J-PAL North America

In this month’s newsletter, we share an updated version of our Health Care Delivery Initiative Evidence Wrap-Up, a new video on our work with housing choice vouchers, and a blog on positionality statements in economics research. Read more: 

🛣️ We often describe our work as building paths to impact.📍 One such path built on-ramps for: 🏘️ AffordableHousing.com, a trusted search platform for affordable housing properties and programs in the U.S. 🏫 GreatSchools.org, a nationwide source for school quality information 💡 Peter Bergman, Eric W. Chan, and Adam Kapor, a trio of researchers asking, How do low-income families with Section 8 vouchers consider school quality indicators when making decisions about where to rent? Supported by J-PAL North America, rigorous experimentation showed that school quality indicators -- an automated map layer on AffordableHousing.com's using data integration with GreatSchools.org -- increased families' moves to neighborhoods with higher-quality schools. This path didn't end with a roadblock. The data partnership and integration continues to this day, empowering all AffordableHousing.com users to seamlessly consider school quality indicators as a part of their rental search. #pathtoscale #impact #housing #Section8 #impacttech #dataforgood https://lnkd.in/ghektD3t

What is direct rental assistance, and why does it matter? The Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, the nation’s largest tenant-based rental assistance program, currently pays rent subsidies to landlords on participating households’ behalf. Evidence shows that vouchers can be a critical source of housing and economic stability for residents. But at the same time, low rates of landlord participation and landlord discrimination limit the number of households that can benefit from vouchers. Recent research suggests that only about 61 percent of households offered a voucher can use it successfully, with rates even lower in tighter housing markets like New York City and Los Angeles. In a direct rental assistance (DRA) model, the rental subsidy would not go to landlords but instead directly to renters. By changing the subsidy recipient, DRA has the potential to address landlord nonparticipation and potentially make assistance easier and cheaper to deliver. It could also give renter households greater agency in decision-making to achieve their housing and financial goals and greater access to high-opportunity neighborhoods. Learn more about the NYU Furman Center’s Housing Solutions Lab six-month peer learning cohort focused on direct rental assistance, which is being generously supported by the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)

In a new working paper, J-PAL affiliated researchers Jason Kerwin and Olivier Sterck, and J-PAL Middle East and North Africa alumna Nada Rostom demonstrate how standard balance tests used in randomized evaluations indicate imbalance too often. In this blog post, we spoke with the authors to learn more about their research process and how researchers can more effectively test for balance across treatment groups after randomization: https://lnkd.in/dcRX8g-K

In partnership with The Russell Sage Foundation, we are excited to announce a new Request for Proposals (RFP) through RSF’s Pipeline Grants Competition. This RFP is seeking pilot proposals on economic mobility and access to opportunity in the United States from early-career faculty and will award research funding and mentorship to selected recipients. J-PAL North America will provide extra support to grantees whose work focuses on the development of randomized evaluations that center racial equity. Applications close October 22. https://lnkd.in/eg46Rudr

A new National Bureau of Economic Research review paper from J-PAL North America Associate Director of Policy Kim Dadisman, J-PAL affiliated professor Philip Oreopoulos, and Andre Nickow presents a comprehensive meta-analysis of early childhood parenting programs on learning. By analyzing programs from around the world, the paper finds which program types and in which contexts they are most effective for improving learning outcomes. Read the paper: https://lnkd.in/e2PwQiJg

In our September newsletter, we feature our work in the Learning Engineering Virtual Institute, new research results on computer-assisted learning, and share a new review paper on interventions to improve early childhood learning outcomes. 

🎓 The Data, Economics and Design of Policy MicroMasters program offers graduate-level courses that combine the modern tools of economics and policy design with a strong foundation in economic and mathematical principles. 📚 Courses are taught by esteemed economics faculty at MIT, including the program’s faculty directors Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee, Sara Fisher Ellison, and Benjamin Olken. 📅 All courses are free to audit with MITx Courses. Courses start today—don’t wait to start your journey and tackle poverty alleviation using evidence-based approaches. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/ewKiFebH

Last week, J-PAL North America Co-Executive Director Vincent Quan and Policy Manager Alejandro Noriega, MPP presented at The Council of State Governments’ Medicaid Policy Academy and Medicaid Leadership Academy on the role that randomized evaluations can play in evaluating health care programs. Connect with us to learn more about how rigorous evidence can inform policy making in health care: https://lnkd.in/eJBESsA9

Check out our most recent posts on the J-PAL blog 👇 🌉Katherine Christie and Laina Sonterblum, LCSW share their experiences working with homeless service providers as part of the Bay Area Evaluation Community of Practice, which is committed to supporting rigorously designed evaluations to inform housing policy in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. https://lnkd.in/g33J6vMn ⚖️Our DEI Working Group works to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion within J-PAL North America. In this blog post, we reflect on the previous year’s work and our goals for the coming year. https://lnkd.in/dui6cXF9 🌽J-PAL North America Co-Scientific Director Matthew Notowidigdo, former J-PAL staff member Mera Cronbaugh, and J-PAL affiliated professor Tatiana Homonhoff discuss the research behind proven interventions to increase eligible households’ access to federal food assistance programs. https://lnkd.in/dHH7uu7f