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Adrien Pawlik

Adrien Pawlik has been working as the Project Director of the Innovation, Data and Experiments in Education (IDEE) programme since September 2022.

Research Paper

Who Gets the Job? The Consequences of Strategic Information Sharing within Social Networks

Person

Earthshot Prize Names State of Gujarat a Finalist for Groundbreaking Work on Air Pollution

Researchers affiliated with J-PAL helped the Indian state of Gujarat design and launch the world's first particulate pollution market. That project is now a finalist for one of the world’s most prestigious and impactful environmental award, The Earthshot Prize.

Person

Michael Kremer

Michael Kremer is the Gates Professor of Developing Societies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University. He is the Co-Recipient of the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with J-PAL Co-Founders Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. He was also named a Young Global Leader by the World...

School of Statistics and Applied Economics

An Ivorian Civil Servant reading at ENSEA event

Photo credit: ENSEA Communications

In December 2022, the government of Côte d’Ivoire passed a new law mandating the evaluation of public policies. The Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development (MEPD), tasked with implementing the law, sought to build internal capacity on rigorous impact evaluation. J-PAL Europe and ENSEA, Côte d’Ivoire’s National School of Statistics and Applied Economics, seized this opportunity to launch an ambitious collaboration targeting students and civil servants. The partnership includes:

Supporting ENSEA students in taking Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP) MicroMasters classes
Developing an in-service certificate for Ivorian civil servants on public policy evaluation
Supporting the creation of a master’s program in impact evaluation that will leverage content from the DEDP MicroMasters

The partnership aims to foster evidence-informed policymaking and promote research collaborations aligned with government priorities. In October 2024, ENSEA was officially welcomed as a founding member of ADEPT.

PILLAR 1: Supporting ENSEA students in taking DEDP classes

We offer targeted support to ENSEA students in taking DEDP MicroMasters classes. To remove learning barriers, we translate subtitles into French, offer tutoring sessions and provide scholarships. Through this effort ENSEA and ADEPT aim to offer students a powerful academic and professional signaling tool in the development space, an opportunity for credit recognition at pathway universities that can accelerate their progress towards earning an in-person degree and exposure to graduate-level courses taught in English by MIT faculty and J-PAL affiliates and staff.

PILLAR 2: Launching a Civil Servants Certificate

Every year ~60 civil servants from 10+ ministries are trained at ENSEA on impact evaluation, with a focus on RCT. The program combines three in-person events and an online semester-long DEDP course allowing civil servants to earn certification from ENSEA, J-PAL, and a course certificate from MITx. One event is an incubator where learners receive hands-on advice to workshop evaluation priorities from their ministries. This upgrades the skills of practitioners and contributes to the emergence of promising collaborations between researchers and policymakers. Training events are co-led by J-PAL and ENSEA faculty for mutual learning and eventual transfer of ownership.

PILLAR 3: Creating a Blended Master’s at ENSEA

ADEPT is supporting ENSEA in the development of a blended master’s program in impact evaluation. The program will leverage ENSEA’s existing courses and content from the DEDP MicroMasters and is currently being designed.

The Impact of Exposure to Discordant Media on Political Polarization in Turkey

Researchers evaluated the impact of exposure to and incentives to consume discordant media on political attitudes and behaviors in Turkey. Participants changed their media consumption habits, trusted discordant media sources more, and had less polarized attitudes towards the government, but did not change how much they trusted people with opposing political views.

Female voter casts her vote at a polling station in Pakistan

Evaluation

The Impact of Candidates’ Political Connections on Voters' Expressed Support in Pakistan

Researchers evaluated the impact of randomly varied information about candidates’ political connections on voters' beliefs and self-expressed support in the context of a 2015 local election in Sargodha, a district in rural Pakistan. Providing information on candidates’ connectedness increased voters' expressed support for more well-connected politicians.

Evaluation

Impact of PR Reservations on Public Good Allocations in India

Following the implementation of a policy mandating lower-caste representation in some local village councils in India, researchers evaluated how lower-caste presidents invested in and distributed goods. They found that disadvantaged lower-caste groups received more public goods in councils with an elected leader from their own group.

Woman in long dress next to two shelving units stacked with shoes and household wares

Evaluation

Assessing the Impact of Microcredit in Ethiopia

Researchers analyzed the introduction of microcredit programs in parts of rural Ethiopia to evaluate the effect of improved credit access on economic and social outcomes. They found that introducing microcredit programs increased the frequency of borrowing and amount borrowed by rural households in Ethiopia, but found mixed evidence that microcredit improved economic well-being or socio-economic indicators.

Person

Lina Hatem

Lina Hatem is a Research Associate at J-PAL MENA, supporting two randomized evaluations in Egypt.

Research Paper

Political Connections and Vote Choice: Evidence from Pakistan

Evaluation

Debates: The Impact of Voter Knowledge Initiatives in Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone, researchers evaluated the effect of publicly-screened debates during the run-up to parliamentary elections. Debates impacted voters’ political knowledge and voting decisions, and also caused candidates to invest more in their constituencies, both during the campaign and one year later.

Evaluation

The Impact of a Credit-Building Loan Product and Credit Counseling on Low-Income Borrowers in the United States

Credit-building loan products (CBLs) have begun to proliferate in the U.S. marketplace, but there is little evidence on the effects of these products on consumers and lenders. IPA and RAND worked with researchers to evaluate the impacts of a CBL offered at a credit union in Missouri, both alone and coupled with financial education. While on average CBLs did not affect credit scores, they increased the likelihood of having a credit score and improved credit scores for individuals who did not have loans at the beginning of the study

High school students in career mentoring program in France

Evaluation

Career Mentoring for Secondary Students in France (Actenses)

Researchers examined the impact of a mentoring program on high school students' academic achievement, job market knowledge, and career-related goals. The program changed students' academic ambitions, but had no impact on their professional plans, knowledge about the professional world, or motivation for schoolwork.