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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.

Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit for Workers without Dependent Children in the United States

Kali Aloisi
Gilda Azurdia
Adam Isen
Cynthia Miller
Caroline Schultz
MDRC partnered with NYC Opportunity, the NYC Human Resources Administration and Food Bank for NYC to design, implement, and evaluate the program. MDRC researchers found that three years of Paycheck Plus in New York City increased income, employment, tax credit receipt, and payment of child support...

Teaching Patience in Classrooms for Improved Student Decision-Making and Behavior in Turkey

Seda Ertac
Researchers introduced an educational program focused on teaching patience to evaluate the impact on students’ decision-making and willingness to wait for a future reward over the present. Students assigned to the program demonstrated more patient decision-making, which persisted almost three years...

The Impact of Exposure to Discordant Media on Political Polarization in Turkey

Ahmet Akbiyik
Jeremy Bowles
Researchers evaluated the impact of exposure to and incentives to consume discordant media on political attitudes and behaviors in Turkey. Participants changed their media consumption habits, trusted discordant media sources more, and had less polarized attitudes towards the government, but did not...

Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend Project Niger: Safe Spaces and Future Husband Clubs

Researchers are partnering with the Government of Niger to evaluate the impact of empowerment clubs providing adolescents girls with life skills trainings; gender norms clubs designed to change gender-related norms among young men; or both clubs implemented in the same villages on gender norms and...

Community Service Grants to Foster Social and Economic Integration for Youth in Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, researchers tested whether offering youth community service grants and training impacted their level of community engagement, pro-social behavior, life skills, and labor market outcomes. Engaging youth in civic service and/or training had little to no effect on these outcomes one-year...

Motivating Bureaucrats through Performance Recognition in Nigeria

Varun Gauri
Nina Mazar
Karima Salem
Researchers introduced a performance recognition system for employees to improve record keeping in clinics in Ekiti and Niger, Nigeria. They found that the performance recognition improved record keeping in Ekiti but not in Niger. Researchers suggested that important institutional, managerial and...

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...

Replacing an inefficient policy of free agricultural electricity in India

In partnership with the Government of Punjab, researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation of the Direct Benefit Transfers for Electricity program that creates a monetary incentive for farmers who are able to reduce consumption below a specified electricity allocation.