Esther Duflo: La Française a fonde le Poverty Action Lab, qui est devenu une place forte de l'economie du developpement. Pour le savoir, Esther Duflo, cofondatnce en 2003 du Poverty Action.

The pilgrimage that brings more than 2 million Muslims to Mecca every year tends to make them more religiously observant and also more tolerant, a huge study of Pakistani pilgrims suggests. Muslims who undertake the hajj "return with more positive views towards people from other countries," are more likely to say "that people of different religions are equal," and are twice as likely as other religious Muslims to condemn Osama bin Laden, the study found.

Fisman and Miguel strongly back the idea of randomized testing for anti-poverty interventions, an idea that is being pushed with great success by the Poverty Action Lab at MIT.

Duflo, Banerjee and the other J-PAL economists apply the rigor of randomized controlled trial techniques to poverty interventions to identify whether or not a program is effective. In this interview, they highlight the poverty interventions they view as consistently effective and provide insight into where individual donors can make a true impact.

At the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, Bill Clinton honored the commitment to deworm 10 million children and the work of Deworm the World. Deworm the World was established by the Education Group of the Forum of Young Global Leaders to promote mass school-based deworming on the findings of J-PAL research. Michael Kremer, Esther Duflo and Rachel Glennerster (all J-PAL members) are board members of Deworm the World.

Ever since fears erupted about a decade ago that the world could be divided into digital haves and have-nots, policymakers have assumed that this digital divide needs to be bridged. The most obvious first step was to give children from poor families access to computers, in school and at home. But does this plug-and-study idea really work in poor neighborhoods? Not necessarily, it seems.

Eighty percent of the world’s 140 million undernourished children lack essential micronutrients.

Are "randomized evaluations" a better way of doing aid and development policy?

Edward Miguel assesses the prospects for sustained growth in Africa, with commentaries from a variety of authors including Rachel Glennerster from J-PAL. Miguel argues that rigorous evidence on what works is key to improving outcomes in Africa.

Abhijit Banerjee, professor of economics at MIT and director of the prestigious Jameel Poverty Action Lab, doesn’t see as much interest in India yet among the global community of economists, as there is in China.

Esther Duflo has been named as one of Foreign Policy's top 100 intellectuals.

The Jameel Poverty Action Lab is leading a quiet revolution. The idea is simple: to identify the most effective ways to alleviate poverty by applying the same kind of rigorous, scientific, randomized trials routinely used to test new drugs.

Eradicating hookworm in the U.S. South brought about dramatic changes. We can do the same in Africa.

Today's pledge by President Bush to invest $350 million in fighting Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) over the next 5 years is one of the wisest investments we can make in combating poverty around the world. This is particularly true when children are mass treated for common diseases through schools.

While no woman has been president of the United States — yet — the world does have several thousand years’ worth of experience with female leaders.

Bothered by cliched images of corrupt policemen in films and poor public perception, a pre-pilot project was undertaken in 10 police stations across three districts in Rajasthan to improve police skills and public perception.

Dani Rodrik, has announced that the new paper by Cohen & Dupas
presented at CGD last week “vindicates Jeff Sachs.” If by this, Dani
means that the Cohen-Dupas paper lends support to the view that bed nets
should always be free in poor countries and social marketing programs
that depend upon small payments should be abolished, [Mead Over] believes that he
is reading much more into the Cohen-Dupas results than is justified.

As the United States contemplates the possibility of its first female president, we look at India, which in 1992 mandated a place for women in local governments. Esther Duflo of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab found that women there lead differently than men.

- ¿Es positivo dar libros a los niños de países en vías de desarrollo para mejorar su educación? - Sí, claro! - ¿Cómo lo sabes? - Hombre, me imagino que… - No imagines nada. ¿Es más efectivo que proporcionarles un profesor adicional, o darles desayuno gratuito? - No lo se… Una cosa no quita la otra… - Si tienes un presupuesto ajustado sí. - Pero mejor tener libros que no tenerlos. Yo creo que…. - No creas nada. Es un tema demasiado serio para abordarlo según lo que “creas”.