Esther Duflo: Social experiments to fight poverty

http://www.ted.com Alleviating poverty is more guesswork than science, and lack of data on aid's impact raises questions about how to provide it. But Clark Medal-winner Esther Duflo says it's possible to know which development efforts help and which hurt -- by testing solutions with randomized trials.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

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[Fahab747]

Brilliant ! A true scientific approach to a question plagued with judgmental ideologies.

The US gvt made a great decision in integrating her !

[enoonsti]

*blink* You have to be kidding me. Did you really spend 17 minutes on this video and not get anything out of it? She did not advocate a silver bullet because... well, there is no silver bullet. You have to do many small things. The key point is to use randomized trials to help determine which small steps are actually effective.

[abdamit]

is she french ?

[Cappa Somatic]

You should read justinewhitfield's comment-- 2 below.

[10ccalanarkush]

nope the paltry, technocratic bandaids proferred to gargantuan cancerous structural issues that cause poverty were enough to "inpire" me to click dislike. people aren't necessarily that shallow

[Justine W]

I feel like the idea that the gov'ts would be involved is intrinsic. Who else would implement these programs? IGOs and NGOs.

[Justine W]

its a theory of political development. This is about reducing risk to shock. If you reduce a person's risk to various shocks (i.e. I have to pay a ton of money for hospital bills etc.) then their income can be distributed elsewhere. Full human development on all levels will increase prosperity economically. The argument to this particular approach to development is like "can lead a horse to water but cant make it drink". Communities involvement leads to more efficient develop't programs.

[mmaylad]

inspiring a lot!