Lant Pritchett

Lant Pritchett
Born	1959 (age 65–66) Utah
Nationality	American
Education	Brigham Young University (B.S.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D)
Occupation	Development Economist
Notable work	Pritchett Test

Lant Pritchett (born 1959) is an American development economist. He is the RISE Research Director at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.

Early Life and Education

He was born in Utah in 1959 and raised in Boise, Idaho. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1983 with a B.S. in economics, after serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Argentina (1978–1980). He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988 with a PhD in economics.

Career

Pritchett's career spans academia, policy advisory roles, and international development research. He has held faculty positions at leading universities and worked with international organizations such as the World Bank and other policy institutions. His research focuses on economic development, education, and migration, contributing significantly to global policy discussions.

The World Bank

He worked for the World Bank from 1988 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2007. He was a contributor to the first Copenhagen Consensus. In 1991 he said that he wrote the controversial Summers memo that supposedly advocated the exportation of polluting industries to poor countries, for which Summers was receiving widespread criticism. From 2000 to 2004 he was a lecturer in public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is currently a professor of the practice of economic development at the Kennedy School of Government.

Academic Appointments

After his tenure at the World Bank, Pritchett transitioned to academia. He became a Professor of the Practice of International Development at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, where he taught courses on economic development and public policy. He has also held visiting or affiliate positions at institutions such as the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics, and the Center for Global Development.

Contributions and Advocacy

In 2006 he published his first monograph Let Their People Come: Breaking the Gridlock on Global Labor Mobility (Center for Global Development, pub). The book references research that Pritchett did with Michael Clemens and others at the CGD on the place premium, income per natural, and other related concepts. He argues that the most effective way the developed world can help impoverished countries is to allow increased numbers of low skilled laborers to immigrate as guest workers. He describes what he sees as an immoral cycle of using ever more sophisticated technology to reduce labor while billions of willing workers live in extreme poverty. He is on the Board of Advisors for IDinsight.

His proposal to monitor global poverty with a low and high poverty line has been adopted by some organizations including Our World in Data.

Advisory Roles

Pritchett has served as an advisor to numerous international development organizations, including the Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre and the RISE Programme (Research on Improving Systems of Education). His advisory work often focuses on improving the design and implementation of public policies in education, migration, and governance.

Research Contributions

Pritchett has been a leading critic of education systems in many developing countries, arguing that "schooling" has often failed to translate into meaningful "learning." In his book The Rebirth of Education: Schooling Ain’t Learning (2013), he examines the gap between educational access and learning outcomes, emphasizing the need for systemic reforms to address this disconnect.

Labor Migration

Pritchett has explored the economic and social impacts of migration, particularly the role of labor mobility in reducing global poverty. He has highlighted the potential for migration to address labor market imbalances between high- and low-income countries, while also raising awareness of the challenges associated with migration policies.

State Capacity and Institutional Performance

Pritchett's research on state capability examines the ability of governments to effectively implement policies and deliver services. He co-authored Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action (2017), which presents a framework for improving governance in developing countries. His concept of "isomorphic mimicry" describes how some governments adopt the appearance of effective institutions without achieving their intended functions, which can undermine development efforts.

Selected Publications

Pritchett has authored and co-authored numerous books, academic articles, and policy papers. Some of his notable works include:

• The Rebirth of Education: Schooling Ain’t Learning (2013)
• Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action (2017)
• Divergence, Big Time which examines the growing economic disparities between countries over time.
• His academic publications have appeared in leading journals on economics and development studies.

Engagement with Global Development

Pritchett is an active participant in global development discussions and has contributed to several international forums. He has delivered lectures at academic conferences, policy workshops, and public events, focusing on topics such as education reform, governance, and migration. He is affiliated with research initiatives such as the Center for Global Development and the RISE Programme.

Critiques and Influence

Pritchett’s work has been influential in shaping policy debates on education, migration, and governance. However, some of his ideas, particularly on migration and institutional reform, have faced critique for their feasibility in politically constrained environments. Despite this, his contributions remain significant in framing development challenges and proposing evidence-based approaches to address them.

Pritchett Test

Pritchett recently proposed a four-part "smell test" for pro-development policies. The 'test' isn't a pure post-hoc impact assessment, but specifically addresses whether a pro-development policy should be implemented or changed at all. Notable growth economist Paul Romer summarizes the four criteria, using X as the variable targeted by policy:

1. In a cross-sectional comparison of levels, do countries that are more developed have more X?
2. In cross-sectional comparison of growth rates, do countries that have rapid growth in X also tend to experience a rapid increase in standards of living?
3. When we look at the few countries for which we have long historical records, do the ones that become much more developed also acquire much more X?
4. If we look for countries that switch from a regime of slow economic development to a regime of rapid development, do we see a parallel shift in the rate of growth of change in X?

External links

• lantpritchett.org (personal website)
• DeParle, Jason (June 10, 2007), "Should We Globalize Labor Too?", The New York Times.
• Flanders, Stephanie (June 24, 2001), "In the Shadow of AIDS, a World of Other Problems", The New York Times.
• "How to save the world", Economist, no. 8399, p. 80, October 30, 2004.
• Ending Global Apartheid 2008 interview in Reason