The CIA has an internal writing style guide! Choice bits include: regime: has a disparaging connotation and should not be used when referring to democratically elected
Via @prepaid_africa, this graph on the prevalence of mobile money:I suspect the main reasons are “least regulation” and “least powerful/developed existing banking establishment”, but these
That’s the title of a superb humanitarian blog, equal parts angst, cynicism, and idealism. One excerpt: Somewhere in the offices of almost any humanitarian aid
That’s the title of a new paper by data guerrillas Dykstra, Dykstra, Sandefur: Much of the data underlying global poverty and inequality estimates is not in
In 20 or 30 years, most of the still poor countries will be today’s fragile states. Everywhere else will probably have reached middle income levels.
My title paraphrases Claude Ake, who was talking about democracy not development. But democracy is just one kind of institutional and organizational capacity. I rank that kind
Today is the 51st anniversary of the Zone Improvement Plan, a.k.a. the ZIP Code. The Post Office Department launched an advertising campaign in support of the
Via Vox, a sight that would make Christopher Columbus eat his hat. You can save yourself some pain by turning off the crappy music. I’d
Lately, my research and others have suggested that simple cash handouts might be one of the most effective anti-poverty strategies in the world. Is it
In the 1990s, the average country tipped from unapologetic dictatorship to holding elections. Many nations let parties compete, the free press criticize, and so forth. This has
I’m building my list. I’m curious what you’re reading or read and loved. I have a few below, some obvious (in that a couple are
I gave a talk to USAID on Monday, focusing on “the micro level”. This is an obtuse way of saying “why men rebel”. My short answer:
You are more likely to be bitten by Luis Suarez (1 in 2,000) than a shark (1 in 3,700,000) U.S. Scientist Offers $10,000 to Anyone
Link. The basic principle is simple, drawn from utilitarian principles: Root for the outcome that will produce the largest aggregate increase in happiness. So I
Do participatory development projects make local politics more democratic? A new paper by Humphreys, Sanchez de la Sierra, and Van der Windt: Since the 1990s,
Pranab Bardhan on what Piketty means for India (among other comments on the book) Hand-painted scenes from Miyazaki films Stephen Hawking versus John Oliver Imperialism in
That’s the title of a new paper by Pauline Grosjean and Rose Khattar, arguing that conservative gender norms persist: We document the implications of missing women in
In 1967, the philosopher Philippa Foot posed what became known at “The Trolley Problem”. Suppose you are the driver of a runaway tram (or “trolley car”) and
In the digital universe, knowledge is reduced to the status of information. Who will any longer remember that knowledge is to information as art is
The music is a nice touch. Presumably it drowns out the screams of the oppressed and dying. [My first thought: I probably shouldn’t write that
