Blog

News

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.

The Impact of an Online Math Learning Platform on Test Scores and Attitudes Towards Math in Brazil

Lucas Finamor
Lycia Lima
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to measure the impacts of the Khan Academy’s online platform on math scores in Brazilian public schools. Despite improving student’s attitudes towards math, the program had mixed impact on students’ test scores depending on program implementation and...

How Malleable are Non-Cognitive Skills? Measuring the Impact of Increasing Grit in Turkey

Teodora Boneva
Seda Ertac
Researchers worked with public elementary schools in Istanbul to measure the effects of a “grit curriculum” on fourth-grade students’ perseverance, competitiveness, and test scores. Students who were exposed to the grit curriculum in 2013 earned higher scores on math exams, and the program also...

Does Additional Labor Benefit Microenterprises? Evidence from Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, researchers provided wage subsidies to randomly chosen microenterprises to determine if they would hire more workers, and whether the additional labor would benefit such firms. The study found that while firms increased employment during the subsidy period, there was no lasting impact...

The Impact of Community-Based Environmental Health Promotion Program on Child Health in Western Rwanda

Leodomir Mfura
Ronald Wendt
In western Rwanda, researchers evaluated the impact of community health clubs on household take-up of healthy behaviors and on the health of children under 5 years of age. The program had minimal impact on household behaviors and no impact on caregiver-reported rates of diarrhea among children under...

The Impact of Financial Education for Foreign Domestic Workers in Singapore

Researchers evaluated the impact of a financial literacy program for Filipino domestic workers based in Singapore on their financial knowledge, behavior, savings, and remittances. While there was no evidence that being invited to join the program had any impact on financial knowledge or behavior...

The Direct and Indirect Effects of Female Training Interventions in a Traditional Society

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a nursing skills training program targeting female youth based in Assiut and Sohag, Egypt, on employment outcomes on the treated group and more importantly, their local social network.

Reducing Formalization Costs for Small Businesses in Colombia

Camila Navajas Ahumada
Marcela Meléndez
In the context of a recent government policy that reduced costs of formalization, researchers provided information on the formal entry process through workshops and personalized visits to determine the impacts of information on firms’ decision to formalize.

Information on Tax Compliance and Perceptions of Equity in Tax Policy in Brazil

Evan Kresch
Laura Zoratto
Researchers are conducting an evaluation that randomized the provision of information in a survey to improve the likelihood that citizens paid their municipal property taxes and understood the role that unequal tax burdens played in determining the likelihood of people paying their full tax burden...