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ENCOURAGING RESULTS
Sufficiently intense versions of these treatments are likely to be effective. Some cultures have long been seen as especially entrepreneurial, for instance the overseas Chinese and Lebanese communities around the world. They are not watching videos, but they receive a concentrated and steady dose of cultural influences, ranging from parental lectures to peer pressure to aspirational movies, songs and TV.
The question is not whether cultural conditioning works – it can – but rather how effective a small dose can be.
Sometimes psychological interventions produce only temporary effects. One research design taught self-efficacy lessons to women in India. The likelihood of employment rose 32 per cent in the short run – but within a year the effects had dissipated.
What about psychotherapy, which is so prominent in much of the Western world? This question is hard to answer in part because cost and regulation make it difficult to perform randomised control trials, the research gold standard, in wealthier countries such as the United States. Nonetheless, there are some encouraging results.
One survey of lower- and middle-income countries found 39 studies that identified psychotherapeutic treatments could boost work outcomes, including employment, in randomised control trials. Treating schizophrenia appears to have an especially large effect.
In Pakistan, mental-health treatments for perinatally depressed mothers led to significant positive gains for the children. A study in Niger found that both psychosocial treatments and cash transfers could improve outcomes for recipients. In another study, however, in Kenya, cash transfers were cheaper and more effective than psychological treatments, though the latter did show some gains.
What about antidepressants? Economists are just beginning to collect evidence. One study, performed in India, found that antidepressants combined with therapy and livelihood assistance (essentially job training and counseling) had significant positive effects for the women treated. Depression rates were lower, and that led to greater investment in the women’s children and reduced the incidence of “negative shocks” in the women’s lives.
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