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.

Teachers’ traditional beliefs about gender negatively impact the academic performance of girls in Turkey

To better understand gender inequalities in academic achievement, choice of occupation, and labor market outcomes, researchers studied the effect of teachers’ beliefs about gender roles on student achievement in Istanbul, Turkey. Girls who were taught by teachers with traditional gender views had...

Peer Effects, Diversity, and College Roommates in the United States

Johanne Boisjoly
Jacque Eccles
Researchers in the United States assessed the impact on college students of having a roommate from a different race. White students assigned to a black roommate were more likely to endorse affirmative action policies than those assigned to a white roommate. Other factors, such as having roommates...

Nurturing Curiosity to Enhance Learning in Turkey

Ipek Mumcu
In Turkey, researchers evaluated the impact of a new pedagogical approach aimed at cultivating primary school students’ curiosity, particularly in science, to improve learning outcomes. Students whose teachers adopted the approach displayed greater curiosity, ability to retain knowledge, and science...

Reducing Anemia Through Iron Fortification of Grain in Udaipur, India

Researchers in Udaipur, India, evaluated the impact of a village-level iron fortification program on the physical health of local families in 134 villages. Despite high take-up rates at the beginning of the study, overall take-up rates fell by the end of the evaluation. Results showed a significant...

Importance of Ethnic Networks in Business Transactions in India

Rajkamal Iyer
Researchers evaluated whether the ethnicities of wholesale buyers and sellers in Chennai, India, affected the transaction terms. They found that traders offered lower prices to buyers of the same ethnicity, but not necessarily because they trusted them more.

The Impact of Long-Range Weather Forecasts for Farmers’ in India

In India, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impacts of providing long-range, seasonal weather forecasts on farmers’ investments on and off the farm, and their well-being. They found that farmers who had access to the forecast updated their beliefs about the upcoming...