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| Abbreviation | J-PAL |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2003; 23 years ago (2003)[1] |
| Founder | |
| Type | Research institute |
| Focus | Economic research,poverty alleviation |
| Headquarters | Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 42°21′45″N71°5′16″W / 42.36250°N 71.08778°W /42.36250; -71.08778 |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Method | Randomized controlled trials |
Directors | Esther Duflo Abhijit Banerjee Benjamin Olken |
| Affiliations | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |
| Employees | 400+[1] |
| Website | https://www.povertyactionlab.org/ |
Formerly called | Jameel Poverty Action Lab |
TheAbdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center based at theMassachusetts 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 ofrandomized controlled trials evaluating the efficacy of social interventions inhealth,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 theMassachusetts Institute of Technology inCambridge, Massachusetts.[2]
In 2019, theNobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was jointly awarded to J-PAL co-foundersEsther Duflo andAbhijit Banerjee, alongside economistMichael 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 ofrandomized controlled trials as an empirical technique indevelopment economics.[5]Nicholas Kristof ofThe New York Times has described J-PAL as leading a "revolution in evaluation".[6]
J-PAL was founded in 2003 as the "Poverty Action Lab" byAbhijit Banerjee,Esther Duflo, andSendhil Mullainathan, all of the economics department at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology.[4] Initial funding for the research center was approved byMIT economics department chairBengt Holmström in an effort to convince Duflo and her colleagues to stay in the department despite outside opportunities.[4] The research center was early on championed byMIT presidentSusan Hockfield, who promoted it toMIT's pool of donors.[4] In 2005, it was endowed by Mohammed Jameel of Saudi Arabia'sAbdul Latif Jameel Corporation, and renamed the "Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)".[4] Subsequently, J-PAL has also received financial support from theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation,[7]Open Philanthropy,[8]Good Ventures,[9] andUSAID's Development Innovation Ventures.[10]
In 2004,Rachel Glennerster, a British economist and the wife of 2019Nobel Prize co-laureateMichael Kremer, became executive director of J-PAL.[11][12] She held the role until 2017, when she became chief economist of the United Kingdom'sDepartment for International Development.[11] In 2018, Iqbal Dhaliwal, a formerIndian Administrative Service officer and the husband of formerIMF chief economistGita Gopinath, became J-PAL's new global executive director.[13] Dhaliwal sits on J-PAL's executive committee, which also includes Duflo, Banerjee,Amy Finkelstein,Rema Hanna, Kelsey Jack,Benjamin Olken, andTavneet Suri.[14]
J-PAL opened its first regional office in 2007 at theInstitute for Financial Management and Research inChennai,Tamil Nadu.[15]N. R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder ofInfosys, was the keynote speaker at the launch event.[15] In line with J-PAL's initial focus on South Asia, Many of Duflo and Banerjee's first successful randomized impact evaluations were situated inIndia. For example, among Duflo's earliest papers is an evaluation of a program in which one third of Village Council head positions inIndia are randomly reserved for women.[2][16] The paper finds that councils led by women invest more in roads and drinking water, public goods that they find women are relatively more likely to complain about in formal requests toGram panchayats.[16] To support work of affiliates in other regions of the world, J-PAL subsequently opened additional hubs inSouth Africa,Chile,Indonesia,Egypt,France, and theUnited States, each affiliated with a local university.
