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

Headshot of Juliette Seban

Juliette Seban, J-PAL ’12, on driving forward development innovation at France’s FID

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As a former research manager at J-PAL Europe, Juliette Seban managed several randomized evaluations while pursuing a PhD in development economics. Juliette is now the executive director of France’s new Fund for Innovation in Development (FID). She reflects on her PhD experience, her work at J-PAL...
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.
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Alumni Voices: Reimagining how innovation funders measure and value gender impacts

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  • Rachna Nag Chowdhuri
Rachna Nag Chowdhuri ‘13 (former research manager at J-PAL South Asia) discusses her work at the Global Innovation Fund to reimagine how funders measure and value impact on gender equality outcomes.
A young child in a daycare setting shows an adult caretaker a yellow plastic ring toy.

Four key lessons for building scale-up partnerships

Scaling up programs that have strong evidence of effectiveness is a vital but often complicated step along the evidence-to-policy journey, and J-PAL has learned a lot about collaborating with policymakers to translate research into large-scale action. In this blog post, Iqbal Dhaliwal (Global...
Two kindergarten children stand in front of a blackboard, smiling.

Foundations for student success: Focusing on functional literacy and numeracy

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To support education systems to focus on functional literacy and numeracy, UNICEF is partnering with The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL at MIT), Pratham , and Delivery Associates .
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Building research partnerships to address the opioid crisis in Minnesota

Adam Sacarny (Columbia University) and Weston Merrick from the Minnesota Management and Budget share insights on the process of launching a randomized evaluation of the state’s prescription monitoring program (PMP). The ongoing study seeks to evaluate the impact of sending informational letters on...
Seema Jayachandrani sits on a wooden bench outside and smiles at the camera.

Affiliate Spotlight: Seema Jayachandran on deforestation, corruption, and the roots of gender inequality

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  • Douglas Clement
  • Anjali Nair
Seema Jayachandran (Northwestern University) discusses wide-ranging research in the developing world and insights gained into gender parity, economic growth, and pandemic impact in poor nations.