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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.

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...

The Effects of a Nationwide Medicare Bundled Payment Reform Program in the United States

Researchers examined the impact of bundled payments on Medicare spending, utilization, and quality of care for knee and hip replacements, two common and expensive medical procedures. Evidence from the first year of implementation of a five-year mandatory bundled payment model showed a reduction in...

The Impact of Disclosing Soft Skills Certificates at Recruitment on Labor Market Outcomes in Uganda

Aisha Nansamba
In Uganda, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of providing a soft skills certificate to both employers and job seekers during job interviews on matching in the labor market. The certificates caused workers to increase their expectations of finding the right job, while...

Helping Students Change their Mindsets in Norway

Sten Ludvigsen
Mari Rege
Ingeborg Foldøy Solli
David Yeager
Researchers evaluated the impact of a low-cost computer-based intervention providing information about the brain’s potential to change and grow on students’ beliefs in their abilities to learn and their subsequent effort in school. Results showed that providing this information improved students’...

Governance Interventions to Improve Public Health Delivery in Uganda

Joshua Greenberg
The researcher conducted a pilot randomized evaluation to test the feasibility of a regular community accountability meeting program and a politician health leadership program, as well as the feasibility of associated data collection activities. Both interventions realized considerable stakeholder...

Costs of Failure to Appear for Arraignment

Natalia Emanuel
Helen Ho
Researchers will conduct a randomized evaluation to test the impact of different types of notifications on rates of failure to appear in traffic and criminal misdemeanor courts.