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?
Amreen Choda joined the J-PAL Africa team in December 2012 as a Research Associate. She works in the field of education, particularly looking at the impact of parental intervention on children’s behavior and education in primary schools in the Eastern Cape.
Primary school teachers in Uganda face public scrutiny and high pressure around primary school exit exam results. As a result of the incentives around students being successful on this exam, teachers focus their energy on students who could receive passing marks and encourage lower-performing students to drop out prior to taking the exam. Researchers evaluated whether an alternative teacher incentive scheme, providing rewards based on the performance of all students, could help reduce dropout and improve student math learning. Introducing the pay-for-percentile incentive scheme reduced overall student dropout rates. However, these reductions were driven almost entirely by students at intervention schools with math textbooks. Among schools with math books, the incentive scheme also improved the math achievement for higher performing students.
Alessia Mortara is Policy Manager at J-PAL Africa. She manages J-PAL Africa’s policy team in building partnerships with governments, donors, and civil society organizations to promote the use of evidence in decision-making as well as supporting the scale-up of successful interventions.
Yuen Ho is a Senior Policy Associate at J-PAL Global, where she supports the Political Economy and Governance sector, including the Governance Initiative, and serves as regional liaison to the Africa office.
Jing Cai is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Maryland. She serves as Co-Chair of J-PAL's Firms sector.
Becca Toole joined J-PAL’s Policy Group in 2015 as a Policy Associate. She works to communicate findings of J-PAL evaluations to policymakers and strengthen policy outreach.
In Niger, researchers evaluated the impact of a training program for input distributors (agro-dealers) on smallholder access to and use of agricultural inputs. Researchers found that trainings for agro-dealers combined with a demonstration plot increased the share of farmers adopting improved seeds, but did not increase the quantity used to have an impact on agricultural output.
Meagan Neal is a Policy Associate at J-PAL Global, where she writes policy publications, helps forge new research partnerships, and shares lessons from J-PAL evaluations with policymakers.
Nour Shammout is the Associate Director for the Alliance for Data, Evaluation, and Policy Training (ADEPT) at J-PAL Global. In this role, she is helping to establish and activate a global network of institutions dedicated to empowering the next generation of students, researchers, policymakers, and...
Karthik Muralidharan is the Tata Chancellor’s Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on improving education and health in developing countries. He has studied the impact of performance-pay for teachers, the impact of contract teachers, and the impact...
J-PAL LAC is leveraging its long-standing partnerships with governments in the region to provide policy advisory support and to share evidence to fight the short- and long-term challenges posed by the pandemic.
Held live over Zoom, this five-day training will equip participants with the resources and knowledge to engage with impact evaluations of social programs in Africa.