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.

History

J-PAL was founded in 2003 by Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Sendhil Mullainathan.^[1] Rachel Glennerster was its Executive Director between 2004 and 2017. In 2019, Banerjee and Duflo, together with Michael Kremer, were awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for their use of randomized controlled trials to alleviate global poverty.^[2]

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a close partner of J-PAL.

Funding

In January 2019, GiveWell recommended a $1 million grant—via the Global Health and Development Fund—to Innovation in Government Initiative, a grantmaking entity that sits within J-PAL.^[3][4]

As of May 2022, J-PAL has received $200,000 in grants from Open Philanthropy.^[5][6]