Economics Nobel Prize winners are J-PAL co-founders

On Oct. 14, the Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded to Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty. Duflo and Banerjee are two of the cofounders and co-directors of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). Kremer is one of J-PAL’s original affiliated researchers. Duflo is the youngest winner of the prize, and only the second woman to receive the award.

Community Jameel, a global philanthropy, has been partnering with and supporting J-PAL since 2005. J-PAL aims to tackle the root causes of poverty through evidence-based assessment, including issues related to health, education, youth employment, and financial inclusion.

To-date, J-PAL has touched the lives of over 400 million people, with a staff of over 400 people in seven offices and over 180 affiliated researchers.

Mohammed Jameel KBE, founder of Community Jameel, said: “The Nobel Prize is a fitting recognition of the achievements of all three winners in applying development economics to alleviate poverty worldwide. Their approach has transformed the way governments, philanthropies, corporations and NGOs strive to build a better world. J-PAL seeks to answer a simple question: What works in fighting poverty? We are delighted that Community Jameel, through J-PAL, has been part of Esther and Abhijit’s mission to find the solution.”

At a press conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Duflo, the Abdul Latif Jameel professor of poverty alleviation and development economics in the Department of Economics at MIT, said: “Mohammed Jameel, who is the third person whom we really want to acknowledge in the birth of J-PAL, Mohammed Jameel who saw in us, maybe a little bit like Bengt (Bengt Holmström, influential MIT economist who won the prize in 2016), and maybe for the same reason, that he has business acumen that none of us really had. He saw in us, and in our project, something that could make a difference, and decided to risk his reputation and his money, behind that. This would have never have happened without the ecosystem and his vision and commitment for the world’s poor, which was apparent then, and [is] still important today.”