Arya B. Gaduh, an associate professor in economics at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, has been invited to join the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab as an affiliated professor.

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, or J-PAL, is a global research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that works to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of affiliated professors at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts randomized impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty.

Gaduh is also a faculty fellow of the Association for Analytic Learning about Islam and Muslim Societies. His primary research is in empirical microeconomics of economic development. Gaduh has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, RAND Corporation and the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction of the Indonesian government, among others. His research has been published in the American Economic Review, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Economic Development and Cultural Change and World Development.

"This is further proof that our colleague Arya's research profile is on the rise," said Raja Kali, chair of the Department of Economics at the Walton College. "J-PAL at MIT is the brainchild of last year's Nobel Prize winners, development economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo."

J-PAL affiliates conduct randomized evaluations around the world to design, evaluate and improve programs and policies aimed at reducing poverty and publish the results of these evaluations in high-quality economics journals. They set their own research agendas, raise funds to support their evaluations and work with J-PAL staff on research, policy outreach and training.