Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

Every year, 9 million children die before their fifth birthday, yet the global fight against poverty remains paralyzed by grand ideological debates between aid optimists and pessimists. Banerjee's work cuts through these sweeping arguments to reveal a fundamental problem: policymakers focus on whether aid works universally rather than examining what actually helps specific communities. Through rigorous randomized experiments across multiple countries, the short demonstrates how simple, targeted interventions — from deworming children for $1.36 to providing fertilizer vouchers after harvest — can transform lives more effectively than massive development programs. This short argues that we should replace ideology with experimentation, grand theories with patient analysis, and sweeping reforms with carefully tested solutions that accumulate into substantial change.