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.

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...

Housing Lottery to Increase Demand for Formal Government Housing and Improve Welfare in Ethiopia

In low- to middle-income countries around the world, nearly one billion people lived in urban informal settlements as of 2018. Rapid urbanization in most large African cities has led to both more people and a higher proportion of people living in informal settlements over time. Researchers conducted...

Workplace Wellness Programs to Improve Employee Health Behaviors in the United States

Zirui Song
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation of a comprehensive, multi-site workplace wellness program to evaluate the program’s impact on self-reported and clinical health outcomes, health care spending and utilization, and employment outcomes. The program did not have a measurable effect on any...

The Impact of Quality Upgrading and Market Access on Farmers’ Productivity and Profits in Uganda

Selene Ghisolfi
Frances Nsonzi
In western Uganda, researchers conducted a series of randomized evaluations that assessed the impact of introducing a combination of post-harvest services, training on agricultural best practices, and access to a market for high-quality maize on farmers’ productivity and profits. Researchers found...

Incentivizing Savings through Default Deposits and SMS Reminders

Claudia Martinez
Esteban Puentes
Researchers are evaluating the impact of default deposits, SMS reminders to save, and short financial training for bank clients in low-income urban areas in Chile on saving and spending decisions.