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  • What's Abhjit Banerjee's theory for abolition of poverty


    Want to know about the theory behind abolition of poverty? How is it successful and what are its merits and demerits? you can go through the answers on this Ask Expert page and understand how this theory works.

    Abhijit Banerjee has achieved noble prize in the field of economics. I want to know about the postulates of his theory. How it is helpful in abolition? When it was given and is it successful in achieving it's goal? What are the merits and demerits of this theory and how it is applicable in economics?
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    4 Answers found.
  • Banerjee and his co-researchers have done some research work in finding out why the Govt policies are not attracting the people to it and the main objective behind them for poverty alleviation is not achieved. They call these research methods as randomised controlled trials. They have given an example of polio vaccine program done in the state of Rajasthan in India where the turnout for polio vaccine increased manifold once the people bringing their children for vaccination were gifted a small bag of pulses. So, the theory proposed by Banerjee and his associates wants to bring out that there are definitely some ways by which we can bring the people more responsive to Govt schemes and then launch the schemes for alleviation of poverty. In fact some of the existing schemes are already there which are helping the poor and downtrodden to earn money and make a livelihood. In addition to these schemes new schemes with innovative ideas are to be launched by the Govt.

    There were many economists in past who had done a lot of research and had proposed different ideas and methods for alleviating the poverty from the globe and now the Banerjee and his team is trying to do the same thing. The problem in this area is that though new methods will be of developmental nature, their implementation will be a challenge. For example prima facie we say that communism is a very good system of governance but as soon as we are asked to opt for it we have a difference of opinion that communism chokes the free expression of thoughts and we might not join it. We are having apprehensions in our mind about it. This is where we lack between our talks and actions. Banerjee and his associates want to change this mind block in Govt working.

    So using Banerjee's theory we can definitely improve on these fronts but the problem still remains and that is implementation and monitoring of the projects. That is the reason why many economists are telling that this is yet another good economic theory but is academic in nature as it will also have the implementation problems many other theories are facing. In past Nobel prize has been given for various theories not only in economics but in many other subjects also and that is not a surety that the theory will be followed by the Govt and the society. Once a theory gets such coveted prize it is natural that some countries or states may try to apply this in their system and if they get success the methodology will get name and fame.

    Knowledge is power.

  • When we look at a problem it appears as a big problem. But when you divide that problem into many small problems. each problem will be a small problem. One big problem may be divided into 100 small problems. Solve one by one. As you go on solving problems there will be betterment and the extent of the problem will come down and finally, when you solve all the problems the goal will be achieved. Generally, in sciences and clinical research this method will be adopted Our every step will be in the right direction and the end will become nearer. This method is known as Randomised controlled trial. Banerjee and his co-researchers adopt this method in their work.

    Unlike other researchers in this field, these people went to the field level and conduct experiments and because of their works, many poor people got benefitted. They focused more on India as more number of poor people are there in India. They have done similar studies in other countries also. They say when you give additional money to a poor family, they will never spend that money on having a portion of better food. But they may go for a TV purchase as they also want to have some relaxation. That is why they say better give Rs.2500/- poor so that they will think of their food but if you give Rs.6000/-, they may use it for some other waste expenditure.

    They feel that the government schemes are not reaching the people who need and in the way it wanted. For example, to see that poor children will also come to school, the government started distributing books to all the poor boys and girls. They have books. They keep them neatly. But they never read it. They sit in the class but they never understand the subjects. So they instead of giving books selected some poor students who are not able to understand the lessons and separately tutored them and mentored them. The students gained the knowledge and they became good at studies. They conducted these experiments and found that the results are very good

    The essence of their research is that see how the schemes will reach the needy in the right direction. Don't think of making them rich overnight. But teach them how to earn and solve the problems one by one. Many people think big. These researchers say think small and solve the problem.

    drrao
    always confident

  • Abhijeet Banerjee and his wife Dufflo have contributed their jobs in eradication of poverty through the different models employed by them. They have not undertaken jobs unitedly but their efforts have been made with their individual capacities.
    They believe that instead of attacking the whole problem, the problem has to split up several constituents so that each constituent can be addressed effectively and then the summation of the entire work could lead to a brilliant success. One need not think of the problem as a whole but splitting the same would help in addressing the issue.
    Instead of providing free text - books from the Government - coffers or free meals provided by the schools, some machinery should be there to spot the weakness of each child and this weak area should be resolved to make them capable. In such cases, weakness of individuals are to be targetted and a suitable tutorial is required to make them proficient.

  • The Nobel Prize winners ( 2019) in Economic Sciences are Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer have conducted their experiments on ways to alleviate poverty and land on to the real world results. They thinks that lives of the poor can be improve by making a series of small changes in lots of different fields. They also think that sometimes big changes do not work but small changes can do a difference.
    They conducted Randomised control tests (RCTs) and divided a particular group randomly into a control and an experimental set. Experimental set was exposed to the policy treatment. Then they compared results of these sets.
    Their research showed that global poverty can be tackled by breaking down into smaller or more precise question at individual or group levels. Their approach involves splitting up the question of human poverty alleviation low-income countries into smaller and more manageable specific problems. They studied rigorously each of these small problems through RCTs field experiment. Their research field includes education, health, credit and agriculture etc.
    In their experiments they showed that providing textbooks to poor children in school did not help to make them better student. Instead, providing tutors or effective remedial tutoring to low performing students is more helpful to improve their performance. In another example, attendance records of the teachers, half of the teacher with biometric and half without biometric attendance) were compared, are find out that such records do (or do not) help improve learning outcomes.
    But there are some limitations to this theory as Randomised control trials (RCTs) can be useful as an objective evaluation of policies. But their results of an experiment can vary across space and time.


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