Page 1 of 2 Poverty on a Petri Dish 9/25/2009

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Poverty on a petri dish

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RESHMA PATIL Posted: Mar 11, 2004 at 0000 hrs IST

World Bank money is funding this driving test. A group of randomly selected people in New Delhi is busy trying to acquire driving licences. The instructions are clear: be honest, one group is told. Another set is gently nudged toward touts swarming the RTO. Some are promised a ‘bonus’ if they get a licence real quick. www ChildFund org Ads by Google

Everybody’s experience of bribes and babus is carefully Latest News Today's Paper Edits & Columns noted and studied. IAF strengthening air defence radars alo... Then there’s a short driving test. Army won’t be used against Maoists: Chid... A group of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at Cambridge, who are studying the Ram temple should be and will be built a...

nightmares of ‘‘bureaucratic corruption,’’ will scientifically NSA a ‘babe in the woods on nuclear matt... evaluate this on-going survey and driving test. Are the Discussion Blogs honest set better drivers? Aus admits racial overtones in attacks, ... Bakwas - By kuldeep ‘‘We were not satisfied by simply producing high-quality Water on moon prompts ISRO to rethink on... research,’’ MIT professor of economics Abhijit Banerjee told He will have to eat ... - By Pritam Singh Saeed not under arrest or protective cus... The Indian Express in an e-mail interview. We agree mr chidamba... - By KMR Overseas

In June last year, professors of economics Banerjee, Esther People like m k. nar... - By n.r.i. Dufflo and Sendhil Mullainathan—with extensive experience studying racial bias in Kenya, USA, India and the Africas, Indecent argumentati... - By Giri Girishankar

education, health, agriculture and poverty—founded the Santhanam - By D.A.Eswar Poverty Action Lab at MIT. Expert on all matter... - By K.Vijayakumar ‘‘We’re convinced,’’ says Banerjee, that policies designed to reduce poverty could be substantially more effective if scientific evidence was available . The lab doesn’t have test tubes, but work is based on rigorous evidence .’’

In sync with researchers at Harvard University, Princeton University, University of California, Berkley, and University of Chicago, random trials are on from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra to shanty towns in Kenya and Chicago.

In black and white

In another experiment, researchers associated with the Lab recently sent resumes to newspaper ads for jobs in

Boston and Chicago. Applications were randomly assigned a black-sounding name (Lakisha Washington, Jamal Jewelry Gaming Electronics Perfumes Jones) or white-sounding name (Emily Walsh, Brendan Baker). The result: White sounding names received 50 percent more call backs than the Black sounding names.

So last March, trekking through data from gram panchayats of West Bengal and Rajasthan, researchers Dufflo and Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, partnered by the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, found a distinct trail: ‘‘Women leaders invest more in infrastructure that relates to rural womens’ concerns, like water and roads in West Bengal, water in Rajasthan. Men in West Bengal invested more in education.’’ Microsoft XBOX Xbox Blue Dragon The study’s main result maintained that ‘‘women are politically more active in village councils with a woman leader.’’ Offer Price:Rs. 16990 Offer Price:Rs 1895

In a cluster of non-formal educational centres in Udaipur, teachers—known to attend only 60 per cent of the time— photograph the class at the start and end of the day. View All Products An MIT researcher on this ongoing project checks the camera’s timestamp feature to determine when and for how long each school was open. A bonus awaits teachers with good attendance.

In Bhopal, researchers funded by MIT and University of Chicago are trailing college-age students of upper and lower castes seeking engineering admissions. Tracking their future education and job opportunities, they’ll study

http://www.indianexpress.com/storyOld.php?storyId=42666 9/25/2009 Poverty on a petri dish Page 2 of 2

and predict the impact of admission policy on future income, social standing.

The work culture of random trials is distinct, with an eye on ‘‘clear, unambiguous results.’’ The idea is to permit local NGOs to focus resources on effective programmes. When extra teachers at informal schools in Rajasthan had no discernible impact on test scores, the programme was discontinued.

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http://www.indianexpress.com/storyOld.php?storyId=42666 9/25/2009