Although many IDev professors (estimate: ~70%) are likely just poorly calibrated, and have no incentives to look into the cost-effectiveness of interventions, many who do know about CEAs might underestimate.
For “the cost to save the life of a child” question, an IDev policy expert might take a different perspective. In my IDev masters, one prof in his 70s explained that, if you’ve already paid the fixed costs of getting into the decision making process, it’s very often possible to find low-hanging fruit policy changes that save more lives and cost less money (bottom right quadrant in the picture below, taken from one of his classes).
Although many IDev professors (estimate: ~70%) are likely just poorly calibrated, and have no incentives to look into the cost-effectiveness of interventions, many who do know about CEAs might underestimate.
For “the cost to save the life of a child” question, an IDev policy expert might take a different perspective. In my IDev masters, one prof in his 70s explained that, if you’ve already paid the fixed costs of getting into the decision making process, it’s very often possible to find low-hanging fruit policy changes that save more lives and cost less money (bottom right quadrant in the picture below, taken from one of his classes).