In October 2019, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer jointly won the 51st Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.” But what is the exact scope of their experimental method, known as randomized control trials (RCTs)? Which sorts of questions are RCTs able to address and which do they fail to answer?

The first of its kind, Randomized Control Trials in the Field of Development: A Critical Perspective provides answers to these questions, explaining how RCTs work, what they can achieve, why they sometimes fail, how they can be improved and why other methods are both useful and necessary.

Sir Angus Stewart Deaton FBA is Senior Scholar and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department, Princeton University.

Isabelle Guérin is Senior Research Fellow at the French Institute of Research for Sustainable Development and Associate at the French Institute of Pondicherry.

Lant Pritchett is RISE Research Director at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. 

François Roubaud is Senior Research Fellow at the French Institute of Research for Sustainable Development.

Andrés Velasco (@AndresVelasco) is Dean at the School of Public Policy, LSE.

The LSE School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Our approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEDevelopment