{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"80,000 Hours Podcast","title":"#13 - Claire Walsh on testing which policies work & how to get governments to listen to the results","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3148,"description":"In both rich and poor countries, government policy is often based on no evidence at all and many programs don’t work. This has particularly harsh effects on the global poor - in some countries governments only spend $100 on each citizen a year so they can’t afford to waste a single dollar.\n\nEnter MIT’s Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). Since 2003 they’ve conducted experiments to figure out what policies actually help recipients, and then tried to get them implemented by governments and non-profits.\n\nClaire Walsh leads J-PAL’s Government Partnership Initiative, which works to evaluate policies and programs in collaboration with developing world governments, scale policies that have been shown to work, and generally promote a culture of evidence-based policymaking.\n\nSummary, links to career opportunities and topics discussed in the show.\n\nWe discussed (her views only, not J-PAL’s):\n\n* How can they get evidence backed policies adopted? Do politicians in the developing world even care whether their programs actually work? Is the norm evidence-based policy, or policy-based evidence?\n* Is evidence-based policy an evidence-based strategy itself?\n* Which policies does she think would have a particularly large impact on human welfare relative to their cost?\n* How did she come to lead one of J-PAL’s departments at 29?\n* How do you evaluate the effectiveness of energy and environment programs (Walsh’s area of expertise), and what are the standout approaches in that area?\n* 80,000 Hours has warned people about the downsides of starting your career in a non-profit. Walsh started her career in a non-profit and has thrived, so are we making a mistake?\n* Other than J-PAL, what are the best places to work in development? What are the best subjects to study? Where can you go network to break into the sector?\n* Is living in poverty as bad as we think?\n\nAnd plenty of other things besides.\n\nWe haven’t run an RCT to test whether this episode will actually help your career, but I suggest you...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/VO1STE7hN95RRg9QdLo4soV2VhhbR9PF5ZZlRhDYcwE/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzQxNDAyLzE2ODM1/NDQ1NDAtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}