âTo create conditions conducive to development, we should have a moderately strong prior in favor of doing things almost every developed country has done, and a moderately strong prior against doing things almost no developed countries have done.â
Iâm not familiar with Rodrikâs work, but my mental model of Pritchett would claim that we should try to find similarities between very different countries that successfully developed, and that such similarities do exist. (My model could be way off, and it doesnât account for most of how I judge development projects.)
I actually didnât read Pritchett as having anything against LLINs, because âstopping malarial mosquitoes from biting peopleâ seems like a thing developed countries generally do. (If heâs actually against LLINs and a big promoter of eradication strategies, Iâm reading him wrong.)
I also imagine him trying to think backwards from end states: âWhat would a developed, wealthy Kenya look like? What sorts of work do people do in this hypothetical country? What role do womenâs self-help groups play? If theyâve faded away, what role would they have had in enabling development? Why do we think theyâd have had that role if we donât have evidence that womenâs self-help groups have enabled development in other places?â
I see his argument as:
âTo create conditions conducive to development, we should have a moderately strong prior in favor of doing things almost every developed country has done, and a moderately strong prior against doing things almost no developed countries have done.â
Iâm not familiar with Rodrikâs work, but my mental model of Pritchett would claim that we should try to find similarities between very different countries that successfully developed, and that such similarities do exist. (My model could be way off, and it doesnât account for most of how I judge development projects.)
I actually didnât read Pritchett as having anything against LLINs, because âstopping malarial mosquitoes from biting peopleâ seems like a thing developed countries generally do. (If heâs actually against LLINs and a big promoter of eradication strategies, Iâm reading him wrong.)
I also imagine him trying to think backwards from end states: âWhat would a developed, wealthy Kenya look like? What sorts of work do people do in this hypothetical country? What role do womenâs self-help groups play? If theyâve faded away, what role would they have had in enabling development? Why do we think theyâd have had that role if we donât have evidence that womenâs self-help groups have enabled development in other places?â