September 2026 Global Monthly Newsletter
New initiative to study long-term impacts on livelihoods in low- and middle-income countries
What happens ten, fifteen, or even twenty years after a development program ends? Our new Long-Term Impacts Initiative is funding research to answer this crucial question and help researchers in the J-PAL network understand whether and how interventions produce impacts on people’s incomes and livelihoods over the long run.
The Evidence Effect: Protect children’s health by making drinking water safer with chlorine
Hundreds of thousands of children die each year from illnesses linked to unsafe drinking water. Treating water with small amounts of chlorine is a simple, proven, and low-cost way to save lives. Our newest featured Evidence Effect program highlights how governments can use this research to test and scale smarter ways of delivering chlorine to more families.
Paul Glewwe receives 2026 Yidan Prize
J-PAL affiliated professor and former Education sector Chair Paul Glewwe (University of Minnesota) is the recipient of the 2026 Yidan Prize for Education Research, widely considered one of the highest accolades in education. He is being recognized for his pioneering use of randomized evaluations and contributions to understanding how socioeconomic, health, and other factors shape children’s learning outcomes in low- and middle-income countries.
EVIDENCE, INSIGHTS, AND MORE
🧪 Designing nimble evaluations for faster learning: As part of our Test, learn, adapt series, J-PAL Global Research and Training Lead Michala Riis-Vestergaard unpacks what typically drives the cost and timeline of RCTs and shows how thoughtful choices about research questions and data can make learning quicker and cheaper without compromising rigor.
🧑💻 A randomized evaluation in Rajasthan public schools found that students using personalized adaptive learning software scored higher in math and Hindi than their peers. The results demonstrate that technology-enabled personalized instruction can be effectively scaled within public school settings in India.
🎓 African Scholar Jonas Fassinou reflects on his career in economic research: "Some of the most important research questions come from observing how policies play out in people’s daily lives, and the best data collectors are those who understand the field."
📺 How does media contribute to political polarization? Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test how exposure to and incentives to consume cross-partisan media impacted citizens’ political attitudes and behaviors.
TUNE IN
J-PAL Policy Manager Beatriz Velho speaks with NPR about a recent UN resolution calling for an end to child marriage.
FROM OUR RESEARCH NETWORK
J-PAL's network of over 1,100 affiliated researchers at universities around the world conduct randomized evaluations to test what works in the fight against poverty. Check out their latest research:
Retrieval Failures and Consumption Smoothing: A Field Experiment on Seasonal Poverty
Authors: Ned Augenblick (UC Berkeley), B. Kelsey Jack (UC Berkeley), Supreet Kaur (UC Berkeley), Felix Masiye (University of Zambia), Nicholas Swanson (Cornell)
Beliefs, Forecasts, And Investments: Experimental Evidence From India
Authors: Fiona Burlig (University of Chicago), Amir Jina (University of Chicago), Erin M. Kelley (University of Chicago), Gregory Lane (University of Chicago), and Harshil Sahai (University of Chicago)
FEATURED EVENTS
Driving Resilient Food Systems in Africa
🗓️ September 17, 2026 | 1:00–2:00pm EDT | Online via Zoom
Join the UM6P-J-PAL Applied Lab for Agriculture for a virtual session at the Science Summit 2026. J-PAL Agriculture sector Co-Chair Tavneet Suri (MIT) and affiliated professor Hope Michelson (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), alongside OCP Africa CEO Hajar Alafifi, will explore what it takes to design agricultural programs that address the constraints smallholder farmers face in sub-Saharan Africa.
J-PAL North America Homelessness Evaluation Resource Hub Launch
🗓️ October 27, 2026 | 2:30-3:30pm EDT | Online via Zoom
Join J-PAL North America for the release of the Homelessness Evaluation Resource Hub, a free online repository of essential content for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners looking to leverage evidence to inform their approach to homelessness prevention and reduction.
FEATURED TRAINING
Evaluating Social Programs
🗓️ Enroll now through November 30
Curious about impact evaluation in practice? Join our free, self-paced course to learn about each step of designing a randomized evaluation.
🗞️ MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
Cape Town's day zero: How a water crisis built a data-driven city, VoxDev
Translating economic growth into better lives, MIT NEWS
The bridges of Rwanda open up new worlds, NPR (featuring J-PAL affiliated professor Edward Miguel)
Using mobile phones to support teachers, parents, and students, VoxDev
How should states reach out to Medicaid enrollees affected by changes? Our research gives a hint [Opinion], STAT (by J-PAL invited researcher Rebecca Myerson)