Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)

🗞️ J-PAL News is here! Each month, our newsletter will bring you the latest from the frontlines of evidence-informed policy. Subscribe to stay informed on everything from global research updates to actionable policy insights.

💼 New #PolicyInsight: Improving employment and earnings through credible and certifiable skills signals In 2023, approximately 188 million people globally were unemployed yet 75 percent of employers reported difficulties filling vacancies in a 2023 survey. Youth are particularly hard hit by the lack of access to jobs, with some regions indicating youth up to three times more likely than the general population to be unemployed. Our latest Policy Insight reviews 14 randomized evaluations to reveal certification and skill signaling interventions improve labor market outcomes for job seekers and help hiring firms find better candidates. 💡 Skills signals generally improved employment and earnings on average, and job seekers who used credible and high-quality skills signals were more likely to be invited to an interview or secure a job offer from an employer. 💡 In many contexts, job seekers do not have the opportunity to learn about their skills, creating misaligned beliefs between their perceived and measured abilities. Additional information often led jobseekers to refine their job search efforts, become more efficient and effective in their job search, and apply to jobs to which they were better suited. 💡 Credible skill signals help firms assess job seeker skills, fill vacancies faster, and identify better-fit hires who stay in the job longer. Credible certificates and skill signals also changed employer beliefs about candidates, particularly for women, in most but not all cases were measured. 💡 While their impacts typically are not transformative, providing certification through an assessment or reference letters within job search assistance programs are often low-cost ways for government agencies and non-governmental organizations to enhance labor market outcomes. 📖 Read the full insight to explore how these low-cost interventions can help job seekers better signal their skills and improve their job prospects: https://lnkd.in/eCv9jWhe

J-PAL affiliates Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, with Simon Johnson, received this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics. Check out one of Daron and James’ recent #RCTs in #Pakistan on improving public trust in institutions. https://lnkd.in/exDeGrnJ

📖 In our latest blog post, we discuss how J-PAL Europe’s pioneering partnership with the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Statistique et d'Economie Appliquée ENSEA exemplifies the types of partnerships we aim to forge through the Alliance for Data, Evaluation, and Policy Training (#ADEPT). The multi-year collaboration in Côte d’Ivoire, supported by the Ivorian government and the French Development Agency, is strengthening impact evaluation capacity among ENSEA students and Ivorian civil servants to help them address complex policy challenges. Read more about how ADEPT aims to empower evidence-driven leaders globally: https://lnkd.in/gApAE5nR

📊 Build your evaluation toolkit: Enroll in Evaluating Social Programs Online How can you connect your program’s theory of change to measurable outcomes? Is a randomized evaluation the right tool to measure the impact of your program? With new lectures delivered by Joseph Doyle and Elizabeth Linos, you can explore these topics and more in our self-paced #EvaluatingSocialPrograms online course. Enroll for free by December 9th or upgrade for a $99 fee and complete the materials by December 20th to be eligible for a course certificate. https://lnkd.in/dtyV6g2B

Over the past three years, the United States has allocated more than US$1 trillion on decarbonization through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). In a new Nature Portfolio article, members of the J-PAL North America Economics of Decarbonization Working Group, including Peter Christensen, Patrick Baylis, Gordon McCord, Erica Meyers, Teevrat Garg, Emma Noble Smith, David Rapson, Erich Muehlegger, and Shanjun Li share insights on how rigorously evaluating new investments by state and local governments can help us learn about the efficacy, cost-effectiveness, and effects of a range of decarbonization programs. The authors propose 3 key principles to maximize IRA and BIL investments: Target incentives in a way that promotes behavior change most effectively. This includes focusing on those who are more responsive to subsidies while avoiding unnecessary payments to those who would act without them. Quantify knowledge spillovers by conducting evaluations of learning on IRA and BIL programs as they are rolled out over time and across jurisdictions. Assess trade-offs by evaluating various types of impact and differentiating the effects on vulnerable communities from those experienced elsewhere. Governments can also take action by building a harmonized data-collection and monitoring infrastructure, prioritizing rigorous analysis by third-party researchers to ensure credibility and transparency, and sharing intervention outcomes to coordinate policy efforts. Read the article: https://lnkd.in/dXUHAtU7. To learn more about the J-PAL North America Economics of Decarbonization Working Group’s efforts to generate evidence to advance equitable, high-impact policy solutions to climate change in the United States, visit the J-PAL website: https://bit.ly/3YGt4RN #climate  #ClimateChange #energy #GHG #ClimateAction #Evaluation

In their latest NBER Working Paper, J-PAL affiliate Johannes Haushofer, and coauthors Sidhya Balakrishnan, Roberta Costa, and Fábio Waltenberg investigate the impact of a unique permanent unconditional cash transfer program, the "Citizen’s Basic Income," in Maricá, Brazil. Explore the nuanced socioeconomic benefits of unconditional cash transfers and their implications for policy! ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/d7vgXiZk

📖 Programs serving out-of-school youth can face unique challenges in both program design and scaling. In a guest post on the J-PAL blog, staff from Educate! share how their Rapid Impact Assessment system allows them to test, learn, and adapt programs in real-time, ensuring interventions are informed with rigorous evidence and impactful from the get-go. Learn more about Educate!’s approach: https://lnkd.in/gCW2eHz5 Thanks to the authors of this blog, Hannah Ornas, Phillip Okull, and Meghan Mahoney.

📖 What is the optimal timing for Early Childhood Development (ECD) interventions: ages 1-3 or 3-6? Are consecutive Pratham Education Foundation ECD interventions more effective than a single one? Read the findings from J-PAL affiliates Orazio Attanasio, Pamela Jervis, Costas Meghir et al’s follow-up RCT in India 🔽 https://bit.ly/40p9hHW Thanks to co-authors Jere Behrman, Monimalika Day, Prachi Gupta, Sally Grantham-McGregor, Prerna Makkar, Rashim Pal, Angus Phimister, and Nisha Vernekar for their contributions to this research.

We’re celebrating Nobel Laureate, and J-PAL-affiliated professor, James Robinson and his groundbreaking contributions to the field! In a webinar from 2021, James shared valuable insights on the question of who delivers justice and how evidence can enhance dispute resolution systems. 🔗 Watch the webinar here: https://lnkd.in/eQmiFw98 #NobelPrize