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

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African Scholar Spotlight: Dr. Evans Osabuohien

In this spotlight, we speak with Dr. Evans Osabuohien, Professor of Economics and Head of the Department of Economics and Development Studies at Covenant University in Nigeria. Evans’s primary research interests relate to international economics, institutional economics, agricultural economics, and...
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Building research partnerships to understand the promises of Summer Youth Employment Programs

In the first of a two-part blog series, Judd Kessler (University of Pennsylvania), Sara Heller (University of Michigan), and Julia Breitman (New York City Department of Youth and Community Development) discuss their research partnership to evaluate summer youth employment programs and the...
Tutor and student study together in Gaborone

20 for 20: The tutor is calling - Targeted instruction by phone boosts learning across six countries

By
  • Noam Angrist
  • Amanda Beatty
  • Colin Crossley
Youth Impact tested a phone-based adaptation of Teaching at the Right Level for mathematics that became ConnectEd, a one-on-one tutoring program that uses phones to connect high-quality instruction with students and parents. With ConnectEd, every week grade 3 to 5 students receive math problems...
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Affiliate Spotlight: Selim Gulesci on entrepreneurship, gender, and the policymaking process

This affiliate spotlight features reflections from Selim Gulesci on his research surrounding gender, labor, and economics, and touches on his new role of Scientific Advisor for J-PAL Africa’s Girls’ Education and Empowerment portfolio.
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Researching racial equity: Racial discrimination, choice constraints, and policy implications

In this interview with J-PAL staff, J-PAL affiliated professor Peter Christensen (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) discusses his ongoing series of evaluations, including a 2021 paper on housing discrimination, and the role randomized evaluations can play in addressing racial inequities.
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Leveraging technology to improve child-caregiver interactions at scale

By
Can technology be used to improve child-caregiver interactions and support child development? Traditional parenting interventions are often costly and tightly controlled, which limits their large-scale implementation. A low-cost intervention called Crianza Positiva, delivering text and audio...
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Overcoming administrative burdens: Strategies to increase access to health insurance in the United States

A new J-PAL policy insight highlights evidence from randomized evaluations on the impact of informational “nudges”—strategies designed to inform individuals about various aspects of health insurance and influence behavior without changing legal or economic systems—on health insurance take-up. In...
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New Displaced Livelihoods Initiative will help advance sustainable livelihoods for displaced and host communities

Today, we announce the launch of the Displaced Livelihoods Initiative (DLI), jointly managed by Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), with generous support from the IKEA Foundation. DLI is the world’s first research fund dedicated to generating...