Jul 13, 2011

Bad News for Cynics and Optimists: An Extended Interview with Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo

Whenever I read one of Banerjee’s and Duflo’s papers or talk with them I walk away with the exhilaration that only comes from (as the economist’s would say) changing my priors—in other words, I learn something and look at the world in a new way. That’s why I was so excited to spend more than an hour talking with them this spring after Poor Economics came out. We’re publishing a transcript of that extended interview in parts because it runs to over 6000 words in its entirety. 

Over the course of the interview we discuss microcredit, microenterprise funding and growth, labor markets in developing and developed countries, the evidence for focusing on women and girls with aid programs, the debate over RCTs and how they think about their own impact on changing the world.

Jul 13, 2011

An Interview with Banerjee and Duflo, Part 4

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with Banerjee and Duflo for an extended conversation about the small and big pictures that emerge from their research, their critics and their plan to change the world. In fact, the conversation was so extended that I’ve had to break it up into pieces. We’ll be publishing it in four parts over the next few weeks—the full interview will be available soon via Amazon Kindle.

In Part 4, we discuss Banerjee’s and Duflo’s theory of change, the bad news for optimists and cynics, whether taking responsibility away from the poor aligns with Amartya Sen’s Development as Freedom and the ongoing debate over the usefulness of RCTs.

Jun 29, 2011

An Interview with Banerjee and Duflo, Part 3

Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, co-founders of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab and co-authors of the recent book Poor Economics are at the heart of the movement to seek rigorous evidence about the lives of the poor and programs that aim to help them. As they write in Poor Economics, they believe that “we have to abandon the habit of reducing the poor to cartoon characters and take the time to really understand their lives, in all their complexity and richness.”

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with Banerjee and Duflo for an extended conversation about the small and big pictures that emerge from their research, their critics and their plan to change the world. In fact, the conversation was so extended that I’ve had to break it up into pieces. We’ll be publishing it in four parts over the next few weeks—the full interview will be available soon via Amazon Kindle.

In Part 3, we discuss whether focusing on women and girls will yield better development results and the role of food subsidies and cash transfers in India.

Apr 26, 2011

Book Review: Poor Economics

Two new books from the world of development economics offer solid arguments for why all of us should care more about the small things than the big things: More than Good Intentions, by Yale economist Dean Karlan and his co-writer Jacob Appel, and Poor Economics by MIT economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo.

Nov 02, 2010

The Microfinance Impact and Innovation Conference Round Up

There was a huge amount of information and data presented at the recent Microfinance Impact and Innovation Conference. It was hard to take it all in, but thankfully there were a number of bloggers and other interested parties at the event who have provided summaries, interviews and reactions. Those posts are collected here for easy access and we’ll be updating the list as we go.

Oct 29, 2010

Eyes and Mouths Wide Shut?

A planned public discussion of how to evaluate the Millennium Villages Project was canceled this week for unknown reasons. Join a petition to encourage the Center for Global Development, the World Bank and the Millennium Villages Project to reschedule the discussion and make it accessible to all.

Aug 10, 2010

A Warning Sign of the Next Food Crisis?

While Russia’s decision isn’t necessarily a sign of another rampaging food crisis, it is just another alarm bell about the state of the world food supply and how susceptible the system is to weather and government action. Ultimately, this is another data point on the priority of improving yields around the world, fighting the brown revolution with every tool we have, and ending the unjust and evil tyranny of developed world food policy.

May 31, 2010

Patient Optimism In Other Words

May 14, 2010

Fifth Annual Index of Global Philanthropy Now Available

Apr 23, 2010

Esther Duflo wins John Bates Clark Medal

Today Esther Duflo was announced as the winner of the John Bates Clark Medal. The award is granted to the economist under age 40 who has “contributed the most to the profession.“ The increasing recognition of Duflo’s groundbreaking work to bring experimental economics to bear on real world questions is a ray of hope that philanthropy and public policy can learn from what works.

You can read an extensive interview with Esther Duflo here.