The rise of “behavioral man”: Randomized controlled trials and the “new” development agenda

Abstract

Despite their ostensible differences, both randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and neoclassical economics, which undergirds neoliberalism, are characterized by unrealistic assumptions. This is not accidental but stems from a common desire for scientism, despite a substitution of “economic man” by what we call “behavioral man” in the former. However, the interactions between human behavior and context produce much greater diversity than allowed for in such approaches. As a result of these failings, RCTs do not challenge neoliberalism, but rather can be inserted into and help legitimize it. Consequently they do not alter the structural conditions producing poverty, but represent a form of “virtualism” that attempts to make the real conform to the ideal of neoclassical economics through “nudging.” This is often associated with conditionality, representing a continuation of the historically Northern-centered coloniality of power, which sometimes leads to ethical breaches and perverse development outcomes. Some examples from RCTs conducted or published by the World Bank—which has become a lead agency in promoting RCTs to assess the effectiveness of aid—in Africa are presented to illustrate our argument.

Health, illness and neoliberalism: an example of critical realism as a research resource

“…They align with the neoliberal position that individuals are responsible for health -therefore they can be blamed for illness -and these individuals can be randomised and therefore assessed. They deflect attention away from powerful social, political and economic structures, which are too large and omnipresent to be evaluated through random allocation (Stein, Cunningham, and Carmody 2021). Relations between health and neoliberalism are further complicated as a topic for journal papers in being largely invisible, denied in most public and open policy debate, and discouraged as topics in academic and commercial research.…”