Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT
France Supports Rigorous Evaluation
of New Anti-Poverty Programs

Martin Hirsch, the French High Commissioner for Active Solidarity against Poverty, announced a five-million-euro fund to pilot anti-poverty programs along with rigorous evaluations of these programs during 2008. These pilot programs will be in the areas of health, public-assistance to unemployed, promotion of education among minorities and family welfare. Policy-makers are increasingly turning to randomized evaluations to assess whether public programs are having the expected impact and guide their policy-making towards more effective anti-poverty strategies.

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) in the MIT Department of Economics is dedicated to fighting poverty by ensuring that policy decisions are based on scientific evidence. We run, promote the use of, and disseminate the results of randomized evaluations of poverty programs. If you are not currently receiving J-PAL publications and updates and wish to be added (or removed) from our electronic and postal mailing lists, please contact us at povertyactionlab@mit.edu or phone 617-324-0108.