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?
Millions of children worldwide struggle to read or do basic mathematics by age 10. While many interventions have been tested–including Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) pioneered by Pratham, and various forms of ed-tech–scaling effective, personalized...
Credible skills certification can improve employment outcomes–especially for low-income workers who often lack credible resume signals. But such assessments only matter if hiring managers both trust and effectively use them. Yet, the link between assessment...
Low-income countries participate in global value chains typically as suppliers of primary commodities, while value is added through processing in richer countries. This pattern keeps income low, and is mirrored within countries: smallholder farmers, who...
The pilot will develop and evaluate AI-enabled community outreach for preventing low-income tenant eviction. Housing insecurity and homelessness threaten the health and social inclusion of marginalized populations around the US and the world. Research...
This project’s multidisciplinary team of economists and data scientists has partnered since 2018 with the French Public Employment Service (PES) to leverage its rich administrative data and operational infrastructure to design and test recommender systems for...
This project investigates the potential of AI to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of job matching in low- and middle-income countries. Partnering with two innovative NGOs in Kenya—Tabiya and Swahilipot—the researchers evaluate “Compass,” an AI-powered...
AI could dramatically increase access to diagnostic health screenings in low-resource settings by predicting health outcomes using low-cost, mobile tests. This project will develop and evaluate the impact of an AI-based referral tool that predicts risk of...
This project will study how to use algorithms to equalize students’ educational opportunities in a tracked high school system. The researchers will use a randomized evaluation in around 400 Italian middle schools to test two conceptually different ways to...