Good post, more detailed thoughts later, but one nitpick:
As far as I can tell, the deworming project being “one of the most successful RCTs to date” is just wrong. There is widespread disagreement about what we can conclude about deworming from the available evidence, with many respected academics saying that deworming has no effect on education at all. Many RCTs show a much larger effect.
I don’t think “most successful RCT” is supposed to mean “most effective intervention” but rather “most influential RCT”; deworming has been picked up by a bunch of NGOs and governments after Miguel and Kremer, plausibly because of that study.
Good post, more detailed thoughts later, but one nitpick:
I don’t think “most successful RCT” is supposed to mean “most effective intervention” but rather “most influential RCT”; deworming has been picked up by a bunch of NGOs and governments after Miguel and Kremer, plausibly because of that study.
(Conflict note: I know and like Ted Miguel)