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 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?
Read about our new efforts to support research transparency and reproducibility (including a paid graduate student fellowship), new affiliated researchers, and more.
J-PAL and MIT announce new MicroMasters and blended Master's programs in Data, Economics, and Development Policy, J-PAL is hiring for 140 positions, and more.
J-PAL Director Esther Duflo underlines the importance of implementation details, 7,000 learners begin working toward the new online MicroMaster's degree, and more.
Responsive governments have the ability to make laws and decisions that reflect their constituents’ preferences. However, legislators may lack necessary information about constituents’ opinions and may therefore be unable to meet their demands. Researchers measured whether providing targeted information about citizens’ and firms’ preferences to members of the Vietnamese National Assembly (VNA) increased legislators’ responsiveness. VNA delegates who received information about their citizens’ preferences were more prepared and likely to speak in debates; however, delegates did not appear to be responsive to information about local firms’ preferences. In addition, delegates grew more responsive as other delegates received the same information.
J-PAL celebrates International Women's Day by showcasing the evidence on women's empowerment and poverty reduction, including evaluations on family planning in Burkina Faso, female labor force participation in India, and girls' education in Benin.
As Earth Day approaches on April 22, we're highlighting J-PAL affiliated professors' 38 studies within our dedicated Environment & Energy sector. Researchers in the J-PAL network have shown that randomized evaluations have the potential to provide key policy insights, from industrial pollution...
Read a new policy bulletin summarizing results from seventeen evaluations of charter schools, learn how evidence helped scale unconditional cash transfers to reach over 60,000 households in east Africa, and more.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and J-PAL Africa are partnering on a program to promote children’s health in Moyamba district, one of the districts in Sierra Leone most affected by chronic malnutrition.
Is a policy shown to be successful in one place likely to succeed in another? How can cognitive behavioral therapy help solve crime and violence? Learn answers to these and other questions in our June newsletter.
Hear from some of the 7,000 MicroMasters students on their experience with the program, learn about upcoming research in crime and violence prevention, and more in our July newsletter.
Dive into J-PAL affiliates' research in education in this issue of the newsletter. Learn how J-PAL Africa is helping scale up an education program in Zambia, read up on the research on school enrollment and attendance, and more.