Blog

News

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.

Constraints to Saving for Health Expenditures in Kenya

Researchers introduced four savings devices to estimate the relative importance of different potential barriers to health savings. Results indicate that just providing a safe place to keep money led to a large increase in health savings. These results suggest that simply labeling funds for a...

Asset-based Microfinance in Pakistan

Faisal Bari
Kashif Malik
In Pakistan, researchers partnered with a microfinance institution to conduct a randomized evaluation to test how larger asset-based loans for purchasing business equipment, combined with flexible repayment options, affected business performance and household well-being. Business owners who received...

Groupements de Créateurs: Encouraging Youth Entrepreneurship in France

Nila Ceci-Renaud
Elise Huillery
Researchers evaluated the impact of a program aiming to develop the autonomy and decision-making skills of young people interested in starting a company or organization. They found that the program had positive impacts on the employment status, income, and overall confidence of the participants.

Improving Financial Access through Microcredit for Women in Mexico

Researchers expanded microcredit offerings in Sonora, Mexico to evaluate the effect of improved credit access on economic and social outcome. They found that microcredit increased access to formal financial services and enabled some businesses to expand, but did not increase household income or...

Reducing Inequality through a Summer Youth Employment Program in Boston

Researchers used survey data to evaluate short-term outcomes for Boston’s SYEP participants in 2015. They found that the program significantly improved participants’ community engagement and social skills, many job readiness skills, and some academic aspirations.

Increasing Access to Microcredit to Encourage Business Start-up and Participant Welfare in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Britta Augsburg
Ralph De Haas
Heike Harmgart
Researchers expanded microcredit offerings in Bosnia and Herzegovina to evaluate the effect of improved credit access on economic and social outcomes. They found that providing loans to slightly under-qualified microcredit applicants increased small business ownership, but not income, and decreased...

The Impact of Offering Pay-as-you-go Car Insurance on Covering Drivers in California

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of introducing a pay-as-you-go car insurance contract, which reduces minimum purchase requirements, to uninsured drivers in California. Applicants who were offered this type of insurance were nearly twice as likely to purchase car...

Impact of Teaching Firms about Labor Laws on Hiring in South Africa

Researchers investigated whether access to information about local labor laws could improve firms’ understanding of the law. They found that free access to an existing subscription service that provided this information improved firms’ understanding of labor regulations and resulted in large...