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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.

Books or Laptops? The Cost-Effectiveness of Shifting from Printed to Digital Delivery of Educational Content in Honduras

Rosangela Bando
Dario Romero Fonseca
Researchers partnered with the Honduran government to evaluate the impact of replacing textbooks with laptops on student learning. Using laptops resulted in no change in learning outcomes, suggesting that laptops could be a cost-effective substitute to textbooks if they can replace enough textbooks.

Reducing Inequality through a Summer Youth Employment Program in Boston

Researchers used survey data to evaluate short-term outcomes for Boston’s SYEP participants in 2015. They found that the program significantly improved participants’ community engagement and social skills, many job readiness skills, and some academic aspirations.

The Impact of Informational Interventions about Police Alternatives on Police Reliance in the United States

Meghna Baskar
Tony Cheng
Rei Mariman
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of providing information about police alternatives on individuals' reported likelihood of calling the police and a follow-up randomized evaluation to understand key public-safety stakeholders’ receptiveness of police alternatives. The...

Effect of Matching Ratios on Charitable Giving in the United States

Researchers found that matching gifts were an effective fundraising tactic, increasing the likelihood of donation and total donations, but larger match ratios did not return more donations than smaller match ratios.

Impact of Information on the Returns to Education on the Demand for Schooling in the Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic, researchers investigated families’ perceptions of the returns to education and whether providing information on the actual returns to education would change their schooling decisions. They found that students significantly underestimated the returns to secondary education...

Voting and Habit Formation in the United States

During the 1998 state and federal elections and the 1999 city elections in New Haven, Connecticut, researchers found that face-to-face canvassing and direct mail appeals significantly increased voter turnout not only during the election year but also in the election a year after.

Certification, Teacher Effectiveness, and Student Learning in the United States

Steven Cantrell
Jon Fullerton
Certified teachers were no more likely than non-applicants to be effective at improving students’ test scores, but were more effective than unsuccessful applicants. Researchers found that estimates of teacher effectiveness based on test scores from previous years were a strong predictor of student...