betchay_bd's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent! Ever since I saw a TED Talk by Esther Duflo I knew I wanted to learn more about the use of randomized control trials in social science/aid development work. I really appreciated how Duflo and Banerjee compared and contrasted the two major arguments to the many facets of poverty and then used studies and experiences to provide a different perspective on the issue. Well researched and well presented.
From the conclusion, which I think sums up the book pretty well: "If we resist the kind of lazy, formulaic thinking that reduces every problem to the same set of general principles; if we listen to poor people themselves and force ourselves to understand the logic of their choices; if we accept the possibility of error and subject every idea, including the most apparently commonsensical ones, to rigorous empirical testing, then we will be able not only to construct a tool box of effective policies but also to better understand why the poor live the way they do." (272)
From the conclusion, which I think sums up the book pretty well: "If we resist the kind of lazy, formulaic thinking that reduces every problem to the same set of general principles; if we listen to poor people themselves and force ourselves to understand the logic of their choices; if we accept the possibility of error and subject every idea, including the most apparently commonsensical ones, to rigorous empirical testing, then we will be able not only to construct a tool box of effective policies but also to better understand why the poor live the way they do." (272)
sedgewren's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.25
A level-headed, practical approach to global health and development, tackling presumptions about the global poor. I would recommend reading this over Why Nations Fail.
qontfnns's review against another edition
4.0
Mencerahkan banget tentang berbagai aspek dari kemiskinan; kenapa bisa struktural, berantai dan begitu memerangkap. Bahasanya mudah dimengerti untuk orang awam, sampai bisa aku dengarkan via audiobook tanpa macet-macet berarti. Selain pembahasan yang membumi, buku ini rasanya makin dekat dan penting karena beberapa narasumber tetapnya adalah orang Indonesia. Jebakan kemiskinan ini salah satu nuansa yang tidak bisa kita kecualikan untuk hidup bermasyarakat. Bagi yang hoki terlahir di luar kemiskinan, belajar hal ini menurut aku penting banget supaya nggak kerasukan kelas sosial, bisa merasakan solidaritas dengan yang hidup susah, dan lebih mindful dalam berjualbeli supaya bisa terlibat dalam ekonomi in a way that matters. Tentu yang paling berkewajiban menuntaskan kemiskinan adalah pemerintah. Tapi melihat kemiskinan diuraikan sampai akar-akarnya begini, aku sebagai rakyat biasa juga serasa bisa menemukan sedikit celah untuk saling mendukung. Semua orang (wabilkhusus politikus apalagi pembuat kebijakan) plis baca buku ini!
Ps. pakpres bumen, we NEED basic universal income!!!!!
Ps. pakpres bumen, we NEED basic universal income!!!!!
claudia2945's review against another edition
3.0
Really a 3.5 for me, mostly because it was sometimes hard to follow who was studying which problem with what result. Maybe just my covid mind! The authors outline an approach for determining what really helps reduce poverty based on randomized controlled trials. The results are often counterintuitive and lead ultimately to better or no interventions. Definitely worh reading!
hellobethany's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
5.0
If you have any interest in poverty alleviation at all, I highly recommend this book. Much time has been spent arguing about the best and worst methods for alleviating poverty. The authors of this book have a refreshingly straightforward take on this: let's figure out what works for each specific issue and do that. It seems kind of obvious, right? But as they point out, a lot of poverty relief efforts are NOT evidence-based, but instead motivated by broad, sweeping ideological positions such as "provide enough monetary aid to get the poor on their feet and they will be self-sufficient from there" or "aid is at best a bandaid and at worst a barrier to long-term success - rather, we need to let the free market do its job and over time poverty will dissipate."
The authors argue (persuasively, in my view) that neither of these sweeping conclusions is all right or all wrong. Instead, the problems causing and caused by poverty are complex, multifaceted, and cannot be solved by a single action plan and certainly not by a single ideology. Government aid won't fix ALL of the problems, but neither will private charity or the free market. If we are truly interested in alleviating poverty or bringing any relief to the living conditions of the poor, we need to evaluate each issue individually.
