Health

J-PAL’s Health sector focuses on identifying policies and programs effective at improving the reach, quality, and take-up of health services and products.

In addition to supporting policymakers in applying evidence from randomized evaluations to their work, sector chairs and staff write policy insights that synthesize general lessons emerging from the research, condense results from evaluations in policy publications and evaluation summaries, and disseminate lessons to policy makers through targeted outreach. The sector also hosts initiatives such as the US Health Care Delivery Initiative to fund new research.

Health worker in Sindh, Pakistan speaks with caregiver at immunization site.
Evidence to Policy

Mobile conditional cash transfers to improve routine childhood immunization

The Health Department of the government of Sindh, Pakistan used rigorous evidence from a randomized evaluation to support the scale-up of an incentive program to increase routine childhood immunization coverage and timeliness.

A man with a tablet talking to a woman
Project

Using Social Networks, Incentives, and Reminders to Boost Vaccine Demand

A package of interventions combining well-connected local immunization ambassadors, targeted reminders, and incentives to caregivers increased measles vaccination by approximately 55 percent in an at-scale study in Haryana, India. A version using only reminders and ambassadors was less expensive per...

Nurse meets with a pregnant patient.
Policy Insight

Improving health worker performance through pay-for-performance programs

Pay-for-performance incentive programs for health care workers reward providers based on measurable performance indicators. Providing performance-based pay in addition to base pay can help to improve health provider performance on well-chosen targeted indicators relative to providing only base pay. ...

Person looking at computer screen with "Health Care Evaluation Toolkit" landing page
Blog

Introducing the Health Care Evaluation Toolkit: Resources for randomized evaluations in health care

J-PAL North America released a new Health Care Evaluation Toolkit that provides guidance and advice for social scientists conducting randomized evaluations of health care delivery interventions, within health systems, or using health care data, leveraging case studies from the United States. 

A female nurse examines a female patient at a clinic in India.
Evaluation

The Impacts of Mental Health Treatment on Productivity in India

Researchers evaluated the impact of providing depression treatment and economic assistance on mental health and economic behavior in peri-urban communities near Bangalore, India. Treatment reduced depression severity, a benefit that persisted when paired with light-touch livelihoods assistance, but...

A woman sits with two children on either side of her.
Blog

Improving mental health in low- and middle-income settings: Key findings from rigorous research

Mental health conditions are prevalent worldwide, especially among people living in poverty. In 2017, an estimated 10.7 percent of the global population had at least one mental health disorder. Meanwhile, access to services remains low even for those who seek care. Evidence on how to close this...

Tablet displaying video messages recorded by health care workers
Evidence to Policy

Communicating Covid-19 messages at scale via social media

Researchers applied insights from earlier Covid-19 messaging research to launch a large-scale Facebook messaging campaign and corresponding evaluation reaching more than 35 million people.

Person opening opening mail with letter containing text "Health Insurance Marketplace: You're almost done at Healthcare.gov..."
Policy Insight

The effect of nudges on health insurance take-up in the United States

 Providing nudges to individuals eligible for health insurance benefits leads to small but notable increases in insurance take-up and plan switching. Low-cost, mass-outreach campaigns are particularly cost-effective compared to more-intensive interventions. 

Sector Chairs

Co-Líder, Health

Erwin H. Schell Professor of Management

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Headshot of Pascaline Dupas

Co-Líder, Health

Professor of Economics

Princeton University

Co-Líder, Health

Professor

Paris School of Economics (PSE)