How a small Kenyan town became the world's laboratory for fighting global poverty.

Economists are using a town in Kenya to test radical solutions for prosperity. By treating economic theory as real-life experimentation, researchers have discovered effective ways to improve health and education, earning the field's most prestigious prize in the process.

This exploration examines how randomized controlled trials are used to identify the building blocks of national wealth and poverty reduction. By focusing on practical, measurable outcomes rather than abstract theory, researchers have turned specific locations in Kenya and Nigeria into hubs for testing new economic concepts.

The research highlights how targeted interventions can yield significant results in health and education. These experiments have fundamentally changed how economists approach the challenge of spending money effectively to foster prosperity, proving that small-scale, evidence-based trials can provide answers to humanity's most pressing economic questions.

Source: Piles of cash and a town of solutions in Kenya, Nigeria (Summer School) | Planet Money