Friday, November 1, 2013

Using Randomized Experiments to Fight Poverty

Esther Duflo's inspiring TED Talk:

5 comments:

  1. It looks like just giving people more money might be benefical.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/magazine/is-it-nuts-to-give-to-the-poor-without-strings-attached.html?_r=1&

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  2. well it's good to see the incentive alignment is there, now if we could just convince our politicians to use the data to drive their decisions

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  3. If only politicians were more aware of the incentives!

    Here is an interesting TED talk about the way incentives are changing in the workplace...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y

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  4. I think incentives are key--unfortunately there are times when politicians (and business leaders) have incentives NOT to know information. Therefore they have no interest or desire to utilize appropriate scientific methodologies and analysis, as this would cause major concerns about a significant portion of our federally funded programs (or reduce profitability for some business leaders).

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  5. Freakonomics Radio just did a great piece on the same issue, and addresses the unconditional cash transfers Dr. Finlayson referenced:

    http://freakonomics.com/2013/11/27/fighting-poverty-with-actual-evidence-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

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