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

Doctor checks baby's heartbeat, held by mother.

Promoting rigorous, actionable research in maternal and newborn health in the United States

Affiliated researchers Jessica Cohen and Maggie McConnell and our Health Care Delivery Initiative staff highlight the importance of randomized evaluations in maternal and newborn health and discuss future research generation in collaboration with social scientists, clinicians, and policy-makers.
Mother holding baby

How government, academic, and nonprofit partners are working to evaluate a home visiting program in South Carolina to improve family health and wellbeing

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Jordan Desai (South Carolina Department of Health Human Services) ; William Thorland, (National Service Office for Nurse-Family Partnership and Child First); and Margaret McConnell (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) discuss the rigorous evaluation of the Nurse-Family Partnership program in...
A man points to code on a desktop computer with two women

Newly published data on health care hotspotting study underscores the importance of research transparency

The team behind the evaluation on health care hotspotting describes why they prioritized publishing replication data and lessons learned from the process.
Four panelists sit in front of a screen, while one person presents

Promoting healthy behaviors and family planning in Egypt: A recap from the Global Evidence for Egypt Spotlight Seminar

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J-PAL MENA at AUC co-hosted a seminar with UNICEF Egypt on February 22, 2022 to share global evidence on fertility and family planning to promote healthy behaviors and curb population growth in Egypt. This seminar was the fifth in a broader Global Evidence for Egypt Spotlight Seminar Series.
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

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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.