Blog

News

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.

Delivering Clean Water to Households in India

Fiona Burlig
Amir Jina
More than two billion people around the world lack access to clean drinking water, and current approaches to increasing access have fallen short. Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of delivering clean water directly to households on the valuation of clean water, and...

Providing Therapy and Cash Transfers to Improve Older Adult Mental Health in India

Researchers evaluated the impact of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and cash transfers on functional impairment (or difficulty performing daily tasks), depression, and food security among adults 55 and older living alone in Tamil Nadu, India. At a three-week follow-up, cash transfers improved...

Cash Transfers and Management Advice for Farmers in Senegal

In Senegal, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to study the effect of providing management advice and a one-time cash transfer on agricultural productivity and farmers’ investment in their businesses. Receiving both the cash transfer and management advice had positive impacts on yields...

Estimating the Human Costs of Debtor Prisons

In Egypt, a sizable portion of the prison population is incarcerated solely for failing to repay private debts, highlighting serious concerns about the social, economic, and legal consequences of debtor imprisonment. Researchers are conducting two randomized evaluations, the first tests the impact...

The Effect of Bureaucrat Performance Scorecards on Service Delivery and Bribes in Bangladesh

Researchers evaluated the impact of performance scorecards on the speed of delivery and the payment of bribes. Results show that the intervention increased on-time service delivery, but did not decrease bribe payments on average; bribes among high-performers increased.

Extending Health Insurance to the Informal Sector Through Microfinance in Nicaragua

Freddy Solis Diaz
Martha Azucena Gonzalez
Laurel Hatt
Mursaleena Islam
This evaluation measured the determinants of insurance enrollment as well as the impacts of having insurance for informal sector workers by randomly varying the costs and convenience of signing up for a government health insurance program available to formal and informal sector workers in Nicaragua...

Measuring the Impact of Microfinance in Hyderabad, India

Researchers evaluated the impact of increased access to microcredit on the economic and social well-being of women and their families in Hyderabad, India. They found that microcredit had mixed effects on business activities and little to no effect on women’s empowerment or children’s education.

The Psychology of Debt: An Experiment in the Philippines

Researchers are testing whether giving vendors money to pay off their outstanding debts or offering financial literacy trainings can help break these borrowers' cycles of debt.