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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.

Impacts of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs on Voting in Honduras

In this randomized evaluation in Honduras, researchers assessed how the national Programa de Asignación Familiar (Family Allowance Program) CCT program, which provided a combination of transfers to households and transfers to support public goods, influenced voting in local and national elections...

Job Search Assistance for Syrian Refugees in Jordan

Grant Gordon
Maximilian Kasy
Soha Shami
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation that introduced an adaptive targeted treatment assignment methodology to measure the impact of providing different types of job search assistance on job search rates and labor outcomes for Syrian refugees and local jobseekers in Jordan. While none of the...

Limiting Learning Loss using Phone-based Programming during Covid-19 in Botswana

Caton Brewster
Moitshepi Matsheng
Working in Botswana, researchers rapidly evaluated a phone-based remote learning program aimed at keeping children engaged with math during the Covid-19 pandemic. Students who received weekly SMS messages and phone calls to review math exercises increased their math skills after twelve weeks, while...

Evaluating the Impact of Online Education in Russia

Igor Chirikov
René Kizilcec
Natalia Maloshonok
Tatiana Semenova
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact and cost-effectiveness of fully online and blended STEM classes in Russia on student test scores. Students in online and blended courses achieved similar scores to students in traditional in-person courses at a lower cost.

De-biasing Over-Optimism about Covid-19 Risks to Limit Vulnerable Individuals' Risky Behavior in India

Researchers are evaluating the impact of providing different types of information about the health risks of Covid-19 on individuals’ risky behavior among diabetic and hypertensive individuals in Tamil Nadu, India, with special attention to de-biasing over-optimism about personal health risk.

The Effect of Vocational Training on Gender Norms in Northern Nigeria

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether a gender-neutral job training could shift norms in a religiously conservative region of Nigeria. Youth who were offered job training earned more, broadened their friend groups, and adopted more progressive views on women’s education...

The Medium-Term Educational Effects of Short-Term Literacy Tutoring in Chile

Verónica Cabezas
Jose Ignacio Cuesta
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to gauge whether a short-term reading tutoring program could improve a range of student educational outcomes in the short- and medium-term (up to eight years after the program). They found that the program increased language test scores in the short term...

Saving Incentives for Low and Middle Income Families: Evidence From a Field Experiment with HR Block

Researchers tested the influence of the (randomly chosen) rate at which clients were told contributions to their Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) would be matched on the amount contributed to their retirement savings accounts. They found higher matching rates significantly increased IRA...