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?
Covid-19 Pilots and Surveys
This page features non-RCT research that was funded or carried out by J-PAL in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Search our database of 15 Covid-19 projects conducted by our affiliates around the world.
As a response to the outbreak of COVID-19, Jakarta’s provincial government stopped all in-person classroom learning in schools. The quick transition from normal schooling to learning from home raises questions about the readiness of teachers, parents, and students in carrying out the teaching and...
Researchers studied the employment status and aspirations of youth (including graduates, dropouts, and current students) enrolled in Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) in Tamil Nadu from 2017 to 2019. Surveys focused on the principal activities these youth were engaged in before the onset of Covid...
Researchers assessed the short- and long-term effects of the lockdown on labor migrants from Bihar and Jharkhand. Initial phone surveys find that 45 percent of migrant who resided outside of their home state in the pre-lockdown period had returned to their home state, 32 percent who had salaried...
Researchers conducted high-frequency surveys with visitors to government primary health care centers in Delhi to assess how the pandemic has affected food and income security, awareness of and access to government relief schemes, and knowledge of public health directives among households.
Researchers conducted surveys to study the effect of the Covid-19 lockdown on the long-term well-being of elderly individuals in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Surveys aimed to generate immediate and actionable insights for the government to shed light on how social protection programs like...
Researchers assessed the economic shock, health knowledge, and access to social protection schemes among poor women in rural Bihar, a state in central India, in this descriptive study. Telephonic surveys were conducted with beneficiaries of a livelihoods scheme for ultra-poor women launched by the...
Researchers studied the effects of India's nationwide lockdown on critical, non-Covid health outcomes among dialysis patients in the north Indian state of Rajasthan. Compared to March 2020, researchers found a 64 percent increase in mortality in May 2020 and compared to the same period in the...