Author: Farwa Sial

The Economics of being 鈥業nteresting鈥�: Many kinds of exclusions

Farwa Sial1 Comment

GER-LEWIS 2

This post engages with a conversational post titled by Branko Milanovic. He is concerned with the current state of academia being filled with boring economists who have a CV full of publications but no experience of living and no interests outside work. Milanovic thus raises the question of how a lack of these influences impacts the profession of economics.听

While his is an apt observation, I think his questions can be broadened in many ways. For the sake of brevity, I will concentrate on a few.听

Exemplary Lives, but what kind of Examples?听

The notion of an 鈥榚xemplary life鈥� is fraught with the possibilities of what a 鈥榥on-exemplary life鈥� could be, and vice versa. To fully appreciate the scope of either, it is useful to question how the negation of the other can be fully gauged.

Put differently, is the 鈥榚xemplary life鈥� really that exemplary- might there be a difference between the persona and the person?听

Consider what being an 茅migr茅 has meant for two different economists: the Ukraine born Alexander Gerschenkron who settled in the US and the St-Lucian born Arthur Lewis who lived and worked in the UK.听听Read More »

Historicising the Aid Debate: South Korea as a Successful Aid Recipient

Farwa Sial4 Comments

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鈥楾he principal enemy is orthodoxy: to use the same recipe, administer the same therapy, to resolve the most various types of problems; never to admit complexity and try to reduce it as much as possible, while ignoring that things are always more complicated in reality.
Albert O. Hirschman (1998:110)

It鈥檚 clear from last week鈥檚 blog posts by Duncan Green that he is tired of academic critique against aid which have not been translated into concrete solutions (see and ). However, the problem with his approach to addressing very complex problems is that it leads to reductive debates which are more symptomatic of the problem than constructive ways of finding solutions. Following Pablo Yanguas鈥� of research approaches I thought of taking a step back and analyzing the case of a successful aid recipient, South Korea. 听I do this in hope of moving away from the 鈥榣iterature鈥� – which Duncan finds overbearing – as well as getting away from the linearity of the contemporary monitoring and evaluation approach used by the aid sector. Read More »

Why positive thinking won鈥檛 get you out of poverty

Farwa Sial11 Comments

attitude-be-positive-draw-262532.jpgBy Farwa Sial and Carolina Alves

In a recent听, the development economist Seema Jayachandran discusses three studies that used听Randomised Controlled Trials (or RCTs) to understand听the benefits of enhancing the self-worth of poor people. Despite wide differences in context, all the cases explore the viability of 鈥榤odest interventions鈥� to 鈥榠nstill hope鈥� in marginalised communities, concluding that 鈥榬emarkable improvements鈥� in the quest for poverty reduction are possible.

听from Uganda, for example, argues that 鈥渁 role model can have significant effects on students鈥� educational attainment,鈥� so the suggestion for policy-makers might be 鈥渢o place more emphasis on motivation and inspiration through example.鈥�听Another听听argues that 鈥減sychological barriers impede such disadvantaged groups from breaking the vicious circle and achieving better outcomes in life,鈥� so small but effective changes that address these psychological constraints can alleviate the effects of poverty and social exclusion.

The underlying theme of these studies is that individuals can surmount the structural challenges of poverty through their own efforts using tools like 鈥榚ffective role models,鈥� the generation of 鈥榤ore hope,鈥� and the 鈥榠mprovement of their mental health.鈥� Positive psychology of this kind and an emphasis on behavior change to meet the goals of individuals have been around at least since the 1950s, first in the popular literature of self-help books and now in academia, where they form part of an increasingly fashionable trend to 鈥榙o poverty reduction differently.鈥�Read More »