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More from @rglenner

Rachel Glennerster

Sep 3, 2023

I spent some time today putting together thoughts for someone interested in the evidence on how to help low income countries (LICs) grow and I thought there might be wider interest so here goes a thread.

Achieving a higher growth rate is the holy grail of econ but...1/many

most economics models assume interventions can only improve a country's level of income not permanently increase growth. That is because they assume diminishing returns to capital. The first spade makes a farmer much more productive (vs hands), the second not so much...2/N

Even better policies (eg open trade) can get you higher steady state income but not permanently higher growth.
Despite this, a lot of policy discussion is about how to "kick start" or accelerate growth.
I think the mismatch comes b/c even temp growth spurts are very good. 3/n

Read 15 tweets

Rachel Glennerster

@rglenner

Jun 12, 2022

I agree that political economy and the willingness of elites to allow reform is important for growth (who could disagree), but I find it less useful to compare political economy as a driver of growth to aid as the media loves to do. Thread 1/n
theguardian.com/global-develop…

Aid is, after all, very small compared to investment flows, remittances, and importantly spending by LIC governments and residents. The exceptions (such as Afghanistan) are exceptions for a reason. We keep putting money in b/c they failed. We stop when countries succeed. 2/n

But more importantly, most of aid is designed to make peoples' lives better until a country has higher living standards that can support and fund strong education, health, gender and poverty reduction policies. And there is evidence to suggest it can & does make a difference 3/n

Read 12 tweets

Rachel Glennerster

@rglenner

Feb 13, 2022

I just finished preparing my undergraduate lecture on the economics of women's empowerment and it reminded me just how radical economics is.

Thread 1/n

Objective is maximizing utility, not income, or education or anything others want you to want. Imp therefore that everyone has the opportunity, information, and capabilities to pursue what they think is important. Ie, economics and empowerment closely aligned. 2/n

Concept of diminishing marginal utility (of income, leisure etc) means its *efficient* to focus attention and resources on those who have less money or power or opportunity because any gains for them will have larger impact on utility. 3/n

Read 5 tweets

Rachel Glennerster

@rglenner

Jan 3, 2022

While at DFID I would provide new Sec of State an "Introduction to Development". By touching on evolution of diff approaches to development I sought to explain the need for diff parts of DFID & inoculate against claims of simple fixes. Thread 1/n

@UChicago

Yesterday I turned that slide deck into a lecture for undergrads at @UChicago. By showing how development has fallen foul of 1 dimensional fads my aim is to explain why we will cover both macro & micro, understanding what works in improving how teachers teach & how IMF works 2/n

So with some trepidation (I am simplifying massively & miss important development approaches in my overview and nuances in those I do describe), here is the basic thrust of the argument. I am sure #econtwitter can help me improve this. Aim is to show how diff approaches link 3/n

Read 16 tweets

Rachel Glennerster

@rglenner

Dec 29, 2021

@UChicago

This fall I taught a course for grad students @UChicago on the practicalities of running randomized evaluations, based in part on my book with Kudzai Takavarasha but with updates (eg machine learning in RCTs) press.princeton.edu/books/paperbac…
Some thoughts on what I learned.. 1/n

We need more courses in universities that teach how to take the ideas we are teaching and apply them to practical issues. Many students could ace the problem sets but the final project where they had to design an RCT showed who could work through practical issues involved 2/n

Most challenging part for many was that there was no right answer to many design choices. "Its a tradeoff" I said repeatedly (eg between more representative sample vs a sample with more take up and thus power). "I want you to explain why you chose the trade off you chose." 3/n

Read 11 tweets

Rachel Glennerster

@rglenner

Jul 5, 2020

In March we forecast indirect impacts of C-19 on developing countries through 3 channels:
1. global economic (eg commodity prices, capital flows);
2. containment's impact on livelihoods;
3. other secondary impacts (eg school closures).
What does the data say now? Thread.

Global demand and trade have fallen substantially. The IMF forecasts a contraction of 4.9% in GDP while WTO projects a fall in world trade of between 13 and 32% in 2020. Commodity producing emerging markets are forecast to do particularly badly.

@DFID_UK

This decline in GDP would translate into an increase in extreme poverty of 70 million if the previous relationship of GDP to poverty applied. The below estimates are from @DFID_UK internal model but are very similar to those from the @wb_research.

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