Diary of a Rural Manager!

Humans in the real world behave in ways that are strikingly inconsistent with rational models based in economics. Bounded rationality, bounded self-interest and bounded self-control in human is a pure fiction, not a reality. With these assumptions, the profession of economics with its obsession with mathematical modelling has, over time, hopelessly removed from the complexities on the ground. Global Recession of 2008 was a jolt to the the neoclassical free market purists who were unable to predict market failure. The shock led to to the mainstreaming of behavioral economics. Behavioral economics  is a subfield of economics that draws on the psychological, social, and cultural foundations of human decision making. A Mckinsey report: Redefining Capitalism has summarized this quite good -   Over the past several decades, though, some of the bedrock assumptions of neoclassical theory have begun to unravel. Behavioral economists have accumulated a mountain of evidence showing t...

In every field of endeavor, the one who reaches the pinnacle will be found to have built upon the knowledge and experience of someone who preceded him. People in development sector feel obliged to submit report to donor organization with complete focus on grants. There are suggestions from the expensive government project reports that end up just gathering dust on a shelf in India. Thousands, of reports on policy, poverty and development issues are released each year worldwide. A lot of recommendations, solutions and findings are kept on piling in a PDF version. The citation of paper doesn't imply that it has been read. Even the reader looked only at downloads and citations to gauge the use of these reports. The key question that comes in mind: Who will ever read them? Even world bank is pondering over this question ( Which World Bank reports are widely read ? ) Recent findings suggest my fears: The researchers contribute to their discipline's knowledge with the deep op...