RCTs Crowded Out Growth Research

The rise of randomized controlled trials (J‑PAL, Banerjee/Duflo, Nobel 2019) reshaped incentives in development economics so scholars and funders favored narrow, easily randomizable interventions over big‑picture work on national economic growth. That methodological capture changed what gets published, what gets funded, and what programs donors implement, with unclear consequences for long‑run poverty reduction. — If true, donor and academic incentives that prioritize RCTs may produce plenty of evidence about small fixes while failing to generate the policy knowledge needed to spur sustained economic development.