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.
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?
Tavneet Suri is a Louis E. Seley Professor of Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Co-Chair of J-PAL's Agriculture sector. She is an NBER Faculty Research Fellow, a Junior Affiliate at the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), a Research Affiliate...
Douglas Staiger is the John Sloan Dickey Third Century Professor in the Department of Economics at Dartmouth and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received his BA from Williams College in 1984 and his PhD in Economics from MIT in...
Anant Sudarshan an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick and a Senior Fellow at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). His research spans several aspects of energy and environment policy, including the design of environmental regulation, reducing air...
James Sullivan is a Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame. His research examines the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs at the national, state, and local levels. He also studies the consumption, saving, and borrowing behavior of poor households, and how welfare and tax policy...
Olga Stoddard is an Associate Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University. Her research focuses on understanding gender and racial disparities in the labor market and evaluating the effectiveness of various interventions to improve economic outcomes for women and people of color.
Emily Sylvia is a Senior Policy Manager at J-PAL, where she manages the Agriculture sector. Under J-PAL's Agriculture sector, she advises the Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI) and the Digital Agricultural Innovations and Services Initiative (DAISI) and liaises with the UM6P-J-PAL...
Alessandro Tarozzi is an Associate Professor (on leave) at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and a Professor at the European University Institute (EUI). His current research centers on factors that limit access and uptake of health-protecting technologies in developing countries. His work, which is mostly...
Jakob Svensson is the Director and a Professor of Economics at the Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES), Stockholm University. His research interests include corruption, accountability in service delivery programs, and political economy.
Dmitry Taubinsky is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on public and behavioral economics, including complex tax incentives, "sin taxes" on goods such as sugary drinks, consumer-facing energy policy and regulation, and welfare effects...
José Tessada is the Chair of the Escuela de Administración (Business School) and an Associate Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. His work has been published in academic journals and collected volumes. His main areas of research are labor economics; micro, small, and medium...
Gerard van den Berg is an Honorary Professor at the University of Bristol. His research focuses on econometrics, labor economics, and health economics, particularly the effects of conditions early in life on health later in life.
Johannes Haushofer is Goh Keng Swee Professor of Economics at the National University of Singapore and a Professor of Economics (part-time) at Stockholm University.
Christine Valente is a Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol and a Research Affiliate at the Institute of Labor Economics. Her research focuses mainly on household decisions regarding human capital and contraception in low-income settings, and sheds light on what affects these...