This is a good question. In the absence of other explanations of market failure, this is an update away from the view that direct anti-poverty interventions do have high ROI. While some RCTs of anti-poverty programmes like the Graduation approach might show a big ROI, perhaps the market actors know not to trust these RCTs. Maybe they have an implicit view on the external validity of these studies, which has been demonstrated to be low
Right! Except for anti-poverty interventions targeting public goods, which would be underfunded not because of a market inefficiency, but a political one, most likely AFAICT. And there are also possible other explanations than market failures, such as a high fix cost for loans maybe. But it’s still evidence, in either case, that anti-poverty interventions don’t have that high a ROI.
This is a good question. In the absence of other explanations of market failure, this is an update away from the view that direct anti-poverty interventions do have high ROI. While some RCTs of anti-poverty programmes like the Graduation approach might show a big ROI, perhaps the market actors know not to trust these RCTs. Maybe they have an implicit view on the external validity of these studies, which has been demonstrated to be low
Right! Except for anti-poverty interventions targeting public goods, which would be underfunded not because of a market inefficiency, but a political one, most likely AFAICT. And there are also possible other explanations than market failures, such as a high fix cost for loans maybe. But it’s still evidence, in either case, that anti-poverty interventions don’t have that high a ROI.