Displaying 2221 - 2235 of 7553
Evaluation
School Meals, Educational Achievement and School Finance in Kenya
Researchers examined the effects of subsidized school meals on school participation, educational achievement, and school finance in Western Kenya. The results suggest that the meals program led to improved school participation, as well as higher curriculum test scores, but only in schools where the teacher was relatively experienced prior to the program. The school meals also displaced teaching time and led to larger class sizes.
Evaluation
The Illusion of Sustainability: Comparing Free Provision of Deworming Drugs and Other "Sustainable" Approaches in Kenya
This study in Kenya found that cost-sharing and health education were not effective alternatives to a total subsidy of deworming drugs.
Blog
New King Climate Action Initiative will design, test, and scale solutions to combat climate change and poverty
Today, in partnership with King Philanthropies, we announced the launch of the five-year $25 million King Climate Action Initiative (K-CAI) at J-PAL. The initiative will support innovative research and policy engagement to combat climate change and poverty around the world.
Evaluation
Saving Incentives for Low and Middle Income Families: Evidence From a Field Experiment with HR Block
Researchers tested the influence of the (randomly chosen) rate at which clients were told contributions to their Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) would be matched on the amount contributed to their retirement savings accounts. They found higher matching rates significantly increased IRA participation and contributions.
Evaluation
Peer Effects, Pupil-Teacher Ratios, and Teacher Incentives in Kenya
Researchers evaluated three interventions that addressed the large class sizes and heterogeneity in student preparation in the Kenyan school system. They found that hiring additional local contract teachers helped reduce classroom overcrowding and improved student learning outcomes. The biggest gains came when local school committees were empowered to oversee the recruitment process and to effectively monitor teachers, and when classes were structured to target instruction to students’ initial achievement level.
Evaluation
Primary Education Management and Test Scores in Madagascar
Researchers analyzed outcomes from a previously conducted randomized evaluation to assess the impact of large primary school management reforms in Madagascar on student test scores, and if impacts varied by type of teacher. Results show that the management reforms did not have any impact on student test scores, regardless of teacher type.
Person
Lorraine King
Laurie King is the Human Resources, Finance, and Operations co-op at J-PAL North America where she supports the Finance and Operations team.
Blog
Nana Okozi, J-PAL ‘16, on managing data from start to finish
We caught up with Nana Okozi, a former project officer at J-PAL Africa. Nana joined J-PAL Africa in 2015 and led training and data collection for many of its research projects. Now a project coordinator at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), Nana is helping to coordinate...
Blog
A personal reflection on summer youth employment programs
As part of the June issue of J-PAL North America’s monthly newsletter, Yiping Li, a Policy Associate at J-PAL North America, shared her personal experience with Chicago’s summer youth employment program, One Summer Chicago.
Evaluation
Combating Corruption in Community Development in Indonesia
J-PAL affiliate Benjamin Olken (MIT) devised a method to measure corruption and used it to evaluate alternative strategies to reduce corruption on Indonesian roadbuilding projects. The evaluation tested two types of strategies: encouraging community participation and increasing the probability of centrally-administered audits. The results suggest that community participation should not be seen as a panacea for corruption, while also demonstrating that even entrenched corruption can be reduced.
Evaluation
Direct Democracy and Local Public Goods in Indonesia
To examine these issues, researchers randomly assigned 49 villages in Indonesia to choose local infrastructure projects through either a direct election or a representative-based meeting. Choosing local infrastructure projects by direct election, rather than through representatives, had a small effect on the types of projects selected but a large impact on citizen satisfaction.
Evaluation
Can Informational Campaigns Raise Awareness and Local Participation in Primary Education in India?
Researchers examined whether increasing community oversight and participation could improve education outcomes in Uttar Pradesh, India. Mobilizing community members to monitor local schools through Village Education Committees did not increase participation in school governance or improve education outcomes, but training local volunteers to teach basic reading outside school had a positive impact on student learning.
Blog
Alumni Voices: A new era of humanitarian action
In this inaugural post in the Alumni Voices series, Bhavya Srinivasan (former Senior Finance and Operations Manager, J-PAL South Asia ’14) discusses her work at Start Network to build a stronger humanitarian system for the COVID-19 response.
Evaluation
Community Driven Development in Sierra Leone
Researchers studied the impact of a community driven development program in Sierra Leone in the short and long-run and contrasted it with a technocratic approach to delegate the management of development projects to high skill individuals. In the short term, the CDD program increased the stock of higher quality local public goods, but did not lead to fundamental changes in local institutions or decision-making in the shorter term. The technocratic selection intervention improved local project management relative to the traditional status quo and the long-term institutional reform through the CDD intervention.
Evaluation
Effect of Matching Ratios on Charitable Giving in the United States
Researchers found that matching gifts were an effective fundraising tactic, increasing the likelihood of donation and total donations, but larger match ratios did not return more donations than smaller match ratios.