The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of more than 1,000 researchers at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts randomized impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty.
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of more than 1,000 researchers at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts randomized impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty.
Our affiliated professors are based at over 120 universities and conduct randomized evaluations around the world to design, evaluate, and improve programs and policies aimed at reducing poverty. They set their own research agendas, raise funds to support their evaluations, and work with J-PAL staff on research, policy outreach, and training.
Our Board of Directors, which is composed of J-PAL affiliated professors and senior management, provides overall strategic guidance to J-PAL, our sector programs, and regional offices.
J-PAL recognizes that there is a lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of economics and in our field of work. Read about what actions we are taking to address this.
We host events around the world and online to share results and policy lessons from randomized evaluations, to build new partnerships between researchers and practitioners, and to train organizations on how to design and conduct randomized evaluations, and use evidence from impact evaluations.
Browse news articles about J-PAL and our affiliated professors, read our press releases and monthly global and research newsletters, and connect with us for media inquiries.
Based at leading universities around the world, our experts are economists who use randomized evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty. Connect with us for all media inquiries and we'll help you find the right person to shed insight on your story.
J-PAL is based at MIT in Cambridge, MA and has seven regional offices at leading universities in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, North America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
J-PAL is based at MIT in Cambridge, MA and has seven regional offices at leading universities in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, North America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
Our global office is based at the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It serves as the head office for our network of seven independent regional offices.
Led by affiliated professors, J-PAL sectors guide our research and policy work by conducting literature reviews; by managing research initiatives that promote the rigorous evaluation of innovative interventions by affiliates; and by summarizing findings and lessons from randomized evaluations and producing cost-effectiveness analyses to help inform relevant policy debates.
Led by affiliated professors, J-PAL sectors guide our research and policy work by conducting literature reviews; by managing research initiatives that promote the rigorous evaluation of innovative interventions by affiliates; and by summarizing findings and lessons from randomized evaluations and producing cost-effectiveness analyses to help inform relevant policy debates.
How do policies affecting private sector firms impact productivity gaps between higher-income and lower-income countries? How do firms’ own policies impact economic growth and worker welfare?
How can we identify effective policies and programs in low- and middle-income countries that provide financial assistance to low-income families, insuring against shocks and breaking poverty traps?
Following the shift to online instruction across Italian schools in March 2020, J-PAL affiliates Michela Carlana (Harvard University) and Eliana La Ferrara (Bocconi University) rapidly launched an online tutoring program to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds who were lagging behind during...
J-PAL South Asia’s new Indian Scholars Program (ISP) will provide research funding, training, and networking opportunities for researchers and academics in India to further expand its network of researchers leading rigorous, policy-relevant randomized evaluations in the country.
The Governance, Crime, and Conflict Initiative seeks to expand the evidence base on effective conflict and violence prevention programs. Read about our efforts to summarize what we're learning in the new edition of the GCCI Evidence Wrap-up.
The Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results, hosted at J-PAL South Asia, conducted a five-day online workshop on Applying a Gender Lens to Program Evaluation in February 2021. This workshop covered content on the measurement of gender outcomes, such as gender norms, agency, attitudes...
Through the Gender and Economic Agency Initiative (GEA), J-PAL is catalyzing a new body of innovative research on women’s work to support policymakers in implementing policies to support working women during and after the pandemic. GEA is now expanding our research portfolio with support from the...
This spring, the US Health Care Delivery Initiative (HCDI) hosted its second convening, HCDI @ 8. We reflect on these discussions, highlighting why an organization may want to evaluate their program with a randomized evaluation.
Shawn Cole is a Co-Founder and Chair of the Board at Precision Development (PxD), the John G McLean Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and serves as a Co-Chair for J-PAL’s Innovations in Data and Experiments for Action (IDEA) Initiative. For over twenty years, Shawn has...
This week, J-PAL published a new Policy Bulletin on the most effective approaches for helping individuals and families in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) build up their savings. The Bulletin reviews twelve randomized evaluations and finds that commitment savings products–voluntary...