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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.

Community Driven Development in the Philippines

Amanda Beatty
Ariel BenYishay
Elisabeth King
Aniceto Orbeta
Community-based approaches to development, also called community-driven development (CDD), seek to empower local communities to identify and implement the projects they most need. Researchers evaluated the impact of a national community-driven development program in the Philippines on governance...

Laser-Branding Technologies to Increase the Quality of Watermelons in Chinese Markets

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of different types of labels to signal product quality on sellers’ ability to develop a reputation for consistently selling high-quality watermelons in China. The more expensive laser-cut label influenced sellers to provide higher...

Increasing the Demand for Workers with a Criminal Record in the United States

Workers with criminal records face substantially lower chances of securing employment compared to similar workers without such records. Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of different approaches, including wage subsidies, crime and safety insurance, past performance reviews, criminal record...

The Impact of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Low-Income Individuals in Rural Ghana

Nathan Barker
Angela Ofori-Atta
Researchers worked with Innovations for Poverty Action and the University of Ghana Medical School to design, implement, and conduct a randomized evaluation of the impacts of a group CBT curriculum on low-income individuals in rural Ghana. CBT improved participants’ mental and physical well-being...

Can Transportation Subsidies Reduce Failures to Appear in Criminal Court?

Rebecca Brough
Matthew Freedman
Daniel E. Ho
Researchers partnered with local agencies in King County, Washington to evaluate the impact of providing transit subsidies on rates of FTA in court. While the study was disrupted due to Covid-19, the pilot results indicated that transit subsidies had little effect on reducing FTA.

Primary School Deworming in Kenya

Researchers evaluated a mass school-based deworming program in Western Kenya, and found that deworming substantially improved health and school participation of treated children, as well as of untreated children in both treatment schools and neighboring schools. The program reduced school...

Free Distribution or Cost Sharing? Evidence from a Malaria Prevention Experiment in Kenya

Researchers investigated the impact of the price of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) on usage and demand in Kenya. Researchers found that cost-sharing considerably dampened demand, and those who were left out under a cost-sharing scheme had very high usage rates when they could access the product...

The Impact of Community-Based Testing and Free Condom Distribution on HIV Prevention Among Youth in Kenya

Moses Baraza
Thomas Ginn
Grace Makana
Vandana Sharma
In Western Kenya, researchers evaluated the impact of two preventive approaches—community-based testing and free condom provision—on behavioral and biological outcomes. Neither community-based testing, free condoms, nor these interventions offered together reduced the prevalence of sexually...