In 2011, Duflo and Banerjee promoted the work of J-PAL in their best-selling bookPoor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, which won theFinancial Times Business Book of the Year Award the same year.[17]The Economist praised the book for exemplifying "a more evidence-based approach to development economics", and recommended it as one of the five best texts to read to understand the escape from extreme poverty.[18]William Easterly, a professor of economics atNYU and longstanding critic of foreign aid, wrote in theWall Street Journal of the book that "[Duflo and Banerjee] have fought to establish a beachhead of honesty and rigor about evidence, evaluation and complexity in an aid world that would prefer to stick to glossy brochures and celebrity photo-ops. For this they deserve to be congratulated—and to be read."[19]
Throughout its history, J-PAL has been a vocal advocate of research transparency, supporting efforts to improve the quality of evidence fromrandomized controlled trials and ensure results arereproducible.[1] For example, in 2012, J-PAL partnered with theAmerican Economic Association to create a registration service forrandomized controlled trials, allowing researchers to pre-register what analysis they hope to conduct before data is collected.[1] This helps to reducep-hacking, ensuring researchers do not iteratively test many versions of their hypotheses, selecting only those that yield the most desirable results.[20][21] J-PAL affiliatesRachel Glennerster andEdward Miguel published one of the earliest and highest profile studies to use a "pre-analysis plan", showing that pre-registration effectively prevented them from drawing erroneous conclusions.[21]
In 2019, Duflo and Banerjee were selected as the co-recipients of theNobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, alongsideMichael Kremer, then ofHarvard University.[4] In their report on the scientific background for the award, the Nobel committee explicitly acknowledged Duflo and Banerjee's work building J-PAL, noting that the organization "has promoted research built on randomized controlled trials in many countries and promoted the acceptance of results from such trials in the economic-policy community."[5]
J-PAL's success has inspired the widespread acceptance ofrandomized controlled trials indevelopment economics, and has encouraged their use in organizations and by academics outside their network.[2][5] At approximately the same time as J-PAL was created,Dean Karlan foundedInnovations for Poverty Action, anNGO and longstanding partner of J-PAL that also promotes the use of rigorous impact evaluation indevelopment economics.[5] In 2008,Edward Miguel, adevelopment economist and co-author of 2019Nobel Prize co-laureateMichael Kremer, founded theCenter for Effective Global Action atUC Berkeley to pursue a similar goal.[5] J-PAL's success has also inspired successful impact evaluations at multilateral development agencies such as theWorld Bank andInter-American Development Bank, in addition to within national governments such as that of Indonesia.[22] In line with qualitative accounts of J-PAL's influence in popularizing experimental research methods,[5][6] a paper byJanet Currie and co-authors in the papers and proceedings of theAmerican Economic Association observed that the share ofNBER working papers leveragingrandomized controlled trials increased from less than 5% to almost 15% between 1980 and 2018.[23]
Although J-PAL was founded as a research center, its activities encompass three primary areas: field research, policy outreach, and capacity building.[1] Its activities are supervised by a staff of over 400[1] spread across its global headquarters inCambridge, Massachusetts and seven regional offices around the world.
J-PAL's primary purpose is to ensure that policies aimed at reducing poverty are informed by rigorous scientific evidence.[1] As part of this mission, it supportsrandomized controlled trials by distributing grants, hiring and managing survey enumerators, and disseminating information onsampling,randomization, and other stages of the research process.[1] In line with these efforts, J-PAL has established a set of norms and research standards forrandomized controlled trials, encouraging the pre-registration of hypotheses using services such as theAmerican Economic Association RCT Registry, back-checks and other efforts to ensure the reliability of survey data, and the timely release of anonymized data after research is published.[1] J-PAL identifies and targets a number of primary research areas and topics in its work, organizing each under a particular "initiative" with its own funding stream.[1] Several examples are discussed in detail below.
One of J-PAL's primary research initiatives is the Agricultural Technology Adaption Initiative (ATAI), co-led with theCenter for Effective Global Action at theUniversity of California, Berkeley.[24] ATAI supportsrandomized controlled trials evaluating interventions aimed at reducing poverty by increasing agricultural productivity.[24] In the last ten years, the initiative has conducted over 50 evaluations across 17 countries.[24] In line with its efforts to improve agricultural productivity, ATAI has fundedrandomized controlled trials evaluating the use of text messages to deliver tailoredagricultural extension services to small-scale farmers inKenya and the Indian state ofGujarat.[25] The evaluations found that mobile extension services substantially increase the likelihood that farmers adopt recommended agricultural strategies, raising yields in a cost effective manner.[26][27] In response,Michael Kremer and others founded Precision Agriculture for Development, anNGO that delivers tailored agricultural advice to small-scale farmers in the developing world.[25]
