A Compilation of Posts on Development Economics
I have written several posts about Development Economics that are scattered and hard to find. I compiled them here. As always, your thoughts and comments drive this forward.
Since April 2024, I have written several posts on development economics. They were written individually and are difficult to find, so here is a compilation, both on LinkedIn and Substack. I noticed that they fell in 2 buckets.
I am in interested in our discipline, both what is working and what is not. I know that at our best, we are working to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, but I am concerned about our collective public silence on authoritarian governments and atrocities around the world.
I am also interested in what I call `The Modernity Project.” As colonialism came to an end, many ideas emerged of who we wanted to be and these were further refined in the consensus building exercises around our constitutions. That national myth-making seems to have collapsed. Do we need to revive it, and what kinds of ideas are emerging from countries around the world that may point to a different way forward?
I have tried to order the posts in those buckets and will update this as I write more.
Development Economics
1. What is going right with development economics (Products): Many people think that development economists are tinkering at the margin, have little to say about “big” problems and that this is a direct result of the increase in RCTS. They could not be farther from the truth. I show how development economics has made fundamental progress on giant problems, changing minds and narratives and bringing in crucial change. [LinkedIn, Substack]
2. What is going right with development economics (Process): I talk about the huge strides that development economics has made in bringing more women into the field, encouraging fieldwork, and learning across sub-fields, all the while maintaining very high standards around peer review. [LinkedIn, Substack]
3. Moral compass: Have we lost our moral compass in development economics? A striking feature of our discipline is our collective public silence on atrocities around the world. I just do not subscribe to the notion that we should be dispassionate observers and experimenters, far from the lives of the people on whose behalf we work. [LinkedIn, Substack]
4. What is wrong with development economics: Resource Poor = Research poor. Resource Poor = Representationally Poor. My reflections on a panel at the World Bank. [LinkedIn, Substack]
5. Abuse of epistemic authority: Statistics and statistical methods are regulatory requirements. Like all well-formulated regulations, they are one ingredient in a search for meaning, but they are not--and should not be used--as the only input in understanding the world. The (ab)use of epistemic authority occurs when we use our statistical methods to inspire silence, instead of provoking discussion and debate. [LinkedIn, Substack]
6. Should we change the way we teach: Development economics has traditionally been taught through the lens of “convergence”—why don’t poor countries grow fast when the theory suggests they should? That question needs to be flipped to “how did post-colonial countries manage to accomplish so much in so little time, despite 200 years of complete destruction of their societies?” [LinkedIn, Substack]
The Modernity Project
1. A question for these times: Who do we want to be? An old national project of modernity collapsed as the devastation wrought by communism in Russia became evident. Should it be revived, and what kinds of new thinking is emerging from South Africa, Namibia, India, and Argentina? [LinkedIn, Substack]
2. Further thoughts on the modernity project: I elaborate further on the big ideas around environment, cash grants and positive rights emerging from South Africa, Namibia, India, and Argentina. [LinkedIn, Substack]