More Than 1 Billion People Are Hungry in the World

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[waywardcats]

More Than 1 Billion People Are Hungry in the World:But what if the experts are wrong?

A very interesting article in Foreign Policy journal about the United Nation's recent announcement about hunger.  It is not focused on microfinance, but some of the issues they discuss are related.  A teaser:

But is it really true? Are there really more than a billion people going to bed hungry each night? Our research on this question has taken us to rural villages and teeming urban slums around the world, collecting data and speaking with poor people about what they eat and what else they buy, from Morocco to Kenya, Indonesia to India. We've also tapped into a wealth of insights from our academic colleagues. What we've found is that the story of hunger, and of poverty more broadly, is far more complex than any one statistic or grand theory; it is a world where those without enough to eat may save up to buy a TV instead, where more money doesn't necessarily translate into more food, and where making rice cheaper can sometimes even lead people to buy less rice.

[Amy-in-PHX]

More Than 1 Billion People Are Hungry in the World:But what if the experts are wrong?

A very interesting article in Foreign Policy journal about the United Nation's recent announcement about hunger.  It is not focused on microfinance, but some of the issues they discuss are related.

Kerry, thanks very much for that post.  I recently discovered the work of Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee (the authors of the article you posted).  From the Center for Global Development website (http://www.cgdev.org/content/article/detail/1424970):  "Duflo is professor of poverty alleviation and development economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-founder [with Banerjee] of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). She is best known for her work applying randomized controlled trials and other forms of impact evaluation in field experiments to identify which development interventions actually work."

The webpage whose url I wrote, above, includes a video of a 15-minute talk by Esther Duflo about using randomized controlled trials to guide policy choices, in trying to aid poor people.  I think it is well worth the time to listen.

(I read an article by an economist not long ago, that applied a randomized controlled trial to microfinance, in Sri Lanka.  I've been meaning to summarize it for this forum for a few weeks, but can't seem to set aside the time for it.  You reminded me to put this back on my to-do list.)