How Poverty Shapes the Way We Think | Anandi Mani

In this episode of the Oxford Policy Pod, MPP students Isabella Notarpietro and Diego Peñaranda sit down with Professor Anandi Mani, Professor of Behavioural Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.

Drawing on her influential research on poverty and cognitive function, Professor Mani answers why people sometimes make decisions that seem to go against their own interests, and how poverty itself changes the way we think and make choices.

The conversation explores what behavioural economics can teach us about poverty, the timing and design of cash transfers, the additional constraints faced by women, the role of identity in shaping economic behaviour, and how these insights can lead to better policy design.