If you run a survey of drug use, prostitution, domestic violence, rioting, or crime, who would believe this self-reported data? No one. If you work
PhD math camp, online Arvind Subramanian’s development reading list As usual, I could just copy all David McKenzie’s links on impact evaluations A rare youth training program
As Gloria Steinem explained 30 years ago: “Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment itself.” By washing our
Wellness experts say curling up in a ball on the floor is the healthiest way to deal with the non-stop agony of the workday. From
A new paper by Rafael La Porta and Andrei Shleifer: First, it is huge, reaching about half of the total in the poorest countries. Second,
From the always excellent Development Impact blog: 3ie has launched an impact evaluation database, with more than 2,400 impact evaluations. They have a challenge out that if you
A new study in Science. Excerpts to give you the general idea: Two of the most common subsistence crops—rice and wheat—are very different, and we
A Harvard-led team just successfully used low-powered lasers to activate stem cells and stimulate the growth of teeth in rats and human dental tissue in
Supporters of the National Security Agency inevitably defend its sweeping collection of phone and Internet records on the ground that it is only collecting so-called
Professor Christensen did something “truly disruptive” in 2011, when he found himself in a room with a panoramic view of Boston Harbor. About to begin
The scales have fallen from Emily Oster’s eyes. She is a standing desk convert. When I am not evangelizing about cash transfer programs, I am pushing
Some papers make pithy academic blogging easy. The Autobahn was one of the most important projects of the Hitler government. It was intended to reduce unemployment, and
I’m going to get off the cash transfer wagon on this blog because it’s getting boring for me and for you. But first… am I an evangelist
Fair trade coffee does not improve the wellbeing of the workers How to make land titling more equal Why peacebuilding fails The origins of weak states,
I have a deeply held conviction that gerrymandering is the fundamental political problem facing the United States. This conviction is more or less uninformed by
Bill Gates on why he shorted the Millennium Villages but goes long on Jeff Sachs Science on inequality In morocco, microfinance helps people change occupations, not
It only took me and my coauthors seven years, but we now have a paper describing what happens when you give cash grants to the
A new contender for worse NGO in the world? Clickbait dissertations Most of the growth in remittances is fictional? Open Stats: Free online statistics textbooks, both
A slide presentation from IFPRI’s John Hoddinott. Here is the final slide:
Apparently the publishing industry has rules if you are going to publish anything on Africa: We’re obliged to Simon Stevens, a reader who put together the
