Policy Insights

What have we learned from randomized evaluations that policymakers, practitioners, and funders can use to improve social programs? J-PAL’s Policy Insights, organized by sector, highlight lessons emerging across multiple studies and the mechanisms that help explain the results.

J-PAL’s Sector Chairs and staff draw these insights from relevant randomized evaluations, updating and adding insights as the body of evidence grows. Each Policy Insight briefly summarizes their perspective on the evidence on a specific topic, with links to the original research and policy summaries. Read this blog post for more information about how we develop Policy Insights.

When combined with a detailed understanding of context and program implementation, we hope these insights can be practical inputs for policy and program design. For examples of how insights from randomized evaluations have informed policy, visit our Evidence to Policy page.

Nurse talking to a patient

The impact of price on take-up and use of preventive health products

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Charging fees for many key preventive health products dramatically reduces take-up. Preventive health products distributed for free are generally put to good use.
Young men participate in an activity for the Becoming a Man program in Chicago. Photo: Rob Kozloff | University of Chicago

Lutter contre les comportements délinquants grâce à la thérapie cognitivo-comportementale

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La thérapie cognitivo-comportementale (TCC) peut contribuer à réduire les comportements délinquants chez les jeunes à risque et chez les hommes ayant déjà commis des actes répréhensibles, notamment en les aidant à se concentrer davantage sur l’avenir, à modifier leur perception de soi et/ou à...
A small business owner in Colombia.

Reducing the cost of lending to low-income borrowers

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Product and market innovations that generate more information about borrowers, reduce transaction costs, and encourage repayment all address factors that contribute to the high cost of microcredit in low- and middle-income countries.
Women processing fruit in baskets

Credit's limited impact on smallholder farm profitability

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Increasing access to traditional microcredit has had limited impacts on smallholder farmers’ profitability in randomized evaluations in developing countries. Demand for new offers of credit was low, ranging from 17 to 33 percent, and even when farmers used traditional credit products to invest in...
Electricity meters track residential energy use. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Campagnes d’information et de comparaisons sociales pour réduire la consommation d’énergie et d’eau

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Dans de nombreux contextes, des interventions consistant à informer les individus de leur consommation d’énergie ou d’eau par rapport à celle de leurs voisins et à leur donner des conseils pour faire des économies d’eau ou d’énergie ont systématiquement permis de réduire modérément la consommation.
Political posters in India

Improving women’s representation in politics through gender quotas

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Gender quotas for women in local government bodies can improve women’s representation in politics, increase provision of public services, and improve perceptions of women as leaders.

Increasing enrollment and attendance by making education benefits salient and changing perceptions

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Interventions that address perception gaps about the benefits of education or make the benefits more salient can increase student participation at low cost. In contrast, increases in the quality of education can be difficult for parents to accurately perceive and thus do not necessarily lead to...
 étudiants

Améliorer l’accès à l’université en simplifiant le processus de candidature

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Aux États-Unis et au Canada, la mise en œuvre de programmes relativement peu coûteux visant à simplifier le processus de candidature à l’université et à accompagner les futurs étudiants durant cette transition permet d’augmenter les taux d’inscription dans le supérieur et de poursuite des études...