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In 2020, J-PAL launched the King Climate Action Initiative, a research program aimed at testing policies in relation toclimate change mitigation and adaption,pollution reduction, and access toenergy.[28] The initiative was supported by a $25 million founding grant from King Philanthropies.[29] As of April 2024, the initiative had supported 30 randomized evaluations and informed the implementation of policies impacting 15 million people.[30] In one examplerandomized controlled trial, J-PAL affiliaties Jenny Aker and Kelsey Jack evaluate a training program teaching farmers inNiger to harvest rainwater by digging demilunes (orsemicircular bunds), combatting desertification of agricultural lands.[31] They find that the training scheme increased adoption from 4 to 94 percent, raising yields and revenue.[30][31]
J-PAL also co-leads a Social Protection Initiative in collaboration with the Center for International Development at theHarvard Kennedy School of Government.[32] The initiative is co-led byRema Hanna andBenjamin Olken, and supportsrandomized controlled trials examiningsocial protection schemes inlow and middle income countries.[32]
In November 2022, J-PAL launched an additional division, its Science for Progress Initiative, under the leadership ofHeidi Williams and Paul Niehaus,[33] ofDartmouth College and theUniversity of California, San Diego, respectively. The initiative funds and helps design randomized impact evaluations aimed at finding policies that catalyze the rate of scientific progress.[33] The initiative is supported by a $650,000 grant fromOpen Philanthropy,[34] a charitable organization that distributes grants based on the principles ofeffective altruism.[35]
J-PAL also promotes the use of scientific evidence in public policy by running trainings and distributing materials aimed at improving the capacity of researchers and governments to conduct evaluations and use them to make decisions.[1] One example is aMicroMasters program offered in conjunction by J-PAL andMIT in "Data, Economics and Design of Policy".[36] TheMicroMasters program has over 1,000 alumni, and qualifies its recipients to apply for aMaster's degree atMIT.[36] It focuses on topics ineconomics,statistics, andmathematics, and also includes practical content of the design and implementation of randomized evaluations.[36] Instructors in the program includeEsther Duflo,Abhijit Banerjee,Rachel Glennerster,Jonathan Gruber, andDavid Autor.[36]
J-PAL also conducts tailored trainings with policymakers in governments,non-governmental organizations, charitable foundations, and multilateral development banks.[1] For example, the organization has conducted tailored in-person trainings with organizations and agencies such asUNICEF, theEuropean Commission, and theIndian Administrative Service.[1] In 2024, it announced a partnership with the government ofCôte d'Ivoire and theFrench Development Agency to equip civil servants with training in impact evaluation and the use of evidence in policy.[37] Between 2003 and 2020, J-PAL's training initiatives reached a total of 8,500 participants.[1]
J-PAL is headquartered inCambridge, Massachusetts and affiliated with the economics department of theMassachusetts Institute of Technology. It is currently co-directed byEsther Duflo,Abhijit Banerjee, andBenjamin Olken, all of whom are economics professors atMIT. J-PAL's global office is supplemented by seven regional offices that support the organization's work across their respective regions of the world. Each regional office is affiliated with a local university:
J-PAL is organized both by these regional offices and by research themes called sector programs. Programs are led by members of the organization's board of directors, and cover eight areas:
J-PAL is currently led by Professors Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Ben Olken as Faculty Directors and Iqbal Dhaliwal as the Global Executive Director.[14] J-PAL's Board of Directors sets the vision and strategy for the organization and includes the Global Directors and executive director, Regional Scientific Directors and executive directors, and Chairs of the Sector Programs. In 2019, J-PAL co-founders Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, and long time research affiliate Michael Kremer were awarded the Nobel prize in economics "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."[42]
J-PAL affiliates have published severalrandomized controlled trials that have received substantial media coverage or had outsized policy influence. Listed below are several prominent examples.
Among J-PAL's earliest successful experiments was its evaluation of "Teaching at the Right Level", a remedial education scheme developed by IndianNGOPratham aimed at bridging learning gaps in developing countries by evaluating students based on ability, and teaching them in groups based on these skills rather than grade level or other characteristics.[43][44]Pratham's approach was developed in the early 2000s, and the first "proof of concept" trial of its efficacy was published byAbhijit Banerjee,Esther Duflo, and co-authors in 2007.[43] The trial found that the program substantially increased standardized test scores in mathematics and language skills.[43][45] A second evaluation of the program was published in 2010, revealing similar results, albeit with substantial implementation issues such as low take-up of the scheme and attrition by volunteers.[43]
"Teaching at the Right Level" programs have subsequently been scaled in a number of countries around the world, such asIndia,[43]Zambia,[44]Kenya,[46] andNigeria.[46] The scale-up of the scheme has been supported by Teaching at the Right Level Africa, a non-profit organization that as of 2022 had directly or indirectly supported programs impacting over 4 million children acrossSub-Saharan Africa.[47] The Teaching at the Right Level approach has been encouraged by organizations such asUNICEF as an effective method for bridging achievement gaps between high and low performing students.[48]
