US State and Local Innovation Initiative

State and local governments exercise significant regulatory, financial, and programmatic discretion that  uniquely positions them to foster economic mobility among residents in their community. The State and Local Innovation Initiative builds capacity for state and local governments to generate evidence about programs and policies that alleviate poverty through randomized evaluations, one of the most rigorous methods used to study program impact. In turn, decision-makers use this evidence to improve and scale up effective policies and programs to reach more people.

We do this through our:

• Evaluation Incubator: Selected state and local governments or agencies receive technical assistance, flexible funding, and matchmaking with researchers in our network to design an evaluation to answer a high-priority policy question.
• Request for Proposals: Provides funding to J-PAL’s network of researchers for pilot studies and full randomized evaluations in partnership with state and local governments.