Practical academics

economics ▪ policy ▪

More coverage of policy experiments. This time, it's covered by Forbes:

A new breed of development economists are using the tools of hard science to put poverty programs under the microscope — and upending a lot of conventional wisdom about what works.

See also my previous entries of how to use this experimental tools for understanding education policy and corruption. I see no reason why such a policy experiment cannot be done more often in Indonesia, either by NGOs or by the government.

UPDATE: MIT Economist Abhijit Banerjee argued for more experiments to fight poverty; a bunch of other development experts responded, including Princeton Economist Angus Deaton; then, Banerjee has the final word.