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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.

Asset-based Microfinance in Pakistan

In Pakistan, researchers partnered with a microfinance institution to conduct a randomized evaluation to test how larger asset-based loans for purchasing business equipment, combined with flexible repayment options, affected business performance and household well-being. Business owners who received...

The Direct and Indirect Effects of a Dual Apprenticeship Program in Côte d'Ivoire

Patrick Premand
In Sub-Saharan Africa, wage job opportunities are limited, and a vast majority of young people are engaged in low-productive work. Many governments support formal apprenticeship programs to help youth find suitable employment, but there is limited evidence on the direct and indirect effects of these...

The Impact of Secondary Education on Economic Decision-Making in Malawi

Researchers evaluated whether randomly providing financial support for secondary education could improve economic decision-making in addition to educational outcomes for secondary school students in Malawi. Results show that the intervention improved educational outcomes and economic decision-making...

Migration Subsidies and Rural Labor Markets in Bangladesh

Researchers varied the proportion of travel grants offered to landless households in rural villages in Bangladesh to assess the impact of the grants on temporary migration and income during the agricultural lean season—one of the hardest economic times of the year due to drops in food affordability...

Leveraging Teacher Incentives to Improve Student Performance and Reduce Dropout in Uganda

Daniel O. Gilligan
Naureen Karachiwalla
Ibrahim Kasirye
Derek Neal
Researchers evaluated whether an alternative teacher incentive scheme, providing rewards based on the performance of all students, could help reduce dropout and improve student math learning. Introducing the pay-for-percentile incentive scheme reduced overall student dropout rates. However, these...

Community Policing, Citizen Feedback, and Public Trust in Pakistan

Ali Hasanain
It is unclear whether a gender-differentiated intervention may be more effective in reducing some or all types of crime. To better understand this issue, researchers are working with the local police force in two districts in Pakistan to study its effects on trust levels and occurrence of crime.