Alleviating global poverty

Abstract

This chapter describes the research by Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer, who pioneered the experimental approach to understanding poverty alleviation, for which they were awarded the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Economic well-being doubled in the poorest countries between 1995 and 2018. Child mortality has been cut in half relative to 1995, and the proportion of children attending school has gone up from 56 to 80 percent. Any post-intervention differences in the outcome of interest can thus be solely attributed to the treatment. Studies using field experiments are therefore characterized by high internal validity. A key issue is whether experimental results can be generalized to other contexts, whether or not they are externally valid. In the mid-1990s, Michael Kremer and colleagues conducted the first field experiments within development economics in rural Western Kenya.