Theory and Practice: designing anti-poverty programs when power matters

Contributor(s): Professor Rohini Pande |
Join us for the annual Coase-Phillips Lecture which this year will be delivered by Rohini Pande.
Even before COVID-19 changed the trajectory of global poverty reduction, the returns to economic growth were increasingly unequally divided in developing economies. Based on lessons from India’s myriad social protection programs – including rural employment guarantee, post COVID-19 cash transfers to women and food transfer programs - this lecture will discuss the implications of unequal power structures and low state capacity for the design of effective anti-poverty programs.
The talk will then ask – looking ahead, how should considerations of state capacity and accountability be factored in evaluating policy proposals, such as Universal Basic Income and urban employment guarantees? Or, in devising policies to eventually put an end to the pandemic?
Rohini Pande is the Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics and Director of the Economic Growth Cente