Improving mental health as a route out of poverty

VoxDevTalk

Published 18.08.23

Does treating depression, low self-esteem, or low aspirations help poverty reduction?

From the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum at the Paris School of Economics. One route out of poverty is to change external conditions: provide assets, jobs, healthcare. But can we also treat depression, or low self-esteem, or low aspirations, and does that help poverty reduction? Dean Karlan of Northwestern University tells Tim Phillips what new research is telling us – and what we don’t yet know.

Editor's note: This episode of VoxTalks originally appeared here on VoxEU.