J-PAL North America, based at MIT, leads J-PAL’s work in the North America region. J-PAL North America conducts randomized evaluations, builds partnerships for evidence-informed policymaking, and helps partners scale up effective programs.

Our work spans a wide range of sectors including health care, housing, criminal justice, education, and economic mobility. We leverage research by affiliated professors from universities across the continent and a full-time staff of researchers, policy experts, and administrative professionals to generate and disseminate rigorous evidence about which anti-poverty social policies work and why.

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Blog

Ideas to Implementation: How a research partnership can drive STEM equity and youth development in the city of Los Angeles

J-PAL staff, the Youth Development Department (YDD) of the City of Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California (USC) explore how they established their research collaboration for evaluating the Student Engagement, Exploration, and Development in STEM (SEEDS) program.

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Blog

Re-affirming the value of rigorous, policy-relevant research

Rigorous research plays an essential role in identifying which policies are achieving their intended goals. As leaders of a non-partisan research center, J-PAL North America believes in the power of data and evaluation to understand whether policies are working—and to course correct when they are...

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Blog

Beyond legal evidence: An interview with Judge Veronica Galván on evaluating judicial programs

This blog features an interview with Judge Veronica Galvan, a member of the King County Superior Court, on the role of evaluating judicial programs.

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Update

March 2025 North America Newsletter

J-PAL North America's March newsletter features an opening letter from leadership which discusses the value of rigorous, policy-relevant research citing studies by J-PAL affiliates that have informed policies on health care, housing, and employment in the United States.