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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.

Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) to Reduce Risky Sexual Behaviors and Increase Schooling Investments in Malawi

Erick Gong
Berk Ozler
Researchers introduced a Voluntary HIV Counseling and Testing (VCT) program to young females in Malawi to determine whether the program affects risky sexual behavior and school performance. They found no overall effect of VCT on risk of sexually transmitted infections or achievement test scores...

Research and Impacts of Digital Financial Services

A new paper describes recent evidence on what works for financial inclusion and identifies products and innovations that address key financial market failures facing poor households. Written by J-PAL affiliates Dean Karlan, Rohini Pande, Tavneet Suri, Jonathan Zinman, and co-authors, this paper also...

Handwashing and Behavior Change in Bangladesh

Dayea Oh
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of an edutainment intervention at schools and the provision of handwashing resources at home on handwashing at school and at home. These findings suggest that encouraging behavior change in one setting may crowd out like behavior in...

Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) in Sierra Leone

Niklas Buehren
Markus Goldstein
Andrea Smurra
Researchers evaluated the impact of a program in Sierra Leone called Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) that aims to address this problem by bundling health education, vocational skills training, and micro-credit. Researchers found that, while girls experienced higher teen pregnancy...

The Impact of Charter Schools on Student Learning Outcomes in the United States

Joshua Angrist
Parag Pathak
Researchers examined the impact of time spent at a charter school on students’ learning outcomes in Lynn, Massachusetts. Results suggest that enrollment at a charter school significantly improved students’ test scores in both math and English language arts.