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?
Sabrin Beg is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Delaware. Her research focuses on development, economic history, political economy, and applied microeconomics, specifically in developing countries.
Muhammad Meki is an Associate Professor at the Oxford Department of International Development and an Associate Member of the Department of Economics. Muhammad’s research interests include the effect of equity-like financial contracts on the investment and growth of small firms. He has conducted...
Namrata Kala is an Assistant Professor in Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Her research interests are in environmental and development economics.
Michela Carlana is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her research focuses on the impact of exposure to gender stereotypes on performance in mathematics, self-confidence, and track choice of adolescents, as well as topics related to immigration.
Susanna Berkouwer is an Assistant Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy and the Robert J. Aresty, W’63 Faculty Scholar at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Silvia Prina is an Associate Professor of Economics at Northeastern University. Her research focuses on understanding the behavior of the poor for the purpose of uncovering potential strategies to improve their lives. Silvia studies the impact of financial access on the welfare and decision-making...
Shawn Cole is the John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. His research examines agriculture, corporate finance, banking, and consumer finance in developing countries.
Rema Hanna is the Jeffrey Cheah Professor of South East Asia Studies and a Co-Director of the Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) research program at the Center for International Development, Harvard University. In addition, she’s the Scientific Director for Southeast Asia at the Abdul Latif Jameel...
Marc Gurgand is the Scientific Director of J-PAL Europe, a Senior Researcher at the CNRS, an IZA Research Fellow, and a Professor at the Paris School of Economics (PSE) and at the Ecole Normale Supérieure-Paris Sciences et Lettres (ENS-PSL).
Yusuf Neggers is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on state capacity and the delivery of public services. He has researched topics including bureaucratic diversity, electoral politics, and public works in India and Indonesia.
Maisy Wong is the James T. Riady Associate Professor of Real Estate at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include labor mobility, urbanization, and real estate finance.
Michael Greenstone is the Milton Friedman Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. The focus of his research is on estimating the costs and benefits of environmental quality.