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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.

Deferring Wages and Labor Supply in Malawi

Lasse Brune
Eric Chyn
Researchers partnered with a tea company in Malawi to study the effects of a savings product that allowed workers to defer payment of a part of their wages. The deferred wages program was generally popular and increased savings; in the longer run, it helped workers improve their houses.

Increasing Access to Security and Justice through Women's Help Desks in Police Stations in India

Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner
Akshay Mangla
Researchers are employing an RCT to evaluate whether the establishment of police station-level Women’s Help Desks (WHDs), as well as the deployment of additional female personnel to these WHDs, improves the responsiveness of frontline officers to women, as well as levels of crime and crime reporting...

The Impact of Role Models on Parental Aspirations and Investments in Children's Education in Ethiopia

Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether exposing people to a documentary featuring potential role models impacted parents’ educational aspirations for their children or their actual investments in education, and if these impacts varied by gender. Exposing families to the...

Price Incentives to Improve Coffee Quality in Uganda

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test whether providing traders “bonuses” for high-quality coffee affects the prices traders offer farmers for their coffee and whether this, in turn, affects farmers’ incentives to invest in the quality of their production.

Accelerating Changes in Norms about Social Distancing to Combat COVID-19

James Riddell IV
Tanya Rosenblat
Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluations to test the impact of different types of public health messaging on the practice of social distancing.

The Impact of a Peer Information Sharing Strategy to Combat the Spread of Covid-19 in Zambia

Researchers are measuring the impact of a peer information sharing strategy on people’s learning and adherence to Covid-19 health protocols. This study is part of a three-country research program in Zambia, Ghana, and the US aiming to find evidence on the most effective strategies to communicate...

Providing Entrepreneurship Training and Cash Business Grants to Venezuelan Migrants in Peru

Diego Santa Maria
Martin Valdivia
In Peru, researchers are delivering cash grants and business training to Venezuelan migrant entrepreneurs and assessing the impacts on the short- and long-term success of enterprises as well as migrants’ food security, health, and income.

Information and Price Variations to Reduce Residential Energy Use in the United States

David Rapson
Researchers evaluated the effects of introducing price increases during peak periods and also real-time information about electricity usage to residential customers in the United States. Households that received feedback about usage reduced consumption and individuals were more responsive to pricing...