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 1,100 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 1,100 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 130 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?
As policymakers across Africa are increasingly investing in digital identification systems, the Digital Identification and Finance Initiative in Africa (DigiFI) explores what the benefits, challenges, and unknowns are.
Please join us for the upcoming Global Evidence for Egypt spotlight webinar, “What does global evidence tell us about social assistance response to large external shocks in Egypt?" The webinar will focus on what global evidence tells us about social assistance that responds to covariate shocks.
Join J-PAL Southeast Asia for a webinar to launch the Inclusive Financial Innovation Initiative (IFII). To kick off this learning collaborative, key findings from the initiative's whitepaper will be shared to inform digital financial services (DFS) stakeholders and policy decisions.
J-PAL Southeast Asia’s Scientific Directors Rema Hanna and Benjamin A. Olken will present evidence-based insights on how to strengthen safety nets to protect the poor during COVID-19. The webinar will also feature Indonesia’s Deputy Minister of Finance to discuss how lessons from evidence presented...
Join the webinar series hosted by the IDEA Initiative on Mondays at 11am EDT during the Fall 2020 semester, starting on 9/28/2020. In this series the authors of the Handbook on Using Administrative Data for Research and Evidence-Based Policy will present case studies on successful administrative...
Amid COVID-19, a “shadow pandemic” of gender-based violence (GBV) has emerged, with some recent data showing increases in reports of GBV across the world. This webinar will explore policy questions and research insights to help practitioners prevent and address GBV during the pandemic.
This resource is intended for research teams who have drafted a paper with results from a randomized evaluation and are preparing to submit to a journal or publish a working paper. Randomized evaluations may have many stakeholders, and they may each have requirements for the way that results are...
Amanda joined J-PAL LAC during its earliest years and led the development of many foundational research partnerships and projects. Now the head of the social policy division at the Ministry of Social Development in Chile, Amanda is leading an effort to rethink Chile’s social policy ecosystem and...
Jeetwan Tripathy is a Research Associate at J-PAL South Asia. He works with the IDEA Initiative, which aims to leverage the use of administrative data for research and policy.
We caught up with Emmanuel Bakirdjian, a former senior research manager at J-PAL Africa. Emmanuel joined J-PAL Africa in 2012 and oversaw many of its research projects. Now the Africa Regional Director at Precision Agriculture for Development in Kenya, Emmanuel is leading an effort to help farmers...
Amanda Dawes joined J-PAL LAC in 2011 and holds a master’s degree in Economics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She is currently working on an evaluation of the Enseña Chile program, which seeks to improve educational opportunities by enlisting promising future leaders in the...
J-PAL North America’s State and Local Innovation Initiative virtual webinar series “Charting the Next Decade of Evidence Generation in State and Local Government” will explore pressing policy and research priorities facing state and local governments. Speakers in the series will discuss how state...
J-PAL's new publication reviews evidence on reducing adolescent pregnancy, a MicroMasters student shares his experience, and more in this month's newsletter.