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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.

Complement or Substitute? The Effect of Technology on Student Achievement in India

Researchers in India attempted to measure the impact of a daily Computer Assisted Learning program on student test scores when delivered as either a substitute for or supplement to the status quo curriculum (delivered during or after school, respectively). While the program improved math scores for...

The Impact of Emergency Cash Assistance in a Pandemic

Pablo Querubin
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to measure the effects of the transfer on recipients’ physical and mental health, food access and security, financial security, parental investment in their children’s education, political attitudes, and other outcomes. The transfer had positive (albeit...

Discrimination in Grading in India

Researchers used a randomized evaluation to test for discrimination in grading in India. They found that teachers gave exams that were assigned to be lower caste worse scores than those that were assigned to be high caste.

Increasing Take-Up of the Earned Income Tax Credit

Across six randomized evaluations, researchers studied the impact of low-cost, low-touch informational interventions, or “nudges,” on take-up of the federal and state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in California. None of the interventions had an impact on EITC take-up, suggesting that information...

Promoting Sustainable Farming Practices in Malawi

Ariel BenYishay
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of leveraging social networks to disseminate information about two technologies, pit planting and “Chinese composting,” on farmers’ adoption of these methods. Providing performance-based incentives to peer farmers had the biggest...

Testing the Effectiveness of Payments for Ecosystem Services to Enhance Conservation in Uganda

Eric Lambin
Charlotte Stanton
In Uganda, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the effectiveness of a program in which landowners were paid to not cut forest trees on their property. During the study period, landowners who were offered contracts to conserve forest cleared 4 percent of forested land, compared to 9...