Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab

J-PAL
Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
FoundedJune 2003
FounderEsther Duflo
Abhijit Banerjee
Sendhil Mullainathan
TypeResearch Center
FocusRandomized controlled trials
International development
HeadquartersCambridge, Massachusetts
Area served
Africa • Latin America • Europe • North America • Middle East • South Asia • Southeast Asia
Directors
Esther Duflo
Abhijit Banerjee
Benjamin Olken
AffiliationsMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Websitehttps://www.povertyactionlab.org/
Formerly called
Jameel Poverty Action Lab

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology aimed to reducing poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by rigorous, scientific evidence.[1][2] J-PAL funds, provides technical support to, and disseminates the results of randomized controlled trials evaluating the efficacy of social interventions in health, education, agriculture, and a range of other fields.[2] As of 2020, the J-PAL network consisted of 500 researchers and 400 staff, and the organization's programs had impacted over 400 million people globally.[1] The organization has regional offices in seven countries around the world,[3] and is headquartered near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2]

In 2019, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was jointly awarded to J-PAL co-founders Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, alongside economist Michael Kremer, "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty".[4] The Nobel committee highlighted Duflo and Banerjee's work building J-PAL in their report on the scientific background for the award, noting that the organization was "vital" in promoting the acceptance of randomized controlled trials as an empirical technique in development economics.[5] Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times has described J-PAL as leading a "revolution in evaluation".[6]

  1. ^ a b Floretta, John; Friedlander, Sam; Dhaliwal, Iqbal (2020). "Beyond Randomized Controlled Trials". Stanford Social Innovation Review. doi:10.48558/XCWR-CW33.
  2. ^ a b c Parker, Ian (2010-05-10). "The Poverty Lab". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  3. ^ "J-PAL Europe - The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab". Paris School of Economics. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Scientific Background on the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019: Understanding Development and Poverty Alleviation" (PDF). Nobel Prize. 2019-10-14. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  6. ^ Kristof, Nicholas (2009-11-20). "How Can We Help the World's Poor?". New York Times. Retrieved 2024-07-03.