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?
Paulina Oliva is a Professor of Economics and Spatial Sciences at the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on the relationship between air pollution and health and on environmental policy effectiveness in the developing world...
Max Kapustin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University. He studies interventions to improve the life outcomes of disadvantaged youth and adults, particularly ways to reduce their exposure to gun violence.
Vittorio Bassi is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California. His research interests lie in private sector development and labor market frictions in low-income countries.
Raquel Bernal is a Professor of Economics and Rector of Universidad de los Andes. Her research focuses on social policy, education, human capital, household decisions, and labor economics.
Simon Jäger is an Associate Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, jointly appointed by Princeton University’s Department of Economics and the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), and a member of Princeton’s Industrial Relations Section.
Susanna Loeb is a Professor of Education at Stanford University and director of the National Student Support Accelerator. Before returning to Stanford, she was the Director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and Professor of International and Public Affairs and Education at Brown...
Nina Guyon joined J-PAL in April 2008 and is currently working on three randomized evaluations focusing on education and parental involvement in deprived areas around Paris.