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

A group of people working on Pursuit projects

Randomization’s capacity for flexibility: How to build randomization into a competitive, multi-step application process

This post discusses an evaluation design by researchers at J-PAL North America and Pursuit to measure the impact of the Pursuit's sectoral employment program, showing how randomization can be integrated into the application process without compromising enrollment preferences.
Woman sitting on the ground with farming tools on smart phone

An AI evaluation framework for the development sector

By
  • Han Sheng Chia
  • Farhan Abrol
  • Temina Madon
  • Robert On
  • James Walsh
  • Zezhen Wu
This is the first blog post in a series designed to help implementers, policymakers, and funders unpack the different types of evaluations relevant for “AI for Good” applications. Stay tuned for forthcoming posts providing a deeper dive on each of the evaluation levels.
 A child plays with colorful wooden blocks in a GSED assessment session.

Four lessons from using a growth measurement tool for early childhood development in Indonesia

By
Stunting, defined as having a substantial below-average height for one’s age, indicates a significant risk to a child's physical and developmental potential. To explore practical and effective strategies for addressing stunting in Indonesia, J-PAL Southeast Asia (SEA) collaborated with J-PAL invited...
Two individuals looking at a chalk board with formulas and notes written on it.

Nurturing the null: Preparing for null results to bolster evidence use

Null results—finding no impact—can be particularly difficult for researchers, policymakers, and service providers to act on. In this blog post, we share three key considerations for successfully designing studies and acting on null results.
Person seated at a desk working in front of multiple monitors.

Why common balance tests are over-indicating imbalance in randomization and what to do about it

In a new working paper, J-PAL affiliated researchers Jason Kerwin and Olivier Sterck, and J-PAL alumna Nada Rostom demonstrate how standard balance tests used in randomized evaluations indicate imbalance too often.
Group of persons

How to integrate qualitative methods into RCTs

Economists have long used qualitative methods to inform the design and help interpret the results of RCTs. To support the further integration of qualitative methods into randomized evaluations and provide more structured guidance, J-PAL has developed new research resources and training materials for...
A group of women sit and look at a notebook.

The promise of multidisciplinary collaborations for governance research

Effective governance is essential to reducing poverty—both in aligning the needs of citizens with the actions of states, and then ensuring that states have the capacity to meet those needs. As our research agenda has evolved in the last decade, researchers in J-PAL’s network have increasingly...
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.