Our mission is to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. We do this through research, policy and scale engagement, and training.
Blog
Reflecting on the end of USAID
Over the past two decades, J-PAL and members of our research network worked closely with USAID on many projects to design, pilot, and evaluate innovative solutions; scale up those found to be effective, scale down those that do not work; and widely share the learnings.
In the news
Op-ed from Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo calls for a rethink of foreign aid
In a new op-ed, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo call for governments outside of the US, multilateral institutions, and philanthropists to take the lead on impactful and cost-effective foreign aid.
Policy insight
Increasing small-scale farmers’ access to agricultural markets
Farmers in low- and middle-income countries face challenges accessing markets and earning profits on their agricultural goods. When small-scale farmers have better access to both markets where they buy inputs for their own farming and markets where they sell their goods, they can often invest more...
Policy insight
Expanding household electricity access
Access to electricity is a critical ingredient in improving human well-being and raising living standards, but the existing evidence suggests that it is just one component of poverty reduction rather than a complete solution on its own.