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Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab

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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". 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 trial as an empirical technique in development economics.[4] Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times has described J-PAL as leading a "revolution in evaluation".[5]

History[edit]

J-PAL was founded in 2003 as the "Poverty Action Lab" by Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Sendhil Mullainathan, all of the economics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[6] Initial funding for the research center was approved by MIT economics department chair Bengt Holmström in an effort to convince Duflo and her colleagues to stay in the department despite outside opportunities.[6] The research center was early on championed by MIT president Susan Hockfield, who promoted it to MIT's pool of donors.[6] In 2005, it was endowed by Mohammed Jameel of Saudi Arabia's Abdul Latif Jameel Corporation, and renamed the "Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)".[6] In 2004, Rachel Glennerster — a British economist at the International Monetary Fund and the wife of Michael Kremer — became J-PAL's executive director, a role she would hold until 2017.[7]

J-PAL opened its first regional office in 2007 at the Institute for Financial Management and Research in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.[8] After its South Asia office, it opened additional hubs in South Africa, Chile, Indonesia, Egypt, France, and the United States, each affiliated with a local university.

In 2011, Duflo and Banerjee promoted the work of J-PAL in their best-selling book Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, which won the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award in 2011.[9] 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.[10]

In 2019, Duflo and Banerjee were selected as the co-recipients of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, alongside Michael Kremer, then of Harvard University. 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."[4]

J-PAL is one of several organizations promoting the use of randomized controlled trial and other rigorous forms of impact evaluation in international development. Dean Karlan, now chief economist of the United States Agency for International Development, founded Innovations for Poverty Action, a partner organization of J-PAL, at approximately the same time.[4][11] The Center for Effective Global Action, headquartered at UC Berkeley and founded by Edward Miguel, has a similar mission as well.[4]

Activities[edit]

Although J-PAL was founded as a research center, its activities have expanded to encompass three areas: impact evaluations, policy outreach, and capacity building.

To date, a network of over 170 J-PAL affiliated professors has carried out more than 948 evaluations in 81 countries, and J-PAL has trained over 1,500 people in impact evaluation.[12][13] These evaluations include everything from an analysis of the effectiveness of glasses in China in improving student test scores[14] to a study on the value of deworming to improve student attendance and academic performance in Kenya.[15] This work, by Michael Kremer and Edward Miguel, provided the impetus for the Deworm the World initiative, which has since reached over 20 million children. Another J-PAL researcher, Nava Ashraf, recently completed work on innovative channels to ease the load of overburdened health care workers in Zambia.[16] An evaluation in India by J-PAL Directors Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee, and Rachel Glennerster, together with Dhruva Kothari, found that full immunization rates increased dramatically with the introduction of small incentives for parents, coupled with reliable services at convenient mobile clinics.[17]

As part of its capacity-building efforts, J-PAL offers courses to help implementers, policymakers, and researchers become better producers and users of evidence and equip learners worldwide with skills in data analysis and economics. Offerings include open enrollment courses, custom workshops, online courses, and trainings for research staff. J-PAL has created an online MicroMasters credential in cooperation with MITx and a Diploma in Impact Evaluation with Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.[18] In 2019, J-PAL launched the blended MIT Master's in Data, Economics, and Development Policy, combining online learning with residential education at MIT and intensive internships. The master's program will equip outstanding students with the skills they need to create evidence-based change in their communities.[19]

Structure[edit]

J-PAL is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and affiliated with the economics department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is currently co-directed by Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee, and Benjamin Olken, all of whom are economics professors at MIT. 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:

  • Agriculture
  • Crime
  • Education
  • Energy and Environment
  • Finance
  • Health
  • Labor Markets
  • Political Economy & Governance

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.[24] 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."[25]

Partnerships[edit]

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a close partner of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). The two organizations share a common mission and take similar methodological approaches to development policy evaluation, though J-PAL works through universities and makes use of academic resources, while IPA, as a nonprofit, operates through country offices. Both organizations have pioneered the use of randomized evaluations to study the effectiveness of development interventions worldwide and have collaborated extensively on field studies involving randomized evaluations. A number of J-PAL Affiliates are also IPA Research Affiliates or IPA Research Network Members. The work of both organizations is featured in the popular press books More Than Good Intentions by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel, and in Banerjee and Duflo's 2011 book, Poor Economics, which was chosen as the 2011 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.[26]

Other J-PAL research partners include the Centre for Micro Finance,[27] Harvard Kennedy School's Center for International Development's Micro-Development Initiative, the Center of Evaluation for Global Action, Ideas 42,[28] Educate!,[29] the Small Enterprise Finance Center,[30] and the Global Innovation Fund.[31][32]

Experiments and findings in India[edit]