J-PAL has also supported research evaluating the usefulness of technological assistance in aiding student-tailored instruction.[49] For example, a paper by J-PAL affiliatesKarthik Muralidharan, Alejandro Ganiman, and Abhijeet Singh evaluates an after-school program inIndia in which students spend time on Mindspark, anEdtech platform that algorithmically suggests remedial exercises based on performance on exam questions.[49][50] The research finds that even short periods of time enrolled in the program have large positive effects onmath andHindi test scores.[49][50] A review of similarrandomized controlled trials by J-PAL affiliatesPhilip Oreopoulos and Andre Nickow finds that software-aided instruction almost always yields better results than teaching conducted through conventional means.[49][51]
One of J-PAL's most influential lines of research was its experimental evaluations ofmicrofinance programs aimed at alleviating poverty by providing the extreme poor access to loans without collateral or credit histories.Microfinance rose to prominence in the 1990s,[52] culminating in aNobel Peace Prize for BangladeshiNGOGrameen Bank and its founder,Muhammad Yunus, in 2006.[53] Beginning in 2005, Banerjee, Duflo,Rachel Glennerster, and Cynthia Kinnan partnered with the IndianNGO Spandana to deliver loans of approximately $250 to poor women in the city ofHyderabad.[52] With funding and support from J-PAL,[54] the researchers tracked participating women for three years, finding no effects of the program on measures of educational attainment, health, or female empowerment.[52] Several follow on studies conducted by J-PAL affiliates in different geographic contexts have yielded similar results,[55][56] providing limited systematic evidence thatmicrofinance has a transformative impact on recipient's lives.[53][57][58] The research has prompted a relative decrease in the popularity ofmicrofinance versuscash transfers and other social interventions shown in rigorous impact evaluations to have strong positive effects.[52]
Between 2018 and 2020, J-PAL supported a large-scalerandomized controlled trial evaluating the effects of relievingmedical debt on mental and financial health.[59][60] The study was conducted byNeale Mahoney, Raymond Kluender, Francis Wong, and Wesley Yin in partnership withRIP Medical Debt, anonprofit organization.[59] Between 2018 and 2020, the organization randomly allocated $169 million in debt relief across 83,400 people, allowing the researchers to evaluate the causal effects of the program.[59] The study found that medical debt relief had surprisingly muted effects on financial and mental health,[60] with only marginal improvements in credit scores.[59] The experiment also found that debt relief increased the prevalence of depression, likely because the relief elicited shame or reminded respondents of other unclaimed debts.[59] The results of the study contradicted the expectations of experts polled prior to the release of its results,[59] in addition to previously collected survey responses that indicated medical debt had detrimental effects for their mental health.[60]
Since its founding, J-PAL has been recognized as a leading research institute indevelopment economics.Nicholas Kristof ofThe New York Times has written that J-PAL is leading a "revolution in evaluation",[6] andBill Gates has noted that the organization's work is "tremendously important" towards the goal of making international aid more effective over time.[61] In 2010,Foreign Policy ranked J-PAL co-foundersEsther Duflo andSendhil Mullainathan among their "Top 100 Global Thinkers", writing of Duflo that "[h]er pathbreaking research aims to put hard numbers behind such [i.e. aid allocation] decisions, identifying the most cost-effective ways to fight endemic problems such as poverty and malnutrition."[62] In 2011, Duflo and Banerjee's bestselling bookPoor Economics was awarded theFinancial Times Business Book of the Year Award.[17]
In 2010,Esther Duflo was awarded theJohn Bates Clark Medal,[63] a prize granted annually by theAmerican Economic Association to "that American economist under the age of forty who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge."[64] The prize explicitly noted Duflo's work building J-PAL, observing that "she has played a major role in setting a new agenda for the field of Development Economics" through her "research, mentoring of young scholars, and role in helping to direct the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT."[63]
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In 2019, J-PAL co-foundersEsther Duflo andAbhijit Banerjee were selected as the co-recipients of theNobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences alongsideMichael Kremer, then ofHarvard University. The award was granted for Duflo, Banerjee, and Kremer's "experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."[4] The Nobel committee highlighted J-PAL explicitly in the scientific background for the award, observing that the organization "has promoted research built on randomized controlled trials in many countries and promoted the acceptance of results from such trials in the economic-policy community."[5] The scientific background for the award also cited the work ofInnovations for Poverty Action and theCenter for Effective Global Action, J-PAL partners, in furthering the movement towards evidence-based development policy.[5] Duflo was the second female and youngest ever recipient of theNobel Memorial Prize, winning at the age of 46.[45]
Lawrence F. Katz, a professor of economics atHarvard University, observed after Duflo, Banerjee, and Kremer's Nobel was "probably the first 21st-century prize in economics...This is not stuff worked on 20, 30 years ago — this is stuff that, none of it started until the 2000s."[45]Benjamin Olken, a colleague of Duflo and Banerjee's at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology, noted of Duflo, Banerjee, and Kremer's work popularizingrandomized controlled trials that the "approach has been tremendously influential in reshaping the field of development economics."[45]
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