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 97 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?
Browse news articles about J-PAL and our affiliated professors, and read our press releases and monthly global and research newsletters. For media inquiries, please email us.
In the July newsletter, we discuss how to use J-PAL's Dataverse, the lessons that can be learned from a math achievement program in Puerto Rico, and feature an affiliate spotlight of Sandip Sukhtankar.
J-PAL affiliated researchers Brian Jacob's and Julian Jamison's studies on the effects of unconditional cash transfers in the US are cited in an article by Vox seeking to explain why recent cash transfer research in the US tends to show insignificant results.
A randomized control trial by J-PAL affiliate Sandip Sukhtankar and co-authors Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner and Akshay Mangla found that police help desks that were staffed by women registered more domestic incidence reports than those without. The findings are significant given the high rates of gender...
Nature reports on J-PAL affiliated researcher Sundip Sukhtankar's findings that having help desks staffed by female officers increased the police registration of crimes reported by women in India.
In an article about how COVID-related school disruptions have led to a loss of learning, The Economist mentions J-PAL founder and Nobel Prize winner Abhijit Banerjee and Teaching at the Right Level, a program evaluated by J-PAL affiliated researchers that showed improvements in educational outcomes...
As part of the launch of the National Effort to Support Student Success, the White House cited a study by J-PAL North America Executive Director Vincent Quan and J-PAL Co-Chair of the Education Initiative Phillip Oreopoulos on the benefits of high-quality tutoring programs on educational attainments...
J-PAL North America's June 2022 newsletter features ongoing collaboration with the Puerto Rico Department of Education, replication data from the Health Care Hotpotting evaluation and lessons learned for sharing replication data, and a spotlight on former executive director Mary Ann Bates.
Nature discusses how the findings of randomized control trials, such as those led by J-PAL executive committee member Dean Karlan, are being used by governments to reduce poverty.