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

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...
A Black doctor takes the blood pressure of a seated Black man

Strengthening randomized evaluations with qualitative research, part 2: Matching provider race to increase take-up of preventive health services

For the second blog in our blog series on incorporating qualitative research into randomized evaluations, we spoke with US Health Care Delivery Initiative Co-Chair Marcella Alsan about her research team’s experience using qualitative research methods in the scoping and analysis phases of their...
Covid-19 vaccine and child sitting in background

Strengthening immunization demand and delivery: Lessons from existing evidence

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to routine vaccination services around the world. In a new evidence note, the J-PAL Health sector team provides an overview of policy lessons stemming from economic research on improving immunization coverage.
Two men, one wearing a lab coat, sit together and chat

Beyond causality: Additional benefits of RCTs for improving health care delivery

J-PAL affiliates Marcella Alsan and Amy Finkelstein highlight four key benefits of randomized evaluations that are useful for addressing pressing health policy questions, drawing from their recent Milbank Quarterly article.
A man sitting in a chair receives a Covid-19 vaccine to the arm

Navigating Indonesia’s post-pandemic era: Addressing opportunity, inequality, and growth

J-PAL SEA recently hosted a webinar aimed at providing insights into the Government of Indonesia’s policy directions and learnings from global evidence on challenges faced in different sectors. Read the key takeaways from the discussion.