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Affecting one in six people in the world today, the problem of global poverty is perhaps our greatest moral challenge. But, as millions of dollars flow to poor countries, the results are often disappointing. Making Aid Work provides a forum on how to evaluate aid programs and calls for economists to change their way of thinking, offering a blueprint for effective aid.
Abhijit Vinayek Banerjee -- an “aid optimist” -- argues that the lack of analysis about which programs really work causes considerable waste. He challenges aid donors to do better, urging them to assess programs with field experiments using randomized trials. Experts respond, raising broad questions about the kinds of interventions (micro, or macro, political or economic) that will lead to real improvements in the lives of poor people around the world. Although they may disagree on many issues, their responses underscore a growing consensus that impact evaluations of aid programs must improve.
Making Aid Work offers the hopeful next steps for anyone who cares about fighting global poverty. With more than a billion people now living on less than one dollar a day, and with eight million dying each yer because they are simply too poor to live, getting it right is crucial.
Abhijit Vinayek Banerjee is the Ford Foundation Professor of Economics at MIT, a director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT, and a past president of the Bureau for Research in Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD).
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