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 900 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 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?
We host events around the world and online to share results and policy lessons from randomized evaluations, build new partnerships between researchers and practitioners, and train organizations on how to design and conduct randomized evaluations.
Applications are now open for a four-day randomized evaluation design workshop as part of the Displaced Livelihoods Initiative (DLI) and the Humanitarian Protection Initiative (HPI) to develop projects in the Sub-Saharan Africa organised by J-PAL and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA).
As part of the "Development Methodologies" Chair held by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, a summer school for African researchers, project leaders and other partners will be organised from July 7 to 11, 2025 in Dakar, on the campus of the African Center for Higher Studies in Management (CESAG).
Since 2013, the US Health Care Delivery Initiative has supported randomized evaluations of strategies that aim to make health care delivery in the United States more efficient, effective, and equitable. Over the last eight years, HCDI has collaborated with academics from various disciplines, health...
With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, J-PAL Africa is hosting a practitioner-focused webinar, to highlight the evidence on the impacts of mobile money and digital financial services on poverty, open policy research questions, and challenges that practitioners face in sub-Saharan...
In partnership with Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA), J-PAL Middle East and North Africa (MENA), based at the American University in Cairo, is pleased to offer a training on randomized evaluations and how they are designed in real-world settings for MSMEDA project...
Women-led small businesses and informal workers were particularly vulnerable to shocks from the Covid-19 pandemic, and many did not have access to government relief programs. One solution may be unconditional cash transfers to help vulnerable communities withstand shocks and improve economic...
With the rate of domestic violence increasing in light of Covid-19, what is the role of state institutions, including the police, in preventing and responding to violence against women? The second webinar in the Governance, Crime, and Conflict Initiative’s (GCCI) series will discuss randomized...
Indonesia is in the process of transforming a social assistance program reaching more than 15 million beneficiaries. J-PAL affiliated researchers, in collaboration with the Government of Indonesia, conducted a randomized evaluation to aid this transition and measure the program’s impact. Join us to...
The Morocco Employment Lab will be hosting a virtual Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop intended to equip Moroccan instructors to teach EPoD’s Building Capacity to Use Research Evidence (BCURE) blended learning curriculum, with the goal of improving the technical skills and motivation needed to...
Please join us for the upcoming Global Evidence for Egypt spotlight webinar on social norms and gender, which will focus on what global evidence tells us about shifting social and gender norms for improved development outcomes in favor of girls and women, consider if norms can shift, and discuss...