January 2018 Newsletter
Celebrating ten years of rigorous research and policy impact in South Asia
Last month, J-PAL South Asia hosted a series of events across India in recognition of ten years of rigorous, challenging, and rewarding work promoting evidence-informed policymaking in the region. Growing from just a few research assistants in Delhi and a lean support team in Chennai in 2007 to more than 175 staff across nine field offices today, the J-PAL South Asia team is filling critical evidence gaps and building the capacity of governments and civil society organizations to create positive social change. Read more »
J-PAL welcomes new executive director
Iqbal Dhaliwal is the new executive director of J-PAL, succeeding Rachel Glennerster, who has joined DFID as its chief economist. Earlier Iqbal was deputy executive director, and prior to that, founding director of J-PAL's policy group. Before joining the organization in 2009 he was a director in an economics consulting firm and an official in India’s senior civil service, where he worked on policy formulation and program implementation. Read our Q&A »
Meet new J-PAL affiliates
Eight researchers recently joined J-PAL’s network: Peter Bergman and Eric Verhoogen at Columbia University, Saurabh Bhargava at Carnegie Mellon University, Clément de Chaisemartin at University of California, Santa Barbara, Will Dobbie at Princeton University, William Evans at University of Notre Dame, Nathaniel Hendren at Harvard University, and Wes Yin at University of California, Los Angeles. Their varied research interests range from children’s language acquisition to racial bias in criminal justice systems and technology adoption in soccer ball factories. Meet the new affiliates »
Featured Evaluations
Can cash and behavioral nudges in Kenya improve maternity care?
Each year, 1.3 million mothers and newborns in sub-Saharan Africa die from complications related to childbirth. J-PAL affiliated researchers Jessica Cohen and Margaret McConnell at Harvard University, along with Ginger Golub, Margaret Kruk, Katherine Lofgren, George Omondi, and Claire Rothschild, evaluated whether cash transfers and decision-making nudges could address potential behavioral and structural barriers to timely arrival at high-quality health facilities. Cash transfers, conditional on a pre-commitment to a delivery facility of the woman’s choice, led to earlier and more effective birth planning and increased the likelihood that women delivered at higher-quality facilities. Read more »
Featured Multimedia
Pascaline Dupas on improving health at scale
In a recent Data, Decisions, Public Policy (D2P2) talk, Pascaline Dupas (Stanford University; co-chair, J-PAL’s Health sector) discussed the latest evidence on the most effective and cost-effective ways to improve health at scale, from providing access to credit and savings tools to making preventive health products easier to access and take up. Watch the video »
New TEDx talk: It improved lives elsewhere. Will it here?
How can we begin to assess whether a program that worked in one place will work in another? Mary Ann Bates, executive director of J-PAL North America, spoke at a recent TEDx event. When we focus less on place and more on people’s behavior, we can learn lessons about how to fight poverty from India and Kenya to Chicago and Boston. Watch the video »
Online Courses
Register now for the next MicroMasters semester
The next semester of our online MicroMasters in Data, Economics, and Development Policy begins February 6. Course offerings include Microeconomics, The Challenges of Global Poverty, Data Analysis for Social Scientists, Foundations of Development Policy, and Designing and Running Randomized Evaluations. Register now »
MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
Worldwide change takes global effort
MIT News
Meet DFID’s new head economist
Devex
Using evidence for public policy gains traction in India
Hindustan Times
What does women’s labor force participation really tell us about women’s empowerment?
J-PAL Blog
Working together to teach at the right level [Opinion]
LiveMint
Nudge the mind out of its bias
The Hindu
J-PAL North America calls for proposals from governments and health care organizations
MIT News
Featured Jobs
Our annual recruitment drive closes Friday, January 12.
Executive Director, J-PAL Latin America & Caribbean (Santiago, Chile)
Training Manager, J-PAL Global (Cambridge, MA, US)
Research Manager, J-PAL Global (Cambridge, MA, US)
Explore open positions around the world »
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