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.
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?
This proposal seeks to generate rigorous empirical evidence on an understudied but increasingly prevalent form of violence while also evaluating potential mechanisms to protect remote, vulnerable communities from harm. These goals align directly with the...
Gender-based violence (GBV) not only violates fundamental human rights, but also has numerous long-lasting adverse impacts on women and girls, including poor physical, mental, and sexual and reproductive health, as well as economic and social disadvantage...
Several interventions have been made by the studies related to the issues of GBV and conflicts in Burkina Faso. Experimental evidence compares the effects of mass media and messages on contraception through a two-level RCT (Glennerster et al., 2022). Béné et...
One in every three women worldwide has experienced gender-based violence (GBV) in her lifetime. GBV has critical adverse effects on women's physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive well-being (WHO, 2021) and contributes to women becoming economically...
The persistent conflict between farmers and herders in many regions poses a significant policy problem, threatening food security, social stability, and economic development. These conflicts often arise from competition over scarce resources such as land and...
Modern armed conflict is increasingly characterized by the use of explosive weapons against civilian populations, creating new injury patterns with need for rapid first aid close to the point of injury. In many places where these injuries occur, formal trauma...
In conflict-affected countries, women often depend on public services for basic needs, safety, and livelihoods, exposing them to corruption risks, especially where legal protections and enforcement are weakened. A particularly harmful form of corruption, and...
Children associated with armed forces and armed groups (CAAFAG) represent an egregious violation of human rights which impedes their long-term wellbeing and overall peacebuilding and development efforts in the aftermath of conflict. Despite the critical...