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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.

Life’s Work: An Interview with Esther Duflo

Esther Duflo talks to the Harvard Business Review about why she became an economist, how she and her colleagues popularized the use of randomized controlled trials in their field, which tools and interventions have shown success in reducing poverty, and the role of public-private collaboration in...

October 2025 Global Monthly Newsletter

In the October edition of our newsletter, we highlight solutions to current policy challenges around the world: A new AI evidence alliance, a market-based approach to cutting pollution in India, strategies to help people enroll in health insurance in the US, boosting preschool learning in Brazil...

Video | World's first 'air pollution market' in Surat chosen as finalist for Earthshot Prize

An air pollution market is a 'cap and trade' scheme to reduce emissions from industries, unlike the current command and control regulations. It was pioneered in Surat by JPAL South Asia and UChicago's EPIC Centre with Gujarat Pollution Control Board, and is now a finalist for the Earthshot Prize...

States need to improve finances to expedite poverty alleviation agenda

States need to improve their financial health to achieve faster poverty reduction goals, J-PAL, part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), global executive director Iqbal Singh Dhaliwal has said.

Direct cash transfers effective in poverty alleviation, says J-PAL's Iqbal Singh Dhaliwal

Hardware is hard but software is harder — India has built the hardware. Now the country must focus on the software – the people, their skills, their health and education, the economist tells Moneycontrol

Earthshot Prize Names State of Gujarat a Finalist for Groundbreaking Work on Air Pollution

Researchers affiliated with J-PAL helped the Indian state of Gujarat design and launch the world's first particulate pollution market. That project is now a finalist for one of the world’s most prestigious and impactful environmental award, The Earthshot Prize.

Direct cash transfers: ‘Studies show that on average people save money for productive uses or invest’

Iqbal Dhaliwal, Global Executive Director, J-PAL (Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab), which is based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) economics department and works to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence, believes that cash transfers on...

Fiscal reform: J-PAL’s Dhaliwal urges states to fix finances for faster poverty reduction; calls for scheme rationalisation and focus on human capital

Iqbal Singh Dhaliwal of J-PAL urges states to strengthen finances for poverty reduction, highlighting excessive welfare schemes and unproductive fund use. He advocates investing in human capital like schools and health centers over cash, while warning of AI-induced job losses in India that...