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 97 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?
Covid-19 Pilots and Surveys
This page features non-RCT research that was funded or carried out by J-PAL in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Search our database of 15 Covid-19 projects conducted by our affiliates around the world.
Researchers developed, implemented, and evaluated an approach to targeting social assistance in Togo based on machine learning algorithms and data from satellites and mobile phone networks to reach the most vulnerable in need of support during the Covid-19 pandemic. They found that the machine...
Using phone surveys with frontline workers of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, India’s flagship public early childhood development program, researchers studied how the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown measures affected demand and supply for maternal and child health...
Researchers studied the economic, social, and security impacts of the Covid-19 crisis on informal market vendors in Lagos, Nigeria through a phone survey. Nearly half of respondents reported that their marketplaces were closed entirely, and only 1.5 percent of respondents reported that their...
Researchers studied the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on the employment, food security, mental health, and beliefs of temporary migrants and their families in Tamil Nadu, India, by conducting five rounds of phone surveys. Many migrants left Chennai to move to their home communities when the...
Researchers conducted an online survey to understand the welfare consequences of the pandemic for individuals, particularly the experiences of women related to gender-based violence (GBV) and unpaid care work in Indonesia. This survey involved 1,000 online survey respondents and 203 phone interview...
Researchers conducted surveys with registered caregivers of children in Haryana, India to understand the quality and reliability of data recorded by frontline health workers using the government’s m-health application, Auxiliary Nurse Midwife Online (ANMOL) and the extent of Covid-19-induced...
Researchers conducted phone surveys with participants in skill development programs to identify students’ livelihood-related requirements after the onset of the pandemic. Data was collected on students’ employment status before and during the lockdown, migration status, challenges faced in searching...
Researchers studied the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown on households with children between the ages of 2-7 years as well as the pre-primary facilities, known as anganwadi centers (AWCs), in which their children are enrolled in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Household phone surveys focused...