Some things will require government intervention. Example: subsidized insurance programs. The poor would undoubtedly benefit from insurance which would reimburse them for losses incurred from natural disasters, yet most of them simply will not purchase insurance policies. There's just not enough institutional trust in insurance companies for them to part with even a small amount of their hard-earned money for the insurance premiums. It won't happen without government subsidies.
Some things can be improved with the help of private organizations. Micro-credit is one example of this. Micro-credit loans can be very helpful for poor business owners and can eventually become self-sustaining even if they initially need to be funded by charitable contributions.
Some things can be improved by the free market, with the right nudges. Stable jobs are sorely lacking in many poor communities, especially in more rural areas. Setting up new factories and other businesses in these areas can radically improve the economic standing of an entire community.
Sometimes, we just need small tweaks to existing services, such as offering birth control to women privately or making access to certain goods easier and more automatic.
The bottom line is that there is no quick fix, no one-size-fits-all solution, no single policy or program that will fix poverty once and for all. Some of the solutions that really work are counterintuitive and some proposed solutions that really seem like they should work just don't. The actions we take should be based on evidence, not ideology. Some things are going to make free market enthusiasts uncomfortable and others will make anti-capitalists uncomfortable. But if we really care about alleviating poverty, we need to be open to all kinds of solutions. There's plenty of work to be done, so if you're not thrilled with the effective solutions in one area, put your support behind another area that fits better for you. Just don't get in the way of others doing what needs to be done elsewhere.
I didn't have any reservations about this book that were big enough to knock off a star, but I have one caution worth noting. First of all, I am not an economist and not familiar with the full breadth of research on this subject. The authors were excellent about basing their conclusions on actual research and evaluation, which they always cited and described thoroughly. Most of the time, they based their final conclusion for each issue on a few different program evaluations. It is POSSIBLE of course that the research they cite in support of their conclusions is cherry-picked to some degree. If you are a layman who has not studied this body of literature firsthand, you will probably have to choose to trust the authors' integrity to some degree in order to fully accept their conclusions.
But that would be true with any book on any subject you don't have firsthand expertise in. I think it is always good to foster a healthy level of skepticism and I will remain open to new information that may contradict some of the authors' conclusions. But the main point of this book was to re-direct our focus from broad sweeping conclusions to more modest-but-effective case-by-case evaluations. So even if their recommendations on say, improving nutrition programs, turns out to be wrong, that woudn't invalidate the rest of their findings on health and education and entrepreneurship etc. And it is clear that they are not driven by political partisanship either, since their various recommendations would each find favor at different points on the political spectrum. I would say they probably lean a little left, since most recommendations involve at least a little bit of aid in some form. But it often is not necessarily government aid and right-leaning people are often supportive of private charity (often more so than left-leaning people, though that's a whole other conversation).
So wherever you fall on the political spectrum, this book is worth your time if you are at all interested in helping with poverty alleviation. You may not agree with everything but there are a lot of helpful, evidence-based insights and we need more voices like this in the discourse, keeping us focused on effective interventions: figuring out what works and then DOING THAT.
The authors argue (persuasively, in my view) that neither of these sweeping conclusions is all right or all wrong. Instead, the problems causing and caused by poverty are complex, multifaceted, and cannot be solved by a single action plan and certainly not by a single ideology. Government aid won't fix ALL of the problems, but neither will private charity or the free market. If we are truly interested in alleviating poverty or bringing any relief to the living conditions of the poor, we need to evaluate each issue individually.
Some things will require government intervention. Example: subsidized insurance programs. The poor would undoubtedly benefit from insurance which would reimburse them for losses incurred from natural disasters, yet most of them simply will not purchase insurance policies. There's just not enough institutional trust in insurance companies for them to part with even a small amount of their hard-earned money for the insurance premiums. It won't happen without government subsidies.
Some things can be improved with the help of private organizations. Micro-credit is one example of this. Micro-credit loans can be very helpful for poor business owners and can eventually become self-sustaining even if they initially need to be funded by charitable contributions.
