The examples given above all have scale, however scale/importance should not be ignored. If X has great marginal cost-effectiveness but needs only a millon dollars to solve, it is a waste of time for the EA community to think and discuss about it. That kind of money can be easily raised, and once the problem is solved can be forgotten.
On economic growth, it is not clear that the investments in economists is the reason for policy change in India or China, it is/was obvious to everyone that Western World is the most powerful, and everybody around the world was looking for lessons from the West. In fact most the developing world tried to quickly industrialize (using various paths, some succesful some not). Also Lant’s analysis ignores other factors that may have contributed to the economic growth.
The examples given above all have scale, however scale/importance should not be ignored. If X has great marginal cost-effectiveness but needs only a millon dollars to solve, it is a waste of time for the EA community to think and discuss about it. That kind of money can be easily raised, and once the problem is solved can be forgotten.
On economic growth, it is not clear that the investments in economists is the reason for policy change in India or China, it is/was obvious to everyone that Western World is the most powerful, and everybody around the world was looking for lessons from the West. In fact most the developing world tried to quickly industrialize (using various paths, some succesful some not). Also Lant’s analysis ignores other factors that may have contributed to the economic growth.