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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.

Characterizing Firm-Level Discrimination in the United States

Researchers studied hiring discrimination among major employers in the United States by sending fictional resumes, with varying demographic information, to determine whether certain characteristics would lead to different follow-up contact rates. Employers were less likely to contact resumes with...

The Impact of Citizen Monitoring on the 2019 Mayoral Elections in Colombia

Natalia Garbiras-Diaz
Mateo Montenegro
Researchers evaluated the impact of encouraging citizen monitoring on the 2019 mayoral elections in Colombia. The intervention resulted in higher reports from citizens and a reduction in observed irregularities in the election.

Quantifying Racial Discrimination in Major US Housing Markets

Researchers conducted a correspondence study assessing property managers’ responses to rental listing inquiries from prospective tenants with distinctively Black, Hispanic/Latinx, or white names in the United States. Property managers were significantly less likely to respond to messages from...

Can Transportation Subsidies Reduce Failures to Appear in Criminal Court?

Rebecca Brough
Matthew Freedman
Daniel E. Ho
Researchers partnered with local agencies in King County, Washington to evaluate the impact of providing transit subsidies on rates of FTA in court. While the study was disrupted due to Covid-19, the pilot results indicated that transit subsidies had little effect on reducing FTA.

Weekday vs. Weekend Text-Based Parenting Support in the United States

Kalena Cortes
Hans Fricke
David Song
Ben York
In Texas, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of text message-based parenting support delivered at different times of the week on young children’s literacy and numeracy development. They found that text messages delivered on weekends were best for supporting children...

The Impact of Providing Land Tax Subsidies, Local Monitoring, and Minikits on Irrigation Use in Rwanda

Maria Jones
Florence Kondylis
John Loeser
Building off of previous quasi-experimental research, researchers conducted three randomized evaluations to test the impact of providing farmers with land tax subsidies, different ways of monitoring water access and the canal’s operations and maintenance, or farming minikits on farmers' use of...

Menstruation and Education in Nepal

Emily Oster
Researchers introduced a convenient and hygienic sanitary product, reusable menstrual cups, to Nepalese girls in the seventh and eighth grades. Their evaluation addressed several questions: Is menstruation as large a barrier to education as many believe? Does switching to modern sanitary products...

Empowering women through mobile money in Tanzania

Empowering women not only has the potential to improve their lives, but also their children's health and education. In partnership with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and BRAC, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether encouraging women to make weekly loan repayments...