Blog

News

News, ideas, and analysis from J-PAL staff and affiliated professors. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive monthly email updates.

Six women sit in a row with their backs to a wall

Addressing inequalities in women’s work: J-PAL launches Gender and Economic Agency Initiative

Women face even greater challenges to labor force participation than usual due to the pandemic. J-PAL’s new Gender and Economic Agency Initiative (GEA) launches to support innovative research on strategies to promote women’s work and enhance women’s economic agency.
Two people sitting at a desk, observing a lecturer.

Expanding access to higher education through the DEDP MicroMasters

Since its inception in 2017, MIT and J-PAL’s online MicroMasters in Data, Economics, and Development Policy (DEDP) has engaged thousands of learners from over 210 countries. As the number of DEDP learners grows, J-PAL is engaging with universities to provide learners with more ways to benefit from...
Juliette Keeley sits with two men at a table, discussing.

Juliette Keeley, J-PAL ’18, on navigating the international development ecosystem

By
Juliette Keeley was a senior policy associate at J-PAL North America and later a West Africa policy consultant for J-PAL. Now a manager at Instiglio—a nonprofit consultancy focusing on results-based financing and performance management in developing countries—she reflects on her experiences working...
Patrya Pratama sits across from three people, looking at large posters on a table between them.

Patrya Pratama, J-PAL ’15, leverages his policy experience to build an education nonprofit

By
Patrya Pratama joined J-PAL Southeast Asia as a senior research associate in 2014. Now the founder and director of the INSPIRASI Foundation, he joined us to reflect on lessons learned over the course of his public policy career and chat about his work at INSPIRASI.
Nine people having a conversation stand around a board covered in post-it notes

Why aren’t farmers using improved agricultural technologies to increase their profits? Lessons from ten years of research in the Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative

By
  • Leah Bridle
Through more than ten years of research in J-PAL and CEGA's Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative, we’ve learned about the range of compounding constraints farmers face as microentrepreneurs, and that the next wave of experimentation should evaluate approaches designed to better include...
Hand holding mobile phone for digital cash transfer

Should government payments be digitized?

Many countries in Africa have digitized government-to-person (G2P) payments, which has proven particularly useful during the COIVD-19 pandemic. But while there has been much progress on the spread of digital payments, we still have little evidence about how to effectively design policies to maximize...
Two women wearing uniforms talking to each other

#DayoftheGirlChild: Preventing the surge in teenage pregnancies due to COVID-19

In this blog, we highlight key interventions that policymakers and practitioners may wish to consider to urgently reduce child marriages and teenage pregnancies in light of the pandemic.
A young student in class

Promoting girls’ participation in schools: insights from academic research

What actions can countries take to implement or reinforce efforts to increase school participation for girls? Pascaline Dupas (Stanford; Co-Chair, J-PAL’s Health sector) presented evidence from randomized evaluations on interventions that have increased school participation in a recent webinar.