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
Associate Professor
University at Buffalo
Todd Pugatch is an associate professor in the department of economics at the University at Buffalo. He is also a faculty affiliate of the Center for Global Action (CEGA), and non-resident research fellow at IZA and the Global Labor Organization (GLO). His research areas are development economics, labor economics, and the economics of education, and his current work focuses on education policy in developing countries (including Rwanda, The Gambia, India, and others), and promoting student success in higher education in the U.S.
Todd serves as a mentor to J-PAL regional scholars.
He earned his PhD in economics from the University of Michigan.