Views from the Center

Last month, Abhijit Banerjee won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, together with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer. Here’s a quick introduction to almost all of Banerjee’s publications. The range of topics is breathtaking, from land reform to corruption to microcredit to international aid to the fundamental nature of poverty.

Last week, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.” In this blog post, I’ll give you a bite-sized introduction to more than 100 of Michael Kremer’s research publications.

Nearly 4,000 people in rural Bihar, India, answered the question, “Would you rather have the government budget spent on cash transfers or public health and nutrition services?” According to a blog post by Khemani, Habyarimana, and Nooruddin, “only 13 percent chose cash if it came at the expense of spending to improve public health and nutrition.” The pattern is similar when comparing cash to roads, with the vast majority of people preferring roads. 

There is no more urgent and fundamental problem in development than finding effective ways to help the ultra-poor improve their economic and social condition. But most interventions don’t reach the poorest of the poor. A stellar panel cohosted by CGD and Women for Women International recently came together to discuss the challenges in addressing the needs of the poorest women and to explore how graduation programs perform in addressing them. Here are some key takeaways from the discussion.