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?
Peter Bergman is an Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Texas at Austin. He studies how information problems affect human capital decision making.
Ray Kluender is an Assistant Professor in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit and the Berol Corporation Fellow at Harvard Business School. His research focuses on how innovation, private markets, and public policy should function to improve the well-being of American households with a particular...
Susan Godlonton is an Associate Professor of Economics at Williams College. Her research focuses on economic development in Africa, with specific interests in preventative health care, transitions to work, and agricultural productivity.
Mireille Jacobson is a Professor at the Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California (USC) and Co-Director of the Aging and Cognition Program at USC’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics.
Melanie Morten is an Associate Professor at Stanford University. She is a development economist who focuses on the migration of low-income individuals. Her research explores the micro- and macroeconomic implications and determinants of migration in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.
Todd Pugatch is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University at Buffalo. He is also a faculty affiliate of the Center for Global Action (CEGA) and a non-resident research fellow at IZA and the Global Labor Organization (GLO). His research areas are development economics...
Sara Heller is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan. She studies policy interventions aimed at reducing crime and improving life outcomes of low-income youth.
Pedro Carneiro is a Professor of Economics at the University College London. He is also a Research Economist at the Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice and a research fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. His research interests include labor economics and education in developed and...
Susan W. Parker serves as a Professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. She is also the Associate Director of the Maryland Population Research Center. Susan’s research centers on education and health, particularly the evaluation of public policies in developing countries.