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Using scientific evidence to fight worldwide poverty - Igor Asanov becomes Invited Researcher of the renowned Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center that works to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is based on scientific evidence. Drawing on a network of more than 1,000 researchers at universities around the world, J-PAL evaluates the impact of poverty reduction activities with the aim of improving the quality and, ultimately, the effectiveness of development and poverty reduction policies. Broad types of programs are evaluated, from glasses for Chinese primary school pupils to improve their learning outcomes to innovative measures to support overburdened health workers in Zambia. By 2020, the Poverty Action Lab and it's collaborating researchers had conducted 1073 randomised evaluations in 90 countries.
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab was founded in 2003 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The co-founders, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, and their long-time collaborator, Michael Kremer, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2019 for their pioneering approach to fighting global poverty.
Dr. Igor Asanov, who will be part of the J-PAL research network as an invited researcher, is a Senior Researcher at INCHER. He represents the research area of evidence-based science and innovation policy. He is also a member of the research group' Economic Policy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship' at the Department of Economics at the University of Kassel. The topic of poverty reduction by scientific evidence and sustainable development through innovative (digital) education and training are high on his agenda. In 2019, he was awarded the prestigious Path to Scale Award by Innovations for Poverty Action together with Thomas Astebro, Guido Buenstorf, Bruno Crépon, David Mckenzie, Francisco Flores, Mona Mensmann, Mathis Schulte. The Showing Life Opportunities (SLO) project, for which Asanov and colleagues were honored in 2019, investigates the effectiveness of psychology-based online courses in promoting innovative entrepreneurship and science careers. This program was tested in a large-scale randomized control trial with around 45,000 high school students in Ecuador supported by the World Bank (among others). Dr Igor Asanov is continuing to pursue this research agenda. For instance, he, together with INCHER-team - Anastasyia-Mariya Asanov (Noha), and Guido Buenstorf, adapted and tested in-person WHO self-help training for digital delivery to improve the mental health of refugees. With the same INCHER team, he was just awarded an INCHER-Innovation research fund grant to support successful intervention in Socio-Emotional Learning (SEL) educational programs among 58,000 students in Vietnam - a randomized control trial conducted with a team from the World Bank (Quy-Toan Do, Hanan Jacoby).
Commenting on the invitation by J-PAL, Dr Asanov said: „J-PAL is the leading global research network in my field that conducts randomised impact evaluations. I am honoured to have been invited to join the J-PAL Jobs and Opportunity Initiative (JOI) research network as a researcher and am very pleased to have been invited and to be able to contribute my expertise and interest to the excellent work of the research network.“
Further links:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2216686120
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39481277/