Launched at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2003 with foundational support from Community Jameel, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) has impacted the lives of 600 million people through its work to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence through research, policy outreach and training. Its approach to poverty alleviation is spearheaded by J-PAL co-founders Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2019 together with their longtime associate Michael Kremer, and uses randomised control trials to isolate evidence in order to identify the real impact of poverty-prevention policies.
