Anti-poverty policies often fail because of an inadequate understanding of the decisions poor people make.

That’s the view of Abhijit Banerjee, Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of Poor Economics, A radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty.

He recently visited the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC to participate in a seminar on Sustainable Economic Development.

Bruce Edwards began by asking Mr. Banerjee why so little is known about the world’s one billion poor people.

Duration: 4'42"