductive Health Advice via SMS in Uganda

This evaluation tested whether increasing access to information about sexual and reproductive health via a text message service could reduce rates of risky behavior. The new text message service did not have a measurable impact on health knowledge, but led people to perceive the risks associated...

The Impact of Social Interactions on a Household's Aspirations and Investments in Nicaragua

In Nicaragua, researchers examined the impact of interacting with motivated community leaders on aspirations, household investment, and long-term living standards. They found that social interactions with these motivated community leaders increased households’ investments in education, nutrition...

Technology Adoption and Diffusion through Social Networks Among Coffee Farmers in Rwanda

In Rwanda, researchers worked with TechnoServe to evaluate the impact of an agronomy training program on trained farmers’ knowledge and use of best practices in coffee-growing, along with spillovers on untrained farmers. The agricultural trainings expanded trained farmers’ social networks, improved...

The Impact of Poverty Reduction on Child Health, Nutrition, and Sleep in the United States

Nathan Fox
Sarah Halpern-Meekin
Emma Hart
Alicia Kunin-Batson
Katherine Magnuson
Kimberly Noble
Jessica Sperber
Hiro Yoshikawa
To understand the causal impact of poverty reduction on children’s health, nutrition, sleep, and healthcare utilization, among other outcomes, researchers randomly assigned new mothers to receive an unconditional cash transfer of $333 (high-cash group) or $20 per month (low-cash group) in the Baby’s...

The Impact of Cognitive Stimulation and Nutritional Supplements on Early Childhood Development in Colombia

Camila Fernandez
Emla Fitzsimons
Sally Grantham-McGregor
Marta Rubio-Codina
Early childhood is an important time for both physical and neurological growth and development, but many children fail to reach their development potential. Researchers introduced an early childhood development program in Colombia to test the effects of psychosocial stimulation and micronutrient...

The Role of Conditional Cash Transfers in Mitigating Income Shocks in Mexico

In rural Mexico, researchers examined whether conditional cash transfers (CCTs) protect families against income shocks and promote investment in children's education.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Alternative Text Messages to Improve Collection of Delinquent Fines in the United Kingdom

Rory Gallagher
Laura Haynes
Peter John
David Torgerson
The collection of delinquent fines is a massive public administrative challenge. In the United Kingdom for instance, unpaid court fines amounted to more than £600 million in 2011. Managing noncompliant accounts and dispatching bailiffs to collect fines in person is costly. Researchers used a...