J-PAL has conducted extensive work in India. Below are some examples of experiments and findings in India:[33]

  • Teaching at the Right Level: J-PAL-affiliated researchers partnered with the organization Pratham to conduct numerous randomized evaluations of their Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) approach. The research shows that TaRL consistently improves learning when implemented well.[34]
  • AP Smartcards: Assessed impact of Smartcards on leakages in MGNREGS and social security pensions in AP and found that it reduced time taken by beneficiaries to receive payments, reduced leakages, and increased user satisfaction.
  • Haryana Schools: Experimented with teaching students at their actual learning levels, rather than the grade they are in. Such students did better at Hindi but no better at maths.
  • Bihar MGNREGA: Conducted 12 districts and is testing impact on payment delays and corruption in a new official system of funds release.
  • Rajasthan Police: Conducted between 2005 and 2008, the study involved sending decoys to police stations with fictitious complaints, and analyzing how many cases were actually registered, as well as how policing could be improved.
  • Delhi Deworming: Conducted in 2001–02, showed giving iron, vitamin A supplements and deworming drugs to 2- to 6-year-old children through balwadis greatly increased their weight and school participation.
  • Udaipur Absent Teachers: In 2003, showed how financial incentives and fines increased teacher attendance, leading to improved learning outcomes for students.
  • Gujarat Pollution Auditing: Experimented with third party pollution audits of industrial firms paid for by a central pool, instead of by the firm itself; found that such independently paid for auditors reported higher levels of pollution.
  • Nurse Attendance: Showed monitoring nurses attendance and fining them for absenteeism led to dramatic improvement in attendance until local administration undermined the scheme.

Awards[edit]

References[edit]

  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. ^ a b c d "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.
  5. ^ Kristof, Nicholas (2009-11-20). "How Can We Help the World's Poor?". New York Times. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  6. ^ a b c d "Esther Duflo - Biographical". Nobel Prize. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  7. ^ "About | Rachel Glennerster". University of Chicago. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  8. ^ "ALJ Poverty Action Lab Sets Up First Field Office In India". Arab News. 2007-07-18. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  9. ^ Hill, Andrew (2011-11-03). "'Poor Economics' takes business book prize". Financial Times. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  10. ^ "What to read to understand how countries escape the worst poverty". The Economist. 2022-07-21. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  11. ^ "Dean Karlan - Faculty". Northwestern University. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  12. ^ "About us". www.povertyactionlab.org. The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  13. ^ "Home". www.povertyactionlab.org. The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  14. ^ "The Impact of Eyeglasses on the Academic Performance of Primary School Students in China". The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  15. ^ "Deworming to increase school attendance". Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  16. ^ "MIT TechTV – Nava Ashraf, J-PAL Africa Launch". Archived from the original on August 28, 2011.
  17. ^ "Incentives for Immunization | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab". Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL).
  18. ^ "J-PAL Training and Education". Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  19. ^ "2018 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  20. ^ "Arab News". Arab News. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  21. ^ "Arab News". Arab News. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  22. ^ J-PAL's regional office in Southeast Asia, based at the University of Indonesia. Official J-PAL website. Retrieved 2013-8-23
  23. ^ "News – 2013 – MIT's Jameel Poverty Action Lab launches regional office for North America". shass.mit.edu. MIT SHASS. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  24. ^ "Board Members". J-PAL. Archived from the original on 2016-03-17.
  25. ^ "J-PAL Co-Founders and Affiliate awarded 2019 Nobel Prize".
  26. ^ a b "FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award". Financial Times. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  27. ^ "IFMR-Centre for Micro Finance". July 17, 2011. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17.
  28. ^ "ideas42 | Asking the Right Questions". June 25, 2011. Archived from the original on 2011-06-25.
  29. ^ "Educate!". www.povertyactionlab.org. The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  30. ^ "IFMR - Small Enterprise Finance Centre: Applied research for SME development". July 31, 2011. Archived from the original on 2011-07-31.
  31. ^ "Reducing Anemia". Global Innovation Fund. Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  32. ^ "J-PAL Health Insurance Project". Global Innovation Fund. Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  33. ^ "J-PAL in India". The Hindu. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  34. ^ Abhijit Banerjee; Rukmini Banerji; James Berry; Esther Duflo; Harini Kannan; Shobhini Mukerji; Marc Shotland; Michael Walton (2017). "From Proof of Concept to Scalable Policies: Challenges and Solutions, with an Application". Journal of Economic Perspectives. 31 (4): 73–102. doi:10.1257/jep.31.4.73.
  35. ^ "J-PAL captures major new international award". Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  36. ^ "The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers". Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  37. ^ "Statement of Commendation". The Social Science Research Council Albert O. Hirschmann Prize. Archived from the original on 3 April 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.

External links[edit]

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