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

Women stand in line waiting to cast their vote at a polling station in in Barpeta, Assam, India.

Can information lead to better voting decisions? Evidence from information campaigns in India

Out of 539 winners in India’s 2019 general election for the lower house of Parliament, 29 percent have, at some point, been charged with serious criminal cases, including cases related to rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, and crimes against women. Why do voters elect criminal politicians...
Two men sit on the ground looking at paper surveys

Voices from the field: Enumerator spotlight

J-PAL affiliates have now conducted over 1,000 randomized evaluations in 84 countries, scaling up a Nobel Prize-winning approach to poverty alleviation research. To celebrate this milestone, we’re highlighting the people who have facilitated this research throughout the years.
Two girls are pictured sitting side by side.

Measuring social attitudes and norms in impact evaluations: Examples from India

Social norms also often persist despite economic growth, and can negatively impact development outcomes. Evaluating the impact of interventions targeting social norms can be useful to understand how they might be changed.
Children sit on the ground, playing on tablets

Affiliate Spotlight: Karthik Muralidharan

Karthik Muralidharan is the Tata Chancellor’s Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego and also serves as a J-PAL Board member and co-chair of the Education sector. A pioneering researcher in education and service delivery, Karthik has profoundly influenced social service...

Tanya Sethi, J-PAL ’14, is tackling the big questions in aid and policy

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Tanya joined J-PAL South Asia’s policy team after receiving a master’s degree in public policy from the Paris School of Economics. At J-PAL South Asia, she played a key role in an early partnership with the Government of Tamil Nadu and helped lay the conceptual groundwork for important program scale...

How this year’s Nobel Prize winners helped shape an education revolution in Africa

TaRL Africa team member Ashleigh Morrell reflects on how Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee helped pave the way for a quiet Teaching at the Right Level revolution across schools in Africa.

Working alongside the Nobel laureates

J-PAL South Asia Executive Director Shobhini Mukerji writes, "Working alongside Esther and Abhijit for more than a decade has given me immense appreciation for the brilliant yet unpretentious people they are, especially with the staff they work with."
Panelists sit at a table at the Gender Sector launch in New Delhi.

Catalyzing new partnerships for gender equality in South Asia

Program implementers, evaluators, and donors convened in New Delhi to formally launch J-PAL’s gender sector in South Asia and discuss the current context and future priorities for the sector.