The Economics & Psychology of Scarcity & Poverty

April 4, 2014 / Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

Why do poor people make poor decisions? Are they poor because they are stupid, or are the stupid because they are poor? Apparently, there is research to suggest that latter. Recently, the BBC’s Analysis program interviewed Princeton psychologist Eldar Shafir about the economics and psychology of scarcity and poverty.

Here is a description of the episode from the BBC’s website:

Jo Fidgen interviews Eldar Shafir, professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University, and co-author of Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much in front of an audience at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University. Jo will explore the book’s key idea: that not having enough money or time, shapes all of our reactions, and ultimately our lives and society.

The Economics & Psychology of Scarcity & Poverty

April 4, 2014 / Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

The Economics & Psychology of Scarcity & Poverty

Here is a description of the episode from the BBC’s website:

Jo Fidgen interviews Eldar Shafir, professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University, and co-author of Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much in front of an audience at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University. Jo will explore the book’s key idea: that not having enough money or time, shapes all of our reactions, and ultimately our lives and society.

Saving Money by Providing Free Homes for Homeless?

February 11, 2014 / Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

Saving Money by Providing Free Homes for Homeless?

This past Sunday, 60 Minutes ran an interesting story about municipalities that are providing free homes to the homeless in order to save money.

Reported by Anderson Cooper here is how the story began:

Giving apartments to homeless people who’ve been on the streets for years before they’ve received treatment for drug or alcohol problems or mental illness may not sound like a wise idea. But that’s what’s being done in cities across America in an approach that targets those who’ve been homeless the longest and are believed to be at greatest risk of dying, especially with all of this cold weather.

They’re people who once might have been viewed as unreachable. But cities and counties affiliated with a movement known as the 100,000 Homes Campaign have so far managed to get 80,000 of them off the streets. Local governments and non-profit groups do most of the work. The money comes mostly from existing federal programs and private donations, and there’s evidence that this approach saves taxpayers money.

“The Grapes of Wrath” and Poverty Today

January 25, 2014 / Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

It appears likely that poverty and inequality will be major political topics for 2014. No novel captures the suffering associated with poverty better than John Steinbeck’s classic “The Grapes of Wrath.” Recently, The Diane Rehm Show discussed “The Grapes of Wrath,” its enduring legacy and an upcoming film remake.

Here is a description of the program:
For our January Readers’ Review: “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck. Published almost 75 years ago, Steinbeck’s story of the Joad family’s migration from Dust Bowl Oklahoma to California holds important lessons for today. Diane and her guests discuss Steinbeck’s classic novel.

Guests
Leslie Maitland former reporter, The New York Times and author, “Crossing the Borders of Time.”
Joseph McCartin history professor, Georgetown University and director, Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. He is an expert on U.S. labor, social and political history.
Susan Shillinglaw English professor, San Jose State University (SJSU) and scholar in residence, National Steinbeck Center. For 18 years, she was director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies at SJSU.

Give Directly: Evidence and Poverty Alleviation

December 12, 2013 / Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

Give Directly: Evidence and Poverty Alleviation

I first heard about GiveDirectly, a charity that simply gives money to people in extremely poor villages in Africa, on an episode of This American Life several months back. GiveDirectly has challenged other charities to show that their donors that are getting their bang for their buck.

Here is a description of that story, cleverly titled “Money for Nothing and Your Cows for Free”:

Planet Money reporters David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein went to Kenya to see the work of a charity called GiveDirectly in action. Instead of funding schools or wells or livestock, GiveDirectly has decided to just give money directly to the poor people who need it, and let them decide how to spend it. David and Jacob explain whether this method of charity works, and why some people think it’s a terrible idea. (28 minutes)

More recently, the Freakonomics Radio Podcast discussed some of the data coming in on GiveDirectly as well as poverty alleviation more broadly.

Here is a description of the Freakonomics show, entitled “Fighting Poverty With Actual Evidence”:

But one case study can’t definitively answer the larger question: what’s the best way to help poor people stop being poor? That’s the question we address in this new podcast. If features a discussion that Stephen Dubner recently moderated in New York City with Richard Thalerand Dean Karlan. Thaler is an economist at the University of Chicago, and a co-author of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. (Both the British and U.S. governments now have “nudge” units, focused on using behavioral economics for policy improvements.) Karlan is a professor of economics at Yale and founder of the nonprofit Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), which hosted the New York event. IPA, which Karlan founded, is trying to figure out how to best alleviate poverty. The answer, as you might expect, isn’t so simple.

In some situations, giving money directly to poor people works well; in others, less so. IPA studied the efficacy of a cash-transfer experiment in Kenya run by the nonprofit GiveDirectly. For background, you might want to see how The Economist described the experiment, and also what NPR’s Planet Money had to say.