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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.

Prepaid Electricity Meters to Decrease Electricity Use and Recover Utility Revenue in South Africa

Grant Smith
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation in Cape Town, South Africa to measure the effect of prepaid meters on households’ electricity use and utility revenue. They found that prepaid meters led households to reduce their electricity consumption, but helped the utility company recover more...

Providing Primary Education for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in Guinea Bissau

Peter Boone
Ila Fazzio
Jenny Hsieh
Robin Lumsdaine
Researchers evaluated the impact of creating schools offering four years of primary education, in lieu of the government, on early grade reading and math skills in rural Guinea Bissau. The intervention led to substantial improvements in literacy and numeracy.

The Impact of Commitment Contracts on Workplace Productivity in India

Self-control problems can lead people to fall short of their personal and professional goals, often resulting in lower than desired workplace productivity. Researchers, in partnership with an Indian data entry firm, conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether self-control problems existed in...

Investigating the Impact of Credit with Performance-Contingent Repayment in Kenya

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether a performance-based repayment contract could outperform conventional microcredit contracts, or fixed-payment loans, in improving business outcomes and welfare for micro-distributors in Kenya. Micro-distributors who received flexible...

Information to Increase Insurance Take-up and Reduce Market Risk in the United States

Richard Domurat
Isaac Menashe
Researchers studied the impact of reminder letters addressing possible barriers related to information and behavior on insurance take-up, as well as their impact on health insurance market risk. The reminder letters reducing informational and behavioral barriers to enrollment increased insurance...

Improving Youth Employment with Job Information during Vocational Training in India

Wiji Arulampalam
Apurav Yash Bhatiya
Bhaskar Chakravorty
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether giving vocational trainees richer information about potential jobs improved their employment outcomes. Researchers provide suggestive evidence that with the information, trainees made better decisions on whether to continue the training...

Can mobile phones improve learning? Evidence from a field experiment in Niger

Researchers ran an evaluation in Niger to determine if training adults to use mobile phones could improve their learning outcomes when added to a standard adult education program. The mobile phone program increased student writing and math test scores relative to the standard curriculum.