While I can’t find any EA work on economic policy in poor countries, two Charity Entrepreneurship incubated charities are working on health policy:
Lead Exposure Elimination Project (LEEP) has been successfully lobbying to ban (and enforce bans) on lead paint in Malawi, and will attempt to repeat this work in other countries.
Policy Entrepreneurs Network is doing “microexperiments in the space of health policy in low and middle-income countries.”
I think the most obvious reason that this work isn’t happening is just that the EA community is overwhelmingly concentrated in richer countries, and it’s really hard to work on policy change without having local understanding and context. LEEP has had success but it’s likely because they are focused on such a niche and unpolarized issue, with almost no significant stakeholders that would be against this policy. Economic policies like the ones you mention are probably going to be incredibly difficult for even experienced policy people from the countries they are working in, let alone for EAs with no experience in those countries. It would also be difficult for funders like Open Phil to evaluate which grants are more or less likely to succeed, since their staff doesn’t have experience in these countries.
Of course, none of these barriers are an excuse for not focusing on this topic, if the expected impact is very high. The longer-term solution here is probably to encourage EAs studying and/or working in poorer countries to consider policy careers, and for EA funders like Open Phil to focus on developing capacity/expertise in these countries (looks like they’re doing this with the new South Asian air quality program), or to partner with other organizations that have more knowledge in the area.
Final note: J-PAL and IPA have obviously been working on this for a while, though they might be pursuing smaller-scale economic policy changes than you’re suggesting.
While I can’t find any EA work on economic policy in poor countries, two Charity Entrepreneurship incubated charities are working on health policy:
Lead Exposure Elimination Project (LEEP) has been successfully lobbying to ban (and enforce bans) on lead paint in Malawi, and will attempt to repeat this work in other countries.
Policy Entrepreneurs Network is doing “microexperiments in the space of health policy in low and middle-income countries.”
I think the most obvious reason that this work isn’t happening is just that the EA community is overwhelmingly concentrated in richer countries, and it’s really hard to work on policy change without having local understanding and context. LEEP has had success but it’s likely because they are focused on such a niche and unpolarized issue, with almost no significant stakeholders that would be against this policy. Economic policies like the ones you mention are probably going to be incredibly difficult for even experienced policy people from the countries they are working in, let alone for EAs with no experience in those countries. It would also be difficult for funders like Open Phil to evaluate which grants are more or less likely to succeed, since their staff doesn’t have experience in these countries.
Of course, none of these barriers are an excuse for not focusing on this topic, if the expected impact is very high. The longer-term solution here is probably to encourage EAs studying and/or working in poorer countries to consider policy careers, and for EA funders like Open Phil to focus on developing capacity/expertise in these countries (looks like they’re doing this with the new South Asian air quality program), or to partner with other organizations that have more knowledge in the area.
Final note: J-PAL and IPA have obviously been working on this for a while, though they might be pursuing smaller-scale economic policy changes than you’re suggesting.