Blog

News

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

A group of people stand in front of a screen featuring a J-PAL slide

How J-PAL's Evaluating Social Programs course catalyzed a new approach to impact evaluation in Virginia

By
  • Massey Whorley
In this guest post, Massey Whorley, Director of Innovation and Strategic Initiatives at the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS), shares insights from attending J-PAL’s Evaluating Social Programs Course and how it informed efforts to design and implement randomized evaluations of VDSS...
researcher presents at a conference

Strengthening the Egyptian education system: A recap from the Global Evidence for Egypt spotlight seminar on education

The J-PAL Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Initiative, housed within the American University in Cairo (AUC) School of Business, hosted a seminar on “Strengthening the Egyptian Education System to Better Reach Marginalized Children and Youth: What We Can Learn from Randomized Evaluations” at AUC...
2019 Nobel laureates in Economics

Recapping Nobel Week 2019

Our co-founders Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, with longtime J-PAL affiliate Michael Kremer, were awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences on December 10, 2019. In the week leading up to the award ceremony, the laureates delivered lectures on their award-winning research and...
Photo of person presenting in front of a white board that has written words on it.

"Unlocking the file drawer" to ensure research results—even null results—are shared

When a study is not published in an academic journal, how can we ensure its results, even null results, are still reported—instead of remaining inaccessible in a (metaphorical) file drawer?
School children in Indonesia

Informing shifts in policy: Reflections on a long-run impact evaluation of a community block grant program in Indonesia

Creating good policies is a complex and dynamic process. A program can be evaluated, found to improve people’s lives, and be scaled up. However, in the longer run, these programs interact with other policies, contexts change, and policymakers are in constant need of new information and evidence to...
woman reviewing a research guide

Take practical steps to de-identifying and publishing research data with J-PAL’s new guides

We are pleased to announce the publication of two new methods guides to de-identifying and publishing research data. These guides draw on J-PAL’s experience of publishing research data on randomized evaluations in the social sciences for more than a decade. They provide practical advice for students...
Group of colleagues in an office

Doubling down to build on an incredible 2019

2019 was a banner year for J-PAL on many fronts. We launched many exciting initiatives to expand the frontiers of research and evidence-informed policy, including in digital finance (Africa), government innovation (global), migrants and social inclusion (Europe), work of the future (North America)...

A year in blogs: Reflecting on 2019 through the eyes of staff, affiliates, and partners

In 2019 we launched new initiatives to spur innovative research, admitted the first-ever cohort of blended Masters’ students, celebrated our founders’ and affiliate’s Nobel Prize win, and much more. It’s almost impossible to capture the breadth and depth of what our staff, affiliates, and partners...