Jacobus Cilliers is an Associate Teaching Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, and an affiliate with gui2de and the Jameel Poverty Action Lab. His research asks how governments in low- and middle-income countries can deliver public services more effectively, with a particular focus on education. Using experimental and quasi-experimental methods, his ongoing projects evaluate government-run teacher professional development programs in Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, and El Salvador; study the effects of climate shocks on student learning; and track the long-run impacts of an early-grade reading intervention in South Africa.
His work has been published in journals including Science, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Public Economics, and World Bank Economic Review. Prior to joining Georgetown, Jacobus was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and a consultant to the World Bank's Education Global Practice, where he continues to lead impact evaluations. He completed his MPhil (Distinction) and DPhil in Economics at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
Jacobus Cilliers is a South African citizen.
