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.
Co-Chair, Crime, Violence, and Conflict
J-PAL Affiliated Professor
Philip K. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies
University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy
Oeindrila Dube is the Philip K. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at the University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy. She studies poverty and conflict in the developing world.
Much of her past work has focused on Latin America and Africa. In Colombia, she has studied how economic shocks lead to civil war, and how dependence on natural resources undermine political institutions. In Sierra Leone, she has analyzed how post-conflict reconciliation affects social capital and individual well-being. Currently, her research interests include understanding trauma in the wake of conflict, and religious extremism in developing countries.
Oeindrila serves as Co-Chair of J-PAL's Crime, Violence, and Conflict sector, Co-Chair of the Crime and Violence Initiative, and Co-Chair of J-PAL North America's Crime and Violence portfolio.
She received her PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University and a MPhil in Economics from Oxford University, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar.