This is a history of J-PAL. For a brief history of randomized evaluations, see “When did randomized evaluations begin?”

2003

Poverty Action Lab is founded at MIT by professors Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Sendhil Mullainathan, with the support of MIT’s Department of Economics. The concept behind the Lab is not only to facilitate the launch of a larger number of evaluations by affiliated professors and partners, but to also exponentially increase their impact by promoting the sharing of methods and results. The Lab is intended to become a repository of the best research being done world-wide using randomized evaluations, to begin training others in more rigorous scientific evaluation methods, and to build efforts to encourage real policy changes based on results.

2004

Rachel Glennerster joins as Executive Director.

Affiliate Dean Karlan founds NGO Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) through which many evaluations are run.

2005

MIT alumnus Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel backs the Poverty Action Lab with three major endowments, and the Lab is re-named in honor of his late father, Abdul Latif Jameel. Thanks to his support, J-PAL is able to grow significantly in the following years.

Affiliate professors at four universities. 20 ongoing evaluations in 10 countries.

J-PAL training programs begin, starting with executive education courses in Cambridge (USA) and Chennai (India).  61 people are trained. Since 2005 J-PAL has held courses at these two sites every year, and has also added additional sites.

2006

In addition to Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, J-PAL receives core budget support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Nike Foundation, Russ Siegelman, and the Doug B. Marshall Jr. Foundation.

13 affiliate professors.  30 ongoing evaluations in 12 countries.  82 people trained.

2007

The J-PAL South Asia regional office is established at the Institute for Financial Management and Research in Chennai, with the support of the Mulago Foundation.

In addition to the earlier Cambridge and Chennai sites, training courses are also held in Abuja (Nigeria) in conjunction with the launch of the World Banks’ Africa Program for Education Impact Evaluation, and in Washington D.C. at the request of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.  Since then J-PAL has continued to occasionally provide custom-designed training courses.

J-PAL’s first scale-up initiative, Deworm the World, is launched together with the Young Global Leaders group at the World Economic Forum in Davos.   

18 affiliate professors.  50 ongoing evaluations in 15 countries.  200 people trained.

2008

The J-PAL Europe regional office is formally launched at the Paris School of Economics in conjunction with a two-day conference organized by France’s Ministry of Labor and opened by Martin Hirsch, the High commissioner of the “Haut Commissaire aux Solidarités actives contre la pauvreté.” This commission was established by the French Government in 2008 to fund anti-poverty programs in France, as well as rigorous evaluations of these programs.

J-PAL receives the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award for Development Cooperation. The awards seek to recognize and encourage world-class research and artistic creation, prizing contributions of lasting impact for their originality, theoretical significance and ability to push the frontiers of the world.

The first French-language version of the training course is held in Paris (France). 

30 affiliate professors.  70 ongoing evaluations in 22 countries.  200 people trained.

2009

J-PAL creates a dedicated policy group, funded in part by an additional substantial gift of endowment support from MIT alumnus Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel. The group works to create new policy content, disseminate knowledge about “what works” to foundations, NGOs, international development organizations and governments, and works with these organizations to scale up programs that have been found to be effective by J-PAL research.

The J-PAL Latin America regional office is opened at the Pontifícia Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile. Core support for the office is provided by local donors, and Chile’s Finance Minister speaks at the launch. The first Spanish-language version of the training course is held.

The Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI) is launched with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ATAI will stimulate research to help identify the barriers hindering poor farmers from investing in profitable agricultural technologies, as well as possible solutions to overcome those barriers.

The executive education curriculum is made available for free online via MIT’s open courseware.

2010

J-PAL organizes the first Bihar Development Conference in association with the Government of Bihar where J-PAL's affiliated professors and their field partners jointly present the results of their evaluations to an audience of senior officials from the central and state governments, foundations, international development organizations and NGOs. The Chief Minister and Chief Secretary of Bihar extend support for J-PAL's evaluations and scale-ups in the state.

J-PAL's new website is launched with an added emphasis on disseminating the results of field evaluations and lessons from cost-effectiveness studies to policy makers to enable better decisions based on scientific evidence.

49 affiliate professors.  141 ongoing evaluations in 31 countries.