Some things can be improved by the free market, with the right nudges. Stable jobs are sorely lacking in many poor communities, especially in more rural areas. Setting up new factories and other businesses in these areas can radically improve the economic standing of an entire community.
Sometimes, we just need small tweaks to existing services, such as offering birth control to women privately or making access to certain goods easier and more automatic.
The bottom line is that there is no quick fix, no one-size-fits-all solution, no single policy or program that will fix poverty once and for all. Some of the solutions that really work are counterintuitive and some proposed solutions that really seem like they should work just don't. The actions we take should be based on evidence, not ideology. Some things are going to make free market enthusiasts uncomfortable and others will make anti-capitalists uncomfortable. But if we really care about alleviating poverty, we need to be open to all kinds of solutions. There's plenty of work to be done, so if you're not thrilled with the effective solutions in one area, put your support behind another area that fits better for you. Just don't get in the way of others doing what needs to be done elsewhere.
I didn't have any reservations about this book that were big enough to knock off a star, but I have one caution worth noting. First of all, I am not an economist and not familiar with the full breadth of research on this subject. The authors were excellent about basing their conclusions on actual research and evaluation, which they always cited and described thoroughly. Most of the time, they based their final conclusion for each issue on a few different program evaluations. It is POSSIBLE of course that the research they cite in support of their conclusions is cherry-picked to some degree. If you are a layman who has not studied this body of literature firsthand, you will probably have to choose to trust the authors' integrity to some degree in order to fully accept their conclusions.
But that would be true with any book on any subject you don't have firsthand expertise in. I think it is always good to foster a healthy level of skepticism and I will remain open to new information that may contradict some of the authors' conclusions. But the main point of this book was to re-direct our focus from broad sweeping conclusions to more modest-but-effective case-by-case evaluations. So even if their recommendations on say, improving nutrition programs, turns out to be wrong, that woudn't invalidate the rest of their findings on health and education and entrepreneurship etc. And it is clear that they are not driven by political partisanship either, since their various recommendations would each find favor at different points on the political spectrum. I would say they probably lean a little left, since most recommendations involve at least a little bit of aid in some form. But it often is not necessarily government aid and right-leaning people are often supportive of private charity (often more so than left-leaning people, though that's a whole other conversation).
So wherever you fall on the political spectrum, this book is worth your time if you are at all interested in helping with poverty alleviation. You may not agree with everything but there are a lot of helpful, evidence-based insights and we need more voices like this in the discourse, keeping us focused on effective interventions: figuring out what works and then DOING THAT.
yeller's review against another edition
3.0
The first half of this book was very interesting, very insightful. I loved the new perspectives on the problems and symptoms of global poverty, and everything the authors said made sense. That being said, I'm not really an economist, so once it got to the second half of the book with all the economics stuff, I lost a lot of interest. I was supposed to read this for a class and didn't, so I read it after. I would have finished it and not hated it if it was for class, but as a book for pleasure it didn't keep my interest compared to all the other, more fun, books I wanted to read.
kaitlin_hansen's review against another edition
4.0
Great reading for anyone interested in economic development and social policy. I love that one of the top arguments of the book is to listen to the people you’re trying to serve, and evaluate empirical evidence when designing policy. This book dives into the big buckets of development (health, education, finance) but brings them down to the local, often village level of analysis. The big question they ask is: In lieu of massive government reform, which is sometimes not needed and often unable to happen quickly, how can we design and deliver smarter development policies?
geolatin's review against another edition
4.0
This was a really interesting book. These 2 economists conducted randomized trials of various ways of helping the poor in various parts of the world, including looking at healthcare, microfinance, and cash assistance. They looked at what was working and what wasn't and tried to delve into the deep reasons behind it.
This was great to read in conjunction with "An Imperfect Offering", "A Framework for Understanding Poverty", and "No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses". If you're interested in social justice, I highly recommend all these books.
This was great to read in conjunction with "An Imperfect Offering", "A Framework for Understanding Poverty", and "No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses". If you're interested in social justice, I highly recommend all these books.