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?
J-PAL North America announces a new partnership with Accelerate to launch the Tutoring Evaluation Accelerator, which aims to support ten tutoring providers from Accelerate’s Call to Effective Action to implement data-driven programs and generate critical evidence on tutoring.
In the second of a two-part blog series, Judd Kessler (University of Pennsylvania), Sara Heller (University of Michigan), and Julia Breitman (New York City Department of Youth and Community Development) discuss their research partnership to evaluate summer youth employment programs and integrating...
In the first of a two-part blog series, Judd Kessler (University of Pennsylvania), Sara Heller (University of Michigan), and Julia Breitman (New York City Department of Youth and Community Development) discuss their research partnership to evaluate summer youth employment programs and the...
In this interview with J-PAL staff, J-PAL affiliated professor Peter Christensen (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) discusses his ongoing series of evaluations, including a 2021 paper on housing discrimination, and the role randomized evaluations can play in addressing racial inequities.
A new J-PAL policy insight highlights evidence from randomized evaluations on the impact of informational “nudges”—strategies designed to inform individuals about various aspects of health insurance and influence behavior without changing legal or economic systems—on health insurance take-up. In...
J-PAL North America is partnering with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to offer LA-based homeless service providers a supportive “community of practice” around rigorous research. Through this effort, we aim to bolster organizations’ ability to generate and use evidence to inform decision-making as...
Homelessness in the United States is a pressing issue that requires increased research on effective strategies to address it and foster long-term housing stability. With grant funding from Google.org — Google’s philanthropic arm—the Bay Area Evaluation (BAE) Incubator supported Bay Area service...
Mireille Jacobson (University of Southern California), Weston Merrick (Minnesota Management and Budget or MMB), and Adam Sacarny (Columbia University) sit down with J-PAL staff to discuss the results of their randomized evaluation assessing how various letters affected physicians’ use of Minnesota’s...