Blog

News

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

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.
A woman inside a mall looks at her phone.

Using smartphones to trace mobility during regional lockdowns in Indonesia

By
Using de-identified location data captured in smartphones, researchers worked with J-PAL Southeast Asia to study movement patterns to analyze how Indonesians changed their behaviors during the initial phases of COVID-19 and during the lockdown.
Indonesian woman sits at a table scrolling through a tablet

Adopsi Layanan Keuangan Digital (LKD) di tengah Pandemi

Perkembangan terbaru di Indonesia semakin memperbesar pentingnya layanan keuangan digital (LKD) terutama potensinya dalam meringankan beban ekonomi akibat pandemi COVID-19. Meskipun informasi anekdotal menunjukkan bahwa penggunaan LKD di tengah pandemi ini sedang meningkat, pembuat kebijakan di...
Indonesian woman sits at a table scrolling through a tablet

Indonesians are turning to digital financial services during the COVID-19 pandemic

Social distancing guidelines in Indonesia and around the world have profoundly impacted many aspects of people’s lives, from the way we communicate to the ways we work, shop, and transact. These shifts have brought the potential of digital financial services as a means of easing some of the economic...
A man stands behind a counter that displays phone cards in a small shop. A woman sits in front of the counter typing on a laptop.

Dapatkah layanan keuangan digital dan e-commerce membantu mengurangi dampak krisis COVID-19 pada kehidupan masyarakat?

Di bulan April, pemerintah mengumumkan pemberlakuan Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar (PSBB) dan melarang perjalanan mudik Idul Fitri, dimana puluhan juta orang Indonesia biasanya kembali ke kota/desa asal mereka untuk merayakan bersama keluarga. Pembatasan-pembatasan lainnya juga berupa instruksi...
A man stands behind a counter that displays phone cards in a small shop. A woman sits in front of the counter typing on a laptop.

How digital financial services and e-commerce can help curb the impact of COVID-19 on people's livelihoods

For those in Indonesia with access to mobile phones and digital literacy, e-commerce and digital financial services may help people to maintain their livelihoods. Not only do digital financial services offer a fast and contactless means of payment and transfer, but evidence from around the world has...
Two hands old a card between them.

Moving towards targeted anti-poverty programs: lessons from Indonesia

For the past decade in Indonesia, J-PAL affiliated researchers, together with government agencies and J-PAL Southeast Asia, have been working to generate policy-relevant evidence using randomized evaluations to understand the causal impact of anti-poverty programs. This blog summarizes what we have...
A poster in Indonesia with health recommendations

Cushioning the poor from the COVID-19 shock

In an op-ed for Project Syndicate, Rema Hanna and Ben Olken explain that expanding social protection to reach the most vulnerable people must be a pillar of every country’s COVID-19 strategy.