On Populism and (Electric) Power in India -- Arvind Subramanian
8/21/12
Electric power has been restored across northern India to the 600 million people who recently found themselves sweltering in the dark. But the massive blackouts have left lingering questions about the country’s ability to provide the infrastructure necessary to sustained growth and poverty reduction.
CGD Fellow Arvind Subramanian puts the blame on populism—a tendency of politicians to promise free or heavily subsidized electricity and officials to turn a blind eye to power theft—that has left India with an undercapitalized, inefficient power sector that has much higher transmission and distribution losses than other countries at a similar level of development.
On Voice of America's 
The vast majority of people who care for children, the elderly and disabled in wealthy places like the United States come from developing countries. It's work that some say falls into the "3-D" category (dirty, difficult and demeaning). Immigrants who do these jobs are typically paid poorly and offered few basic workplace protections. It's a trend that's also creating care gaps in the families and societies these workers leave behind. We look at both ends of what’s known as the “global care chain.”
Development is easy, right? All poor countries have to do is mimic the things that work in rich countries and they’ll evolve into fully functional states. If only it were that simple. My guest this week is 
Behavioral economics seeks to complement traditional approaches to economics by incorporating insights from psychology and human behavior, and taking a behavioral approach allows us to understand a host of behaviors that are critical to the success of a variety of development policies. In this event, Sendhil Mullainathan and Saugato Datta will present a paper exploring how behavioral economics can inform development policy, from education to health to cash transfer programs. Drawing on the latest research in these and other areas, the authors will discuss how behavioral economics provides policymakers with innovative new ways of tackling many important issues in development.
