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 research, policy, and training work is fundamentally better when it is informed by a broad range of perspectives.
J-PAL Affiliated Professor
Assistant Professor
Harvard University
Augustin Bergeron is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Harvard University. His research interests lie at the intersection of development economics, public economics, and political economy. His primary research agenda focuses on the determinants of state capacity, with a special emphasis on tax capacity. His work also explores the origins of social ties, such as kinship, and the formation of beliefs, including those that suppress effort, examining how these factors influence economic development. Augustin conducts fieldwork in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he helps manage a nonprofit survey organization called ODEKA (Organisation d'Etudes Economiques sur le Kasai).
Previously, Augustin was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford King Center on Global Development and an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California.
Augustin graduated from Harvard University with a PhD in political economy and government.