Session Abstract
The clean air, clean energy, and clean water challenges facing our planet today impact our health.
Policymakers and scholars alike are interested in how poor health in childhood could hurt school performance and adult job outcomes, but credible answers have been difficult to come by, especially in low-income societies. In this lecture, Prof. Miguel presents results from a project he has worked on for over 25 years to shed light on how deworming treatment in Kenyan schools — a safe and cheap public health intervention – has changed recipients’ life trajectories and the lives of the next generation. The experimental research approach pioneered in this study has had an impact on economics research methods, and the findings have influenced public policy decisions affecting hundreds of millions of children around the globe.
Speaker Bio
Edward Miguel’s main research focus is African economic development, including work on the economic causes and consequences of violence; the impact of ethnic divisions on local collective action; interactions between health, education, environment, and productivity for the poor; and methods for transparency in social science research. He has conducted field work in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and India, and has published over 120 articles and chapters in leading academic journals and collected volumes. Ted co-founded the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) in 2007 and serves as Faculty Co-Director. He is a recipient of the U.C. Berkeley Carol D. Soc Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Award, the campus-wide Distinguished Teaching Award, the Best Graduate Adviser Award in the Berkeley Economics Department, and has served on over 150 completed doctoral dissertation committees.