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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.

Schools ramp up battle against chronic absenteeism

Schools are stepping up efforts to combat chronic absenteeism, a major factor in plummeting test scores and other problems educators have faced with students since the pandemic.

Schools ramp up battle against chronic absenteeism

Chronic absenteeism — commonly defined as missing more than 10 percent of school days — has affected millions of students and caught the attention of the White House, which has said the issue calls for an “all-hands-an-deck approach.”

The first results from the world’s biggest basic income experiment

Vox
For years now, GiveDirectly has been conducting the world’s largest test of basic income: It is giving around 6,000 people in rural Kenya a little more than $20 a month, every month, starting in 2016 and going until 2028. Tens of thousands more people are getting shorter-term or differently...

County teams up with MIT to evaluate rent subsidy pilot program for seniors

Program aims to prevent low-income older adults from becoming homeless.

Heidi Williams is steering the science of innovation toward progress

Vox
Future Perfect 50: The economist aims to kickstart the slumping rate of progress by reforming the science of science.

Paul Niehaus is changing how we think about fighting global poverty

Vox
Future Perfect 50: After founding GiveDirectly, Niehaus is pushing the frontiers of social science research.

November 2023 North America Newsletter

J-PAL North America's November newsletter features J-PAL's inclusive language and asset-based framing guidelines; rigorous research on cash transfers, and our upcoming webinar on evaluating effectiveness and equity in climate mitigation programs.

Microfinance: salvation or a trap for the world’s poorest?

This global industry has been the first to demonstrate it can successfully boost the fortunes of the underprivileged, but is it actually efficient?