Jan 15 2025 28 mins
Many development economists would argue that the most important innovation of
the last two decades has been a commitment to use only rigorous evidence for
policy, and usually what they mean is evidence generated by RCTs. But are
systematic reviews of the results a useful guide to policy? And should development
economics continue to be focusing so much on the programmes that flow from RCT-
driven research? Lant Pritchett of LSE talks to Tim Phillips about the nature of
“rigorous” evidence in development economics, and the future of the discipline itself.
Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/macroeconomics-growth/rethinking-evidence-and-refocusing-growth-development-economics
the last two decades has been a commitment to use only rigorous evidence for
policy, and usually what they mean is evidence generated by RCTs. But are
systematic reviews of the results a useful guide to policy? And should development
economics continue to be focusing so much on the programmes that flow from RCT-
driven research? Lant Pritchett of LSE talks to Tim Phillips about the nature of
“rigorous” evidence in development economics, and the future of the discipline itself.
Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/macroeconomics-growth/rethinking-evidence-and-refocusing-growth-development-economics