Does Pro Bono Economics hope to develop a market in paid economic consulting to charities?
Pro Bono Economics aims to help charities measure their performance better and demonstrate the results of their work. Though it is not the primary goal of PBE to help develop a market in economic consulting to charities, if the organisation’s work helps to reduce the information barriers to a more developed market, this will be a valuable side-benefit. Whether the market can develop sufficiently to overcome both the information and the cost frictions is more questionable. So even if PBE were only a bridge to a functioning market, our guess is that it could be a fairly lengthy one. An economist might reason that the availability of free economic advice could undermine the development of a viable market and that PBE should plan to scale down its operations as its work demonstrates the need for this type of work. Let us hope so. But it is worth noting though that in other professions – such as law – paid advice for charities exists alongside pro bono support. At a minimum, the high cost o
