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Searching under the streetlight: A historical perspective on the rise of randomistas

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  • de Souza Leão, Luciana
  • Eyal, Gil

Abstract

In our contribution, we compare recent development RCTs with an earlier wave of development experiments dating from the 1960s and 1970s to investigate the links between the academic success of randomistas and historical changes in the development aid industry. We show how the recent privatization and fragmentation of the foreign aid sector enabled randomistas to bypass the political resistance to randomization among development workers and beneficiaries, which had bedeviled their predecessors. Comparing current development RCTs to earlier experiments, we find that they tend to be of shorter duration, smaller scope, and that they often limit themselves to evaluating only what can be easily measured. While this might be useful to cement the alliance between randomistas and global foundations interested in demonstrating the impact of their giving, we argue that the targeted interventions characteristic of the randomista movement obscure the harder task of addressing the complex mechanisms reproducing global poverty.

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  • de Souza Leão, Luciana & Eyal, Gil, 2020. "Searching under the streetlight: A historical perspective on the rise of randomistas," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:127:y:2020:i:c:s0305750x19304309
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.104781
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    1. Krause, Monika, 2014. "The Good Project," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226131221, December.
    2. Duflo, Esther, 2017. "The Economist as Plumber," CEPR Discussion Papers 11881, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Esther Duflo, 2017. "Richard T. Ely Lecture: The Economist as Plumber," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 1-26, May.
    4. Esther Duflo, 2017. "The Economist as Plumber," NBER Working Papers 23213, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Abhijit Banerjee & Sylvain Chassang & Erik Snowberg, 2016. "Decision Theoretic Approaches to Experiment Design and External Validity," NBER Working Papers 22167, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Nick Bernards, 2023. "From Multiple Deprivations to Exploitation: Politicizing the Multidimensional Poverty Index," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(5), pages 1374-1395, September.

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