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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.

Time Inconsistency and Saving among Low-Income Tax Filers in the United States

Present-biased preferences, or the tendency to value immediate rewards over greater benefits in the future, may contribute to persistent poverty, preventing low-income households from accumulating savings, making investments, and rationing their resources over time. However, there is little rigorous...

Texting Students to Help Achieve Their Goals in Canada

Christopher Dobronyi
Richard W. Patterson
Uros Petronijevic

The Impact of Reframing Large Debt Burdens into Smaller Goals on Reducing Debt in the United States

Jeremy Burke
Researchers have partnered with a non-profit debt management provider and IPA to evaluate whether reframing difficult, long-lasting tasks, such as paying off large debts, into more easily-attainable “sub-goals” can help borrowers accomplish their goals of debt repayment and increase client retention...

J-PAL Behavioral Science and Crime Funding Opportunity

We're supporting randomized evaluations of projects that employ a strategy related to behavioral science and aim to reduce crime and violence. Learn more and submit a letter of interest here.

Information and Gender Differences in University Economics Courses and Majors in the United States

Daniel Halim
Elizabeth T. Powers
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of providing information to students on their decision to pursue courses and majors in economics at a public university in the United States. The intervention increased male students' likelihood of studying additional economics courses...

Encouraging Underserved, Intellectually-Curious Children: An Evaluation of the Higher Achievement Program in Washington, DC

Jean Grossman
Carla Herrera
Researchers evaluated the academic impact of a “Cadillac” OST program in Washington, DC. Researchers found that the program increased students’ problem-solving and reading comprehension scores after two years.

Evaluating the Impact of Moving to Opportunity in the United States

Emma Adam
Paul Hirschfield
Ronald C. Kessler
Jeffrey Kling
Stacy Tessler Lindau
Thomas W. McDade
Joshua C. Pinkston
Lisa Sanbonmatsu
Robert C. Whitaker
Helping families with young children living in high-poverty housing projects to move to lower-poverty neighborhoods improves the later-life outcomes for the children and may reduce the intergenerational persistence of poverty.