Poverty Action Lab
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center focused on reducing poverty by using scientific evidence to inform policy decisions.
Services Provided by J-PAL
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) provides a range of services primarily focused on conducting randomized impact evaluations to answer critical questions related to poverty alleviation. J-PAL's mission is to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy decisions are informed by scientific evidence. This includes conducting literature reviews, managing research initiatives, and summarizing findings from evaluations. Additionally, J-PAL hosts events globally and online to share these results and policy lessons. J-PAL also offers training programs, such as the MicroMasters in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP) program, which provides rigorous online classes in development economics.
History and Mission
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center based at the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Founded with the aim to reduce poverty, J-PAL emphasizes the importance of using scientific evidence to inform policy decisions. Since its inception, J-PAL has expanded to include a network of over 900 researchers globally, conducting more than 2,200 randomized evaluations in 96 countries. J-PAL operates from seven regional offices located in prominent universities across various regions, working collaboratively to fight against poverty.
J-PAL Regional Offices
J-PAL is anchored by seven regional offices located at leading universities around the world. These offices include J-PAL Africa at the Southern Africa Labour & Development Research Unit (SALDRU) at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, J-PAL Europe at the Paris School of Economics in France, J-PAL Latin America and the Caribbean at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, J-PAL MENA at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, J-PAL North America at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, J-PAL South Asia at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) in India, and J-PAL Southeast Asia at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Indonesia (FEB UI). These regional offices support localized research and policy outreach initiatives.
Notable Research Initiatives
J-PAL undertakes several notable research initiatives concentrating on crucial topics requiring rigorous and policy-relevant research. These include the Digital Agricultural Innovations and Services Initiative (DAISI), the Gender and Economic Agency Initiative, and the Jobs and Opportunity Initiative. Another significant initiative is the Learning for All Initiative, which aims to generate evidence to identify effective education solutions for parents, schools, and governments. The Governance Initiative supports research in governance, crime, and conflict, while the Social Protection Initiative focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of social protection programs. The King Climate Action Initiative is another key effort, supporting research and policy engagement to address climate change and poverty.
J-PAL Sectors and Research Areas
J-PAL's research spans a wide range of sectors including agriculture, crime, violence, and conflict, education, environment, energy, and climate change, finance, firms, gender, health, labor markets, political economy and governance, and social protection. Each sector guides research and policy work through various methods such as conducting literature reviews, managing research initiatives, and summarizing findings from ongoing and completed evaluations. These sectors help prioritize and streamline efforts to ensure the research conducted is directly relevant and useful for informing policy decisions aimed at poverty reduction.