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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 Welfare Effects of Behavioral Energy Conservation in the United States

In the United States, researchers evaluated the social welfare impacts of one very popular nudge to decrease energy consumption—Home Energy Reports (HERs). While they found that the HERs increased social welfare overall, these gains were far less than those reported by previous evaluations that did...

Agricultural Microinsurance for Sugar Cane Farmers in Kenya

Researchers partnered with a large sugar cane company to see if delaying the premium payment until after the harvest would increase farmers’ demand for insurance. Researchers found that farmers were much more likely to purchase insurance when the payments were delayed until after the harvest.

Building Trust in Fertilizer Quality Among Farmers in Tanzania

Annemie Maertens
Researchers conducted an evaluation to test the impact of an information campaign about fertilizer quality on farmers’ beliefs and their purchase and use of fertilizer. The information campaign led farmers to change their beliefs about the quality of fertilizer available in local markets and to buy...

Scaling Up an Entrepreneurial Model of Community Health Delivery in Uganda

Millions of children die from preventable diseases every year, primarily in low-income countries. In rural Uganda, researchers are working with Innovations for Poverty Action to evaluate the impact on child mortality of an at-scale community health worker program based on a micro-franchise business...

The Impact of a Workplace Wellness Program in Illinois

Researchers evaluated the effects of a large-scale workplace wellness program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on employee health behaviors, self-reported health status, productivity, and total medical expenditures. The researchers found that financial incentives increased...

Training Teachers in Curiosity-Based Science Pedagogy in India

Ariel Gomez
Vinay Jha
Sandeep Kumar
Despite making great strides in expanding access to education, developing countries like India continue to lag in measures of actual student learning. To understand how quality of education mediates learning, this randomized control trial evaluates a pedagogical intervention training science...

Mobilizing Local Leaders to Rebuild the Social Compact in Pakistan

Researchers will investigate whether mobilizing local political leaders to strengthen the link between local collections and urban services can increase citizens’ willingness to pay for services, improve service delivery, and ultimately revitalize the social compact.

The Impact of an Online Math Learning Platform on Test Scores and Attitudes Towards Math in Brazil

Lucas Finamor
Lycia Lima
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to measure the impacts of the Khan Academy’s online platform on math scores in Brazilian public schools. Despite improving student’s attitudes towards math, the program had mixed impact on students’ test scores depending on program implementation and...