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

Two police officers in riot gear look at a protester wearing shield that says "Paz"

How can RCTs help us reduce violence and conflict? 2021 update

The Governance, Crime, and Conflict Initiative seeks to expand the evidence base on effective conflict and violence prevention programs. Read about our efforts to summarize what we're learning in the new edition of the GCCI Evidence Wrap-up.
Women in Debanandapur, West Bengal, India sitting on the ground while sewing and ironing garments.

Training gender practitioners in South Asia in strategies to measure gender outcomes

The Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results, hosted at J-PAL South Asia, conducted a five-day online workshop on Applying a Gender Lens to Program Evaluation in February 2021. This workshop covered content on the measurement of gender outcomes, such as gender norms, agency, attitudes...
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Growing the research agenda on women’s work

Through the Gender and Economic Agency Initiative (GEA), J-PAL is catalyzing a new body of innovative research on women’s work to support policymakers in implementing policies to support working women during and after the pandemic. GEA is now expanding our research portfolio with support from the...
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Reflecting on the benefits of evaluating a health care delivery program: A recap from the HCDI @ 8 Convening

This spring, the US Health Care Delivery Initiative (HCDI) hosted its second convening, HCDI @ 8. We reflect on these discussions, highlighting why an organization may want to evaluate their program with a randomized evaluation.
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Affiliate Spotlight: Shawn Cole

Shawn Cole is a Co-Founder and Chair of the Board at Precision Development (PxD), the John G McLean Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and serves as a Co-Chair for J-PAL’s Innovations in Data and Experiments for Action (IDEA) Initiative. For over twenty years, Shawn has...
Three African women sit together and smile at the photographer.

Leveraging behavioral insights to increase savings in low- and middle-income countries

This week, J-PAL published a new Policy Bulletin on the most effective approaches for helping individuals and families in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) build up their savings. The Bulletin reviews twelve randomized evaluations and finds that commitment savings products–voluntary...
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Data collection, new RCTs, and policy guidance to inform pandemic response and recovery

The past year has been filled with tragedy and sacrifice—but, critically, also innovation, as researchers and policymakers addressed new challenges with creative solutions. Existing and newly generated evidence has informed many policies over the past year, providing a roadmap for incorporating...
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Breaking the glass ceiling in economics and policy, one conversation at a time

Read our interview with Prerna Kundu and Prashansa Srivastava, Co-Founders of Women in Economics and Policy, and Research Associates at J-PAL South Asia.