Blog

News

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

Neha Sharma stands at a podium holding a microphone, with a poster in the background that reads "Enhancing Private Sector Engagement in Adaptation: South to South Learning"

Neha Sharma, J-PAL ‘12, on evaluating the impact of climate investments

By
The Alumni Spotlight series highlights J-PAL alumni who are making an impact across industries and around the world. Formerly a policy and training associate at J-PAL South Asia, Neha Sharma ‘12 now leads the Evaluation and Learning Unit at the Climate Investment Funds, hosted by the World Bank. She...
Elizabeth Linos is smiling for the camera in a short sleeve blue shirt standing against a brick wall

Affiliate Spotlight: Elizabeth Linos on understanding evidence use in government

In this Affiliate Spotlight, Elizabeth Linos, Faculty Director of The People Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, discusses her research interests in understanding the government workforce, improving service delivery, and improving the process of evidence-based policymaking.
Young boy learning through laptop

Online Tutoring: a Promising Solution for Accelerating Learning

During the Covid-19 pandemic, online tutoring emerged as a potential solution to education challenges resulting from school closures on a massive scale. We are just having a first glimpse of the consequences of the pandemic on students’ outcomes—and it does not look good.
Three structures spell out "AUC" with palm trees in the background. One person sits inside each letter.

Jumpstarting careers in development: Reflections from J-PAL MENA's Summer Interns

By
  • Habiba Tamer
  • Omar ElDeeb
J-PAL MENA at The American University in Cairo (AUC) welcomed its first cohort of interns in June 2022 as part of a new summer internship program. The program is designed to facilitate engagement with regional development challenges through integration with J-PAL MENA’s work across the Policy &...
Participants of J-PAL's executive education course,  Evaluating Social Programs.

Increasing diversity in economics: Collaborating with the Research in Color Foundation

Our work at J-PAL is better and more effective when it is informed by a diversity of perspectives. In addition to improving recruitment for full-time roles, J-PAL Global partnered with the Research in Color Foundation to develop a paid internship opportunity aimed at increasing diversity in the...
A roadside billboard that reads "stay home, limit travel, save lives"

Encouraging adherence to preventive health guidelines during a pandemic: Lessons from rigorous Covid-19 evidence

This note provides an overview of the evidence from randomized evaluations that has come out during the Covid-19 pandemic thus far to combat these barriers. These general lessons on increasing uptake of healthy behaviors and improving the delivery of health products and services may be of value in...
Close up image of a microscope in a lab with two hands adjusting its scope.

Announcing J-PAL’s Science for Progress Initiative

SfPI is part of a broader effort to equip the scientific ecosystem with the capabilities needed to apply the scientific method to itself—to create, in other words, a practice of “metascience.” Under SfPI, J-PAL will apply the methodological approach of randomized evaluation to the practice of...
Screenshot from Learning Path video with thumbnail video of speaker Laina Sonterblum and slide with text " Learning Objectives. 1) The elements of highly impactful tutoring programs. 2) How to implement these elements into your own tutoring program. 3) How to assess the implementation and impact of your program

New tutoring resource: A learning path for evidence-based tutoring implementation

J-PAL North America and the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE) created the Implementing Evidence-Based Tutoring for High Impact learning path to give local education agencies and tutoring providers easily accessible information about effective program components and how to...