EAG 2017 London: Prioritisation and economics (Max Dalton)

Note: There’s a casual conversation that overlaps with the speaker during the first couple of minutes, probably because someone forgot to turn off a microphone.

Prioritisation research asks lots of different types of questions (moral and empirical, theoretical and applied). First, I argue that economics can provide a structure for thinking about these prioritisation problems. This highlights that prioritisation is even more difficult than it might intuitively seem. Second, economics could benefit from being a bit more like prioritisation research. In particular, it should be more strategic in the ways it simplifies things.

Source: Effective Altruism Global (video).

Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.