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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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Nana Okozi, J-PAL ‘16, on managing data from start to finish

We caught up with Nana Okozi, a former project officer at J-PAL Africa. Nana joined J-PAL Africa in 2015 and led training and data collection for many of its research projects. Now a project coordinator at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), Nana is helping to coordinate...
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Adrien Bouguen, J-PAL ‘12, on his path from research assistant to assistant professor

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Adrien Bouguen joined J-PAL Europe as a research assistant in 2009, where he played a central role in establishing our then-fledgling European office. Now an assistant professor of economics at Santa Clara University, his research focuses on the economics of education and child development.
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Amanda Dawes Ibáñez, J-PAL ‘14, is at the nexus of research and policy design

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Amanda joined J-PAL LAC during its earliest years and led the development of many foundational research partnerships and projects. Now the head of the social policy division at the Ministry of Social Development in Chile, Amanda is leading an effort to rethink Chile’s social policy ecosystem and...

Kristen Watkins, J-PAL ’19, is helping shape upward mobility research in the United States

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Kristen joined J-PAL in 2017 to lead the Creating Moves to Opportunity project, an influential research partnership between J-PAL affiliated researchers and public housing authorities in the United States. Now the chief operating officer at Opportunity Insights, Kristen shares some reflections on...

Tanya Sethi, J-PAL ’14, is tackling the big questions in aid and policy

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Tanya joined J-PAL South Asia’s policy team after receiving a master’s degree in public policy from the Paris School of Economics. At J-PAL South Asia, she played a key role in an early partnership with the Government of Tamil Nadu and helped lay the conceptual groundwork for important program scale...

Irwan Setyawan, J-PAL ‘17, on making the jump from research to government in Indonesia

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Irwan joined J-PAL SEA’s research team in 2016 after completing his master’s in banking and finance. After two years at J-PAL working on research projects related to financial inclusion in Indonesia, Irwan transitioned to a program management role within Indonesia’s National Council for Financial...
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Laura Abadia, J-PAL ’19, on her path from J-PAL Europe to the OECD

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Laura joined J-PAL Europe after working in sub-Saharan Africa and spent nearly six years at J-PAL building the office’s presence in the region. Now working for the OECD Development Centre, she reflects on how her experiences have brought her to where she is today, and shares with us some of the...