How development really works

Video

Published 05.06.19
Photo credit:
The Donkey Sanctuary

What drives development? Using 50 years of data, Nicholas Stern explains what drives growth and development in Palanpur, Uttar Pradesh

Professor Lord Nicholas Stern and his team have analysed an extraordinary dataset that has been collected over the last 50 years in the village of Palanpur, Uttar Pradesh in India. Analysing this data enables them to identify how and why lives change across the generations. In this video, Nicholas Stern shares their findings. In Palanpur, inequality fell in the first 30 years post-independence, but rose in the last 20 years. Whilst many would assume that this occurs due to a movement away from agriculture into jobs in the formal sector, the reality is that informality rather than formality is the norm in this process.