Esther Duflo,
an MIT economist and a co-founder of Jameel Poverty Action Lab, is passionate
about eliminating poverty in the developing world. She is best known for her work where she
applies randomized control trials (RCTs) to economic and development
problems. Click here for a crash course
on RCTs. Alternatively, you can watch
the 20-minute video below. Angus
Deaton’s critique of RCTs is available here.
My colleague and former PhD student Gareth Campbell has created a website about the British Railway Mania - click here . This episode has been described by the Economist as probably the greatest bubble in human history. Gareth's website provides background on the Mania and posits some explanations for the 'bubble'. In his explanation of why the bubble happened, Gareth places a lot of emphasis on investor myopia regarding future dividends and uncalled capital. His study of investors during the episode does not support the view that this episode was fuelled by naive and irrational investors.