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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.

Encouraging Technology Adoption in Agriculture through Recommendations and In-Kind Transfers to Smallholder Farmers in Mexico

Carolina Corral
Xavier Giné
In Mexico, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the effect of providing plot-specific or general soil quality analyses and input recommendations, agricultural extension services, and flexible or inflexible in-kind grants on smallholder farmers’ adoption and knowledge of improved...

Gender-specific managerial training program and firm productivity in Colombia

Researchers are evaluating the impact of providing a gender-specific managerial training program on career advancement prospects for women and workplace productivity.

Text Messages and Reminders to Save in Ecuador

Working with a microfinance institution in Ecuador, researchers investigated whether providing timely reminders to save via text message can help people save more.

The Impact of Conditional Cash Transfers on Child Labor Allocation in Nicaragua

Ximena Del Carpio
Renos Vakis
In Nicaragua, researchers analyzed the impact of a conditional cash transfer program on the distribution of child labor within households. In households that randomly received a conditional cash transfer, older boys and boys who were behind in school spent significantly less time working each week...

Intergenerational Conflict and Schooling Decisions in Brazil

Lucas Coffman
A study on parents’ demand for conditionality in a Brazilian cash transfer program revealed that parents are willing to pay to for the conditionality in order to monitor their children’s school attendance.

Using Peer Pressure to Encourage Handwashing in Argentina

Felipe Montaño Campos
Lucía Freira
Matías Gutman
Bruno Cardinale Lagomarsino
María Laura Lanzalot
Maximiliano Lauletta
Leandro E. Malchik
Bianca Pacini
Cristian Valencia
Researchers examined the impact of peer pressure on handwashing behavior by varying whether men using a restroom in Buenos Aires, Argentina were observed by another restroom user. They found that being observed increased urinal flushing by 26.7 percent and handwashing by 19 percent, suggesting that...

Giving effective information to fight COVID-19

Sergio Bautista
Martin Lajous
Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of public health messages on hand washing and compliance with government mandated guidelines in Mexico.

Vouchers for Private Schooling in Colombia

Joshua Angrist
Erik Bloom
Elizabeth King
Colombia used lotteries to distribute vouchers which partially covered the cost of private secondary school for students who maintained satisfactory academic progress. Three years after the lotteries, winners were about 10 percentage points more likely to have finished 8th grade, primarily because...