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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.

Do Robotic Calls from Credible Sources Influence Voter Turnout or Vote Choice?

James G. Gimpel
Daron R. Shaw
To test the impact of an automated phone call from a credible source on voters’ preferences and behavior, researchers delivered the message to random voters in two concurrent randomized evaluations. The call did not increase voter turnout or change voter preferences, suggesting that automated phone...

Socio-Emotional Learning for At-Risk Students in Urban Schools in Lima

Ines Kudo
Researchers evaluated the impact of teaching socio-emotional skills to schoolchildren on their emotional well-being, learning, life satisfaction, and long-run labor outcomes.

Building Market Linkages for Smallholder Farmers through a Digital Marketplace in Uganda

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation in Uganda to test the impact of a mobile phone-based marketplace for agricultural commodities on local market prices, entry of traders, farmer revenue, and trader profits. Overall, the platform increased trade flows and decreased price variation across...

Designing Contracts for Healthcare Providers in India

Katherine Donato
Manoj Mohanan
Yulya Truskinovsky
Marcos Vera-Hernandez
Researchers evaluated two types of reward contracts—one that rewarded providers for increased use of inputs and one that rewarded providers for improved health outputs—among rural obstetric care providers in India. They found that both contracts reduced post-partum hemorrhage by 20-23 percent.

The Effect of Social Pressure on Individuals' Financial Decisions in Central Malawi

Researchers evaluated the effect of social pressure to share income on farmers’ spending decisions by varying whether income from large cash prizes was received in a public or private setting. Receiving prize money in a public setting induced individuals to spend one-third more of their money in the...

Generating Skilled Self-Employment in Uganda

Nathan Fiala
Sebastian Martinez
Researchers used a randomized evaluation to measure the impact of a government program that gave groups of young people US$400 per person in return for a proposal to start a skilled trade. Recipients invested the cash and significantly increased their incomes for several years. However, nine years...

Using Technology to Improve Direct Benefit Transfer in India

Eric Dodge
Charity Troyer Moore
Can using technological innovations for monitoring improve the administrative implementation of social protection programs? In partnership with the Ministry of Rural Development in two states in India, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation of a new internet- and mobile-based management and...