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

Learning math in classroom India

The making of an NGO consortium to scale up “Every Child Counts” in India

In India, nearly every eligible child is enrolled in a primary school today. But many of them struggle to read simple sentences and do basic arithmetic. These children need special support to strengthen their foundational learning capabilities. Every Child Counts - a game-based curriculum designed...
This is an image of a photo collage, with two photos side by side. In the left photo, a girl stands in purple shirt and white head scarf, smiling and looking away from the camera. In the right photo, a boy stands outside in snow wearing jeans and a red sweatshirt, looking at the camera and smiling.

Yhdessä (Together): Creating documentary photography on inclusion and friendship in Finnish schools

We embarked on a documentary photography project to capture the people and activities behind a Finnish primary school intervention aimed at fostering social inclusion in schools. Our aim was to showcase the crucial role of visual storytelling in human-centered research and policymaking.
A craft store employee in Cianjur, West Java.

Using alternative data and artificial intelligence to expand financial inclusion: Evidence-based insights

Firms using innovative credit-scoring (ICS) have emerged to help banks and peer-to-peer lenders predict potential borrowers’ likelihood to repay a loan. In contrast to traditional credit scoring models that use credit history, ICS uses artificial intelligence to evaluate data unrelated to a borrower...
Mother and child smiling

Centering parents and parenting in randomized evaluations of cash transfers to families

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The Baby’s First Years evaluation is a J-PAL-supported study evaluating the impact of poverty alleviation on child development and families. Two researchers involved in Baby’s First Years discuss the importance of centering parents and their experiences to better understand the impact cash payments...
Three people looking at a computer screen

Regression to the mean: What it is and why it matters for impact evaluations

Regression to the mean is a statistical phenomenon where extreme outcomes tend to be followed by more moderate outcomes—closer to the mean. In the field of social policy, this could mean that individuals selected to participate in a program because of an extreme signal will naturally return back...
An aerial shot of a village.

New resource: Incorporating remote sensing data into randomized evaluations

A growing number of economists are incorporating remotely sensed (RS) data—satellite data in particular—into their studies. For randomized evaluations, remote data collection offers alluring possibilities: lower data collection costs, a longer time series of data both before and after an...
Five people sit on a panel.

The next decade of RCT research: What can we learn from recent innovations in methods?

From Teaching at the Right Level to the multifaceted Graduation approach, J-PAL’s affiliated researcher network has helped to evaluate a diverse range of innovative interventions aimed at reducing poverty over the past twenty years.
Two women wearing headscarves use a drill to upcycle a piece of wood furniture.

New Humanitarian Protection Initiative will help reduce harm to people affected by conflict

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Today, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) launch the Humanitarian Protection Initiative (HPI). The core of this initiative is a research fund dedicated to generating rigorous evidence to inform policies and programs that protect conflict...