Researchers and policy makers met in Jakarta for two days of brainstorming on how research can help in the fight against corruption. The event was jointly organized by J-PAL, the World Bank in Indonesia, the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta (CSIS).

The objective, as outlined by Joel Hellman, the Acting Country Director of the World Bank in Indonesia, is for “researchers from Indonesia and the Western world to do joint research to find out what methods work in combating corruption and what don’t.”

J-PAL researchers Rema Hanna, Ben Olken, and Sendhil Mullainathan presented the lessons from randomized evaluations they had done on corruption and how to prevent it. These presentations sparked discussions about how future randomized evaluations could be designed to test innovative new approaches to addressing corruption issues facing Indonesia.

As Hellman explained, “Bureaucrats are here to help identify key areas or ‘roadmaps’ for research. The studies themselves are done by independent researchers.” He added that “Indonesia has the chance to become the world leader in research on corruption.”

Ben Olken, whose previous work includes a comparison of alternative ways to combat corruption in local community projects in Indonesia, concluded that “the conference yielded a wide variety of possible topics for research, from reducing corruption in the upcoming teacher certification process to reducing collusion in government procurement.”