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?
Sarah is a Digital Communications Manager at J-PAL Global where she supports J-PAL’s digital communications strategy, including developing web content and helping maintain the J-PAL website, producing video content to effectively communicate J-PAL’s work to new audiences, and developing engaging...
Aprajit Mahajan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Aprajit's research interests are in development and econometrics with a regional focus on India. Ongoing research includes field-experiments on management...
Pascaline Dupas is a Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University and Co-Scientific Director of J-PAL Africa. Pascaline joined the Princeton faculty in July 2023. She was previously the Kleinheinz Family Professor of International Studies at Stanford University, where she spent...
HPI is a collaboration between J-PAL and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) with support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) from the UK Government. The initiative will generate and share new evidence to inform policy and practice to effectively improve protection of...
The IKEA Foundation is supporting the J-PAL and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) to generate and share new evidence on the impacts of livelihoods programs for displaced populations and host communities.
In the September edition of our newsletter, we highlight new evidence on crime and safety in the United States, examine India’s use of emissions trading to reduce industrial pollution, and explore barriers that continue to limit women’s participation in Egypt’s workforce.
Guy Rostand BAHI is a Training Intern at J-PAL Europe, where he supports the development of educational content for the Evaluating Social Programmes and Development Economics MOOCs.
The India Scale-Up Summit 2025: An ASPIRE Convening brings together some of the finest minds in India to chart the next phase of scaling up evidence-based programs in India.
In Kananga, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of a subsidized land titling program on both starting and completing land registration, as well as on citizens’ participation in social institutions. Being offered a land titling subsidy substantially increased the number of citizens who began the property registration process and obtained a land title, while decreasing participation in social institutions and worsening citizens’ evaluations of chiefs.
J-PAL North America's Labor team aims to build an evidence-based playbook of strategies to increase opportunities for workers, reduce the economic barriers and social challenges in labor markets, and ensure that all workers share in the prosperity generated by technological change and economic...