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?
Researchers evaluated the effects of a national apprenticeship training program on the firms that received apprentices. Firms that received apprentices increased their profits as well as employment.
Research Associate Lisa Turley Smith recounts her experience as a high school tutor and shares how she saw first-hand the positive impacts of tutoring.
Researchers evaluated the impact of several informational interventions with different modes of delivery and customization levels on high school choice outcomes among middle school students in New York City. All interventions made students less likely to rank a low graduation rate high school as their first choice and less likely to apply to any low graduation rate schools
Leveraging the increasingly widespread use of social media, researchers conducted a large-scale randomized evaluation to test the direct and indirect impact on electoral accountability of a nonpartisan information campaign delivered via Facebook ads during the 2018 Mexican municipal elections. Incumbent parties with negligible corruption levels saw their vote share increase by 6-7 percentage points in localities targeted by the Facebook ads.
Researchers evaluated the impact of the mandatory-participation bundled payment model for hospitals and explored which hospitals were incentivized to opt in to bundled payments after the model was later made voluntary. The mandatory-participation bundled payment program produced modest reductions in Medicare claims, but the voluntary program produced smaller declines in Medicare claims than if the mandatory program had continued.
The Government of Odisha’s Department of School and Mass Education today announced its partnership with Breakthrough and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) South Asia to integrate a gender equity curriculum into the syllabus for students across government schools in the state.
J-PAL North America talked with Project Manager Shawn Watts of Shasta County Superior Court, who shared the Court’s takeaways from the process of designing a randomized evaluation through the State and Local Evaluation Incubator.
Ana-Maria Colina is a Senior Policy Associate at J-PAL Global, where she works on the Crime, Violence, and Conflict sector. In this role, she writes policy publications, supports the Crime and Violence Initiative, and helps develop new research partnerships.
Michael Hou is a Policy Associate at J-PAL Global, where he works on the Firms and Finance sectors. In this role, he synthesizes evidence to write policy publications and helps develop research partnerships. He also supports the Firms-side of the Jobs and Opportunity Initiative.
Lisa de Rafols is a Senior Policy and Communications Associate at J-PAL Global, where she supports global strategic communication and media engagement across sectors and regional offices to promote evidence-informed policymaking.
In part three of our BAE Incubator partner series, Vivian Wan, chief operating officer of Abode Services, discusses how the Incubator is enabling Abode to expand its impact by elevating the voices of their program participants.
As the world enters its third year with Covid-19, gender inequalities that existed before the pandemic continue to impact women around the world. Since its creation in 2020, the Gender and Economic Agency Initiative has been seeking to address gender inequalities related to women's labor force...