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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.

The Impact of Candidates’ Political Connections on Voters' Expressed Support in Pakistan

Ali Cheema
Asad Liaqat
Farooq Naseer
Jacob N. Shapiro
Researchers evaluated the impact of randomly varied information about candidates’ political connections on voters' beliefs and self-expressed support in the context of a 2015 local election in Sargodha, a district in rural Pakistan. Providing information on candidates’ connectedness increased voters...

The Impact of Government-run Remedial Education Programs on Student Learning in Ghana

Building on previous research, researchers in this study evaluated the impact of several targeted instruction programs on the learning outcomes of primary school students in Ghana’s public schools. Researchers found significant improvements in numeracy and literacy on average; of the four...

Examining the Impact of Rainfall Insurance and Family Networks in Burkina Faso

Zaki Wahhaj
Researchers partnered with IPA and PlaNet Guarantee to conduct a large-scale randomized evaluation that will measure demand for rainfall insurance among both urban migrants and rural households and its impact on the economic outcomes of the latter group.

Connecting Egyptian Women to Gender-Based Violence Resources via Social Media during Covid-19

Elizabeth Parker-Magyar
Researchers partnered with the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights to evaluate the effect of educational social media and TV campaigns on women’s attitudes and behaviors around responding to GBV and IPV. The social media campaign increased women’s knowledge and use of resources, but had no impact on...

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.

Searching for a Better Way to Teach Children to Read in India

Fang He
Margaret McLeod
In three related evaluations in India, researchers introduced an early childhood reading and comprehension program (Shishuvachan) in different contexts—integrated into first-grade classes in Mumbai public schools, implemented in preschools that were specifically designed to implement this program...