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 1,100 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 1,100 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 130 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?
Browse news articles about J-PAL and our affiliated professors, and read our press releases and monthly global and research newsletters. For media inquiries, please email us.
CARE is launching a new evidence strategy for a rapidly changing world, which aims to transform hundreds of millions of lives, even in a world of declining resources. The model is built with credible research partners such as the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), UC Berkeley’s Center...
Experts have called for evidence-based and government-led interventions to end child marriage in Nigeria, stressing the need to scale up proven solutions, presenting Give Girls a Chance Programme and J-PAL partnership, at the Technical Inception Workshop of the Future Free from Child Marriage (FFCM)...
The Nigerian Government and development partners have renewed their commitment to coordinated, evidence-driven action to end child, early and forced marriage, with a focus on stronger systems, empowered girls and effective implementation of existing policies. The commitment was made in Abuja at the...
How can we better reach out to people facing Medicaid renewal deadlines and support them through the paperwork requirements of the renewal process? Our research examined how different outreach modalities by Covering Wisconsin — the state’s health insurance navigator program — affected Medicaid...
J-PAL affiliate Seema Jayachandran joins J-PAL affiliate Rachel Glennerster on the CGD Podcast, discussing women's labor force participation in South Asia.
On May 27, 2026, J-PAL Africa entered into a formal, five-year partnership with South Africa’s Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) to strengthen the evaluation system across the national government.
J-PAL Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) presents a summary of the achievements of the office up to July 2026. Find the latest updates on policy-relevant research, initiatives, courses, events, resources, and more.
How can artificial intelligence genuinely improve the lives of the world's poorest people, rather than simply generating buzz? In this episode of VoxDevTalks, Iqbal Dhaliwal discusses why the technology's promise depends less on which AI model is used and more on whether it is grafted onto decades...