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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.

A 20-year Follow-Up to an Early Childhood Stimulation Program in Jamaica

Susan M. Chang-Lopez
Sally Grantham-McGregor
James J. Heckman
Rodrigo Pinto
Christel Vermeersch
Susan Walker
Arianna Zanolini

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.

Biased Beliefs and the Dynamic Role of Information in College Choice in Chile

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation in Chile to study the impact of altering high school students’ beliefs about the returns of college degrees on their decisions to invest in college preparation and which program they choose.

Slum Housing Upgrading in El Salvador, Mexico, and Uruguay

Ryan Cooper
Sebastian Martinez
Researchers measured the impact of improving the quality of slum housing on household wellbeing in El Salvador, Mexico, and Uruguay. Residents were selected to receive housing upgrades by lottery. Results show that slum upgrading significantly improved satisfaction with quality of life. In two...

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...

Leveraging Government Transfers to Offer Low-Risk Microcredit in the Dominican Republic

Despite the initial promise of microcredit, randomized evaluations have found at best modest effects of microloans on poverty. Digitized payments from government cash transfer programs provide a unique opportunity to offer microcredit while addressing some of its shortcomings, potentially reducing...

Encouraging Savings through SMS Messages in the Dominican Republic

There is a growing body of evidence on the efficacy of SMS reminders to encourage banking clients to save more. Researchers in the Dominican Republic partnered with savings and credit institution Banco Unión to conduct two randomized evaluations of tailored SMS reminders.