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

Two individuals looking at a chalk board with formulas and notes written on it.

Nurturing the null: Preparing for null results to bolster evidence use

Null results—finding no impact—can be particularly difficult for researchers, policymakers, and service providers to act on. In this blog post, we share three key considerations for successfully designing studies and acting on null results.
Person seated at a desk working in front of multiple monitors.

Why common balance tests are over-indicating imbalance in randomization and what to do about it

In a new working paper, J-PAL affiliated researchers Jason Kerwin and Olivier Sterck, and J-PAL alumna Nada Rostom demonstrate how standard balance tests used in randomized evaluations indicate imbalance too often.
Group of persons

How to integrate qualitative methods into RCTs

Economists have long used qualitative methods to inform the design and help interpret the results of RCTs. To support the further integration of qualitative methods into randomized evaluations and provide more structured guidance, J-PAL has developed new research resources and training materials for...
A group of women sit and look at a notebook.

The promise of multidisciplinary collaborations for governance research

Effective governance is essential to reducing poverty—both in aligning the needs of citizens with the actions of states, and then ensuring that states have the capacity to meet those needs. As our research agenda has evolved in the last decade, researchers in J-PAL’s network have increasingly...
Learning math in classroom India

The making of an NGO consortium to scale up “Every Child Counts” in India

In India, nearly every eligible child is enrolled in a primary school today. But many of them struggle to read simple sentences and do basic arithmetic. These children need special support to strengthen their foundational learning capabilities. Every Child Counts - a game-based curriculum designed...
This is an image of a photo collage, with two photos side by side. In the left photo, a girl stands in purple shirt and white head scarf, smiling and looking away from the camera. In the right photo, a boy stands outside in snow wearing jeans and a red sweatshirt, looking at the camera and smiling.

Yhdessä (Together): Creating documentary photography on inclusion and friendship in Finnish schools

We embarked on a documentary photography project to capture the people and activities behind a Finnish primary school intervention aimed at fostering social inclusion in schools. Our aim was to showcase the crucial role of visual storytelling in human-centered research and policymaking.
A craft store employee in Cianjur, West Java.

Using alternative data and artificial intelligence to expand financial inclusion: Evidence-based insights

Firms using innovative credit-scoring (ICS) have emerged to help banks and peer-to-peer lenders predict potential borrowers’ likelihood to repay a loan. In contrast to traditional credit scoring models that use credit history, ICS uses artificial intelligence to evaluate data unrelated to a borrower...
Mother and child smiling

Centering parents and parenting in randomized evaluations of cash transfers to families

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The Baby’s First Years evaluation is a J-PAL-supported study evaluating the impact of poverty alleviation on child development and families. Two researchers involved in Baby’s First Years discuss the importance of centering parents and their experiences to better understand the impact cash payments...