Nobel Prize in economics: how to fight the people …

The Nobel Prize in Economics 2019
It was awarded to researchers Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for his experiences in population groups to improve the living conditions of children in Kenya and India. "This year, a new look has been introduced to get reliable answers to find the best ways to to fight against poverty in the world. These are smaller and more manageable questions, such as finding the most effective interventions for improve children's health", They explained from the Swedish Academy before informing the names of the winners. A few hours earlier, the official Twitter account @NobelPrize was reminiscent of 1976 Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, mentor of monetarism, the theoretical school of neoliberalism, a system that plunges underdevelopment in most countries and misery in millions of people. .

Michael Kremer He is 55 years old. He teaches and conducts research at Harvard University in the United States. He was recently named "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum. His latest work has focused on the development of agriculture, health and education system and credit system very backward economies like Kenya The other winners are Abhijit Banerjee (58 years old) and Esther Duflo (46 years old) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. The website of the prestigious institute celebrates the prize awarded to this couple of economists "for his experimental research to reduce world poverty". The Nobel Prize distributes 9 million Swedish kronor, the equivalent of one 830 thousand euros.

Banerjee, Duflo and Kremer Pioneered the Development of a Social Science Research Method Called in English Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which could be translated as "randomized controlled experiments". The idea is that, as it is used in medicine, tests are done in very small groups on how this can affect a certain extent in the field of social policy. From the Royal Swedish Academy, they explained that the studies of the laureates allowed to apply tutoring programs in Kenyan schools that improved the performance of 5 million children. "This showed that timely help on the weakest students was an effective measure," he adds.

Esther Duflo explained in a TED conference that "randomized controlled trials have revolutionized medicine by allowing us to distinguish effective drugs from ineffective drugs. And you can do the same thing with randomized controlled trials for social policies". He said that in India, there are enough free vaccines in hospitals, but that many rural families do not go to health centers to vaccinate children. "We performed a randomized controlled trial in 134 villages in Udaipur district, India. We found that the organization of vaccination camps increases the level of assistance from 6 to 17%. If the incentive to receive a kilo of lentils is added, it reaches 38%. It turns out that the economy is wrong because it is cheaper to give the lenses than not to give them, "he explained, with regard to the subsequent costs related to medical care. A sick child because of the lack of vaccination. Other experiments in the same direction have been conducted on the need to distribute mosquito nets in the villages of Kenya and de-worm boys and girls in Haiti.

The Nobel Prize 2019 involves a considerable strengthening of the method of randomized controlled experiments. However, This technique is not without criticism. For example, researchers Angus Deaton (Princeton University, USA) and Nancy Cartwright (University of Durham, England) warn that these experiments "may play a role in creating scientific knowledge and useful predictions, but only in the framework of a program. broader that combines other methods, including conceptual and theoretical development, to Discover not only what works, but why something works".

The Argentine economist Matías Vernengo (Bucknell University, USA) explains that "The concern in the areas of heterodoxy is that these controlled experiments are considered the only source of information on anti-poverty policies.. A lot of times simple solutions are asked for complex problemsignoring the specificities of poverty in different places, for example in central and peripheral countries. For example, the poverty resulting from the adjustment imposed by the IMF in Argentina is not solved by micro-interventions, but requires a change in macroeconomic policy. "