Bolstered by Nobel win, randomised trials are big in development economics

But it really gathered momentum in the 2000s, with researchers such as the Nobel awardees designing and implementing experiments to study a wide range of microeconomic questions

The 2019 Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to three researchers for “their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”, one which has “transformed development economics”.

What are randomised experiments? And why have they became so influential in development economics?

Improving the quality of life, particularly for the poor, is considered to be one of the main objectives of modern societies. Doing so requires a certain level of wealth. Economists have been preoccupied for centuries with understanding why some nations have “developed” economically and others have not.

But a more immediate question is: what can be done in the present? More