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 research, policy, and training work is fundamentally better when it is informed by a broad range of perspectives.
Co-Líder, Firmas
J-PAL Affiliated Professor
Associate Professor
University of Maryland
Jing Cai is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Maryland. She serves as Co-Chair of J-PAL's Firms sector. Her research areas are development economics and household finance. Her current research examines the growth of micro-enterprises and SMEs, impacts of tax incentives on firm behavior, and diffusion and impacts of financial innovations in developing countries. Jing Cai is a Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), an affiliate of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD). She currently serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Development Economics and the Economic Development and Cultural Change. She received her PhD in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 2012.
In addition to serving as Co-Chair of J-PAL's Firms sector, Jing has served on the review board of J-PAL's Jobs and Opportunity Initiative.