None of these results demonstrates that there is a “psychology of poverty” to be overcome by external interventions. They do imply, however, that poorer economies can make marginal gains by investing in what might be called psychological and psychotherapeutic infrastructure. These research designs can be applied to hundreds or thousands of people, but it will never be easy to use them for entire citizenries. Nonetheless, countries can make therapeutic help more accessible and affordable, and foster a culture in which people feel comfortable seeking it out.
Culture matters for economic development, and this is one small part of the puzzle. A straightforward aspirational ethos helps, and smaller-scale cultural interventions can move people marginally in that direction.
What about the U.S.? Is it so awash in psychotherapeutic ideas, aspirational videos and antidepressants that marginal increases won’t make much of a difference? It’s hard to say. And though the research is just beginning, maybe it’s not too soon to say that—from an economic standpoint, at least—more openness to psychological and pharmaceutical interventions is better than less.
Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a professor of economics at George Mason University and host of the Marginal Revolution blog.