Esther Duflo on Management, Growth, and Research in Action

<div> <p><span data-contrast="auto">Want to support future conversations? Visit</span> <a href= "https://conversationswithtyler.com/donate/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=cwt&utm_campaign=eoy19&utm_content=duflo" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span data-contrast= "none">conversationswithtyler.com/donate</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">.</span> <span data-ccp-props= "{"201341983":0,"335559740":276}"><br /> </span></p> </div> <div> <p><span data-contrast="auto">Esther Duflo’s advice to students? Spend time in the field. “</span><span data-contrast="auto">It's only through this exposure that you can learn how wrong most of your intuit</span><span data-contrast="auto">ions are and preconceptions are,” she explains.</span> <span data-contrast= "auto">For Duflo, it was time spent in the Soviet Union on the brink of collapse. While there she saw how Jeff Sachs used the tools of economics to advise policymakers on matters of crucial importance. To her it seemed like the best job in the world—and</span> <span data-contrast="auto">she</span> <span data-contrast="auto">began to pursue it</span> <span data-contrast="auto">in</span> <span data-contrast= "auto">earnest. Now it is she who is advising governments on how best to reduce poverty, having co-founded one of the leading policy research centers in the world. That work, together with that of frequent collaborators Abhijit Banerjee</span> <span data-contrast= "auto">and Michael Kremer</span><span data-contrast="auto">, has now been honored with the Nobel Prize. </span> <span data-ccp-props= "{"201341983":0,"335559740":276}"><br /> </span></p> </div> <div> <p><span data-contrast="auto">She joined Tyler to discuss</span> <span data-contrast="auto">that</span> <span data-contrast= "auto">work, including how coaching increases the effectiveness of cash transfers, why she cautions against falling in love with growth rates, what France gets right about child-rearing, the management philosophy behind her success building J-PAL, how she briefly became the face of an anti-Sov