Chris Blattman on Chickens, Cash, and Development Economics

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2017

⏱️ 64 minutes

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Summary

Chris Blattman of the University of Chicago talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about whether it's better to give poor Africans cash or chickens and the role of experiments in helping us figure out the answer. Along the way he discusses the importance of growth vs. smaller interventions and the state of development economics.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:08.5	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:13.1	Our website is econtalk.org, where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find
0:18.1	links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.0	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done
0:25.2	going back to 2006.
0:27.5	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:30.0	We'd love to hear from you.
0:31.8	Today is June 12, 2017.
0:35.8	And my guest is Chris Blatman, the Ramley E. Pearson professor of Global Conflict Studies
0:41.8	at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
0:46.9	Chris was on econ talk in 2014 to discuss the virtues and drawbacks of giving poor people
0:51.6	cash versus other types of opportunities.
0:55.4	And in 2016, he was here to talk about what are often called sweatshops, working in factories
1:01.2	versus self-employment or smaller enterprises.
1:04.1	Chris, welcome back to Econ Talk.
1:06.4	Thank you.
1:07.4	Now, today's episode is a little strange.
1:10.1	It starts with the fact that a while back you wrote, not so long ago, you wrote an open
1:14.7	letter to Bill Gates, a very wealthy man, reacting to his idea of giving poor people chickens,
1:21.4	poor people in Africa chickens, as a way of helping them escape poverty.
1:27.3	That open letter of yours to Bill Gates prompted a response from land-pricet.
	...

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