To clarify, Lant Pritchett is a development economist criticizing other development economists here. He’s the only person I’ve heard use “smell test” in this particular field, but it’s also a pretty common expression for applying “common sense” to check whether an idea seems good, across many different domains.
I was only commenting on the particular wording of the ‘smell test’ in devlopemntal economics—i use a smell test to decide if i need to throw food away which i try not to do, or wash clothes , or if somehow a dead mouse is in my apt—i leave mice alone but they are poisoned by what they eat or die of old age—i dont think they live very long—maybe 2 years
developmental economics (definately not my area) i associate with jeffrey sachs, william easterly, amartya sen, and partha dasgupta. one can add jagdish baghwati and more than i can remember. there are more recent ones. i just know these from books and articles. (there are math modelers, anti-globalization/neoliberalism activists, etc—they all have books and articles).
To clarify, Lant Pritchett is a development economist criticizing other development economists here. He’s the only person I’ve heard use “smell test” in this particular field, but it’s also a pretty common expression for applying “common sense” to check whether an idea seems good, across many different domains.
I was only commenting on the particular wording of the ‘smell test’ in devlopemntal economics—i use a smell test to decide if i need to throw food away which i try not to do, or wash clothes , or if somehow a dead mouse is in my apt—i leave mice alone but they are poisoned by what they eat or die of old age—i dont think they live very long—maybe 2 years
developmental economics (definately not my area) i associate with jeffrey sachs, william easterly, amartya sen, and partha dasgupta. one can add jagdish baghwati and more than i can remember. there are more recent ones. i just know these from books and articles. (there are math modelers, anti-globalization/neoliberalism activists, etc—they all have books and articles).