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.

Nudging Medical Providers to Adopt and Sustain Better Quality Care Practices in Argentina

Resistance to change can prevent medical practitioners from providing their patients with the best possible care. Within the context of an existing results-based financing program in public health clinics in Argentina, researchers evaluated the impact of a temporary increase in price incentives on...

Clinical Decision Support for Outpatient High-Cost Radiology Ordering in the United States

Bruce Darrow
Joseph Doyle
Joseph Kannry
Madhu Mazumdar
David Mendelson
Researchers are studying the impact of a clinical decision support system on the ordering of high-cost scans.

Improving Electoral Integrity with Information and Communications Technology in Uganda

Clark Gibson
Danielle Jung
Researchers sent letters to polling stations announcing smartphone vote-tally audits to evaluate the impact of audits on electoral irregularities such as non-adherence to transparency regulations and falsified vote tallies. Relative to a comparison group, letters increased the number of polling...

Disseminating Flood Warnings to Increase Disaster Preparedness in India

Researchers are conducting a randomized evaluation to test the impact of providing flood early warnings to rural households through smartphone alerts and community volunteers on their flood preparedness and responsiveness, as well as post-flood health and economic outcomes.

How Messages to Parents Impact Student Performance in Brazil

Nina Cunha
Ricardo Madeira
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation with 9th graders’ parents in São Paulo to investigate whether weekly messages giving updates on a child’s attendance and effort, or messages emphasizing their importance, better motivated parents. Both types of messages led parents to ask more about...

Climate Action Outreach by Democrats in an Online Network in the USA

Lucy Page
Hannah Ruebeck
Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to study if Democratic climate advocates recruit others for climate advocacy and whether they reach out across party lines to increase bi-partisan support. While Democrats were motivated to mobilize others to email Congress on climate action, they were...

Encouraging the Use of Formal Financial Services of Garment Workers through the Rollout of an Electronic Payment System in Bangladesh

Martin Kanz
Leora Klapper
Researchers randomly assigned employees at garment factories in Bangladesh to either continue collecting their wages in cash, receive direct deposit wage payments into a payroll account, or receive an account but continued to receive wage payments in cash. Exposure to payroll accounts led to...

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...