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

Young child crawling

Behind the scenes with researchers from the Baby’s First Years study

Baby’s First Years (BFY), a J-PAL North America-funded study, recently published results showing that monthly cash support impacts infant brain activity. In an interview with J-PAL staff, J-PAL affiliated professor Lisa Gennetian (Duke University) and researcher Kimberly Noble (Teachers College...
Parents help their young baby take her first steps.

Strengthening randomized evaluations with qualitative research: Baby’s First Years household measurement

By
  • Sarah Halpern-Meekin
  • Jill Hoiting
In this post, researchers from the Baby's First Years study describe what we can gain from triangulating with qualitative and quantitative data on household rosters and how it should encourage us to be cautious in interpreting our results.
A mother and her newborn baby lay in bed together.

Strengthening randomized evaluations with qualitative research: Baby’s First Years mothers' experiences

By
  • Sarah Halpern-Meekin
  • Katherine Magnuson
In this post, the researchers on the Baby's First Years study reflect on the value of qualitative research in both providing a deeper understanding of each participant’s background and context and painting a fuller picture of mothers’ experiences in the study.
A folder labeled "Medical Bills" and marked "past due"

Exploring the benefits of rigorous evidence with the team behind the evaluation of RIP Medical Debt

By
Allison Sesso (Executive Director of RIP Medical Debt) and Wes Yin (UCLA) discuss the ongoing randomized evaluation of RIP Medical Debt’s model for buying and relieving medical debt.
Marcella Alsan leans against a short wall, facing the viewer.

Affiliate Spotlight: Marcella Alsan on her recent MacArthur Fellowship award and researching racial disparities in health

Marcella Alsan, economist, physician, and Co-Chair of J-PAL’s US Health Care Delivery Initiative, was recently selected as a recipient of a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship, in recognition of her work “investigating the role that legacies of discrimination and resulting mistrust play in perpetuating racial...
teacher and students learning outdoors during the covid-19 pandemic

Learning to live with the pandemic, but not its terrible impact

In a blog post for the Center for Effective Philanthropy, J-PAL Global's Iqbal Dhaliwal and Ingrid Lustig reflect on new and deepened sectoral challenges that must be prioritized by the philanthropic community in this new phase of the pandemic.
Two nurses help a patient in bed

Strengthening randomized evaluations with qualitative research, part 4: Oregon health insurance experiment

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For the final part of our blog series on incorporating qualitative research into randomized evaluations, we spoke with Associate Professor of Social Work and co-author of the Oregon Health Insurance experiment, Heidi Allen, about how in-depth interviews with study participants helped the research...
The Seattle, Washington skyline at sunrise

Strengthening randomized evaluations with qualitative research, Part 3: Creating moves to opportunity

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In part three of our qualitative research blog series on incorporating qualitative research into randomized evaluations, we learn more about how researchers conducting the Creating Moves to Opportunity (CMTO) project embedded qualitative research methods into their study and what factors made...