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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.

The impact of payments for ecosystem services on crop burning in India

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a PES program that offers financial rewards to paddy farmers for reducing burning of crop residue (or “stubble”) on stubble burning in Punjab, India.

Digital Credit Literacy Campaign in Malawi

Valentina Brailovskaya
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a financial literacy interactive voice response campaign on loan outcomes. The intervention boosted knowledge and slightly improved loan repayment, but it also raised loan demand, increasing the overall risk of default.

The Effect of a Contract Teacher Program Scale-up on Student Learning in Kenya

Mwangi Kimenyi
Germano Mwabu
Alice Ng’ang’a
Justin Sandefur
In Kenya, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a contract teacher program on student learning outcomes, comparing implementation between an NGO and the government. The NGO-led program improved student test scores, while the government-led version had no impact.

Teacher Incentives Based on Students' Test Scores in Kenya

In partnership with International Child Support, researchers designed and evaluated an incentives program that provided salary bonuses to teachers in Kenya based on the performance of their school as a whole on annual district exams. While results show that the incentives program led to an increase...

CARES Commitment Savings for Smoking Cessation in the Philippines

Researchers evaluated the impact of a voluntary commitment savings program that allowed individuals to deposit a self-selected amount of their own money that would be forfeited if they did not quit smoking within six months. Results suggested that individuals who were offered the program were much...

How to Teach English: Testing Two Method of Instruction in India

Fang He
Margaret McLeod
Researchers partnered with the Indian NGO Pratham to evaluate whether different technologies and implementation methods can increase students’ English test scores. Overall, the interventions were effective at increasing students’ knowledge of English.

Preventing HIV and Teen Pregnancy in Kenya: The Roles of Teacher Training and Education Subsidies

Researchers compared the impact of two alternative programs, one that trained teachers how to teach the existing, abstinence-focused HIV prevention curriculum and another that subsidized education through the provision of free uniforms, on risky sexual behavior of adolescent students in upper...

Family Networks, Consumption, and Investment in Mexico

Researchers studied a government-funded conditional cash transfer program to evaluate the impact of family networks on consumption and investment decisions for low-income households in Mexico. Food expenditure increased among both eligible connected households and ineligible households connected to...