A chapter in the forthcoming edited volume, Randomized Control Trials in Development: the Gold Standard Revisited, by Florent Bédécarrats, Isabelle Guerin, and François Roubaud.
The use of RCTs in development economics has attracted a consistent drumbeat of criticism, but relatively little response from so-called randomistas (other than a steadily increasing number of practitioners and papers). Here I systematize the critiques and discuss the difficulty in responding directly to them. Then I apply prominent RCT critic Lant Pritchett’s PDIA framework to illustrate how the RCT movement has been responsive to the critiques if not to the critics through a steady evolution of practice. Finally, I assess the current state of the RCT movement in terms of impact and productivity.
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The Disruptive Power of RCTs
A chapter in the forthcoming edited volume, Randomized Control Trials in Development: the Gold Standard Revisited, by Florent Bédécarrats, Isabelle Guerin, and François Roubaud.
The use of RCTs in development economics has attracted a consistent drumbeat of criticism, but relatively little response from so-called randomistas (other than a steadily increasing number of practitioners and papers). Here I systematize the critiques and discuss the difficulty in responding directly to them. Then I apply prominent RCT critic Lant Pritchett’s PDIA framework to illustrate how the RCT movement has been responsive to the critiques if not to the critics through a steady evolution of practice. Finally, I assess the current state of the RCT movement in terms of impact and productivity.
Economics and the Social Meaning of Money
The Social Meaning of Money too shows how preferences develop and are reinforced by social contexts. Economists have not yet paid much attention to preference formation, but the work so far suggests that it is a promising path for empirical inquiry, especially as researchers look to next steps in understanding the economics of gender and the nature of decision-making under conditions of substantial scarcity.
By Jonathan Morduch