Written by Ryan McGuine // In October, economists Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty." Until the 1980s, the field of development economics, which seeks to determine why some countries grow rich while others remain poor, was mostly concerned with big questions, debates about foreign aid were heavily ideological, and billions of dollars were spent on untested projects based on untested assumptions. Enter the Randomistas. Continue reading

Written by Ryan McGuine // In August, Martin Ravallion wrote a working paper for the Center for Global Development titled Should the Randomistas (Continue to) Rule? questioning the wisdom of allowing proponents of randomized control trials to dictate the development research agenda. Continue reading