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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.

Personalizing Information to Improve Retirement Savings in Chile

Olga Fuentes Contreras
Julio Riutort
Felix Villatoro
Researchers partnered with Chile’s national pension authority to evaluate the effect of personalized versus generic information, delivered via self-service kiosks at government offices, on long-term savings. People who received personalized information increased their voluntary contributions in the...

Social Incentives and Tax Compliance in Bangladesh

Researchers studied the impact of an innovative taxpayer recognition program that appealed to business owners’ desires for social recognition on firms’ value-added tax (VAT) compliance and payment rates in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Preliminary results suggested that in areas where some firms were already...

Evaluating Post-Secondary Aid: Enrollment, Persistence, and Projected Completion Effects

Researchers partnered with the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation to randomly offer scholarships to Nebraska high school graduates who applied for financial assistance. Initial results from the ongoing study indicate that scholarship offers increased college enrollment and persistence while shifting...

Identity in Charitable Giving in the United States

Katherine Milkman
A large charitable organization in the United States conducted a series of direct mail appeals for donations using different identity primes in 2009-2010. Researchers found that priming a potential donor’s identity as either a previous donor to charity or as a member of their local community...

When do Media Stations Support Political Accountability? A Field Experiment in Mexico

Christopher Lucas
Researchers are using a randomized evaluation in Mexico to study the incentives media stations face when choosing to provide voters with indicators of their incumbent party’s performance in office.

Phone-Based Tutoring to Support Learning during School Closures: Evidence from Five Countries

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of delivering educational content via mobile phones on student learning in five countries. Mobile-based instruction, especially through phone call tutorials, improved foundational learning...