Esther Duflo: evaluation

Transcript context

…But there were all these part-time jobs. In the 1970s, French and other Europeans worked more than Americans. Tax rates in Europe were lower. The ’80s — expenditures and tax rates go up. It’s always difficult to compare two countries, but my bet, based on extrapolating from the micro study, is that that’s not the financial effect. I think it comes much more from regulation. How much can you work anyways? And from the availability of jobs, the availability of part-time jobs. There’s actually much less, partly also due to regulations and less to individual effort response because they are thinking they are going to be taxed away. That seems to me counter factor. In the new book, why not have more on social conservatism? Take something like single parenthood. It seems to be a big problem. There are many new studies showing it may be a bigger problem than we had thought. It’s a cause of poverty, persistent poverty. It’s kind of a right-wing issue, for whatever reasons. Why not have more right-wing issues in your book?…

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