Guest post by Jeff Mosenkis of Innovations for Poverty Action.
- David McKenzie’s great (as always) links has a nice short summary on new thinking from big names in Universal Basic Income making the argument that the effort to target cash to the neediest and the precision required aren’t worth it, and it should be universal.
- Seven current and former graduate students at Dartmouth’s prestigious psychology and neuroscience department have filed a class action suit against the College. They allege three prominent professors promoted widespread drinking, sexual harassment of students, and rape. According to the suit, the College knew of allegations against one of the professors in 2002, and subsequently promoted him. Here’s a statement from one of the students and a more detailed description and link to the filing.
- Since then I’ve seen colleagues of theirs online reflect that they’d heard rumors or seen suspicious things there that should have been tip-offs, wondering if they should have said something at the time. If you ever find yourself wondering anything similar, the answer is, if at all possible, yes.
- JOBS:
- Our friends at Evidence Action, which seeks to scale up proven interventions is looking for a PhD-level economist and masters-level cost effectiveness analyst.
- Paid research internship with Annette Brown at FHI 360
- A fun story about economist Farhan Zaidi, the new executive with the San Francisco Giants Baseball team, who takes a behavioral approach.
- Kim Yi Dionne’s podcast Ufahamu Africa is back, through a partnership with Northwestern.
- Tanzania keeps getting more authoritarian, the EU has recalled its ambassador, the World Bank is suspending missions there over persecution of homosexuals, and withdrawn $300 Million in education loans in part over it’s policy of expelling pregnant girls from school. Here’s an account by a journalist of her arrest.
- Amid talk of recounts and undervoting, it’s helpful to remember unintended policy consequence #6,053; that the 2002 Congressional Act (reacting to the Bush-Gore recount) promoting electronic voting probably resulted in more voting mistakes because of hastily designed electronic interfaces (starting on p. 15 here)
- Unintended effects of policy #8,932: When states legalized medical marijuana, condom purchases went down, frequency of sex went up, and the birthrate went up.
- And here’s your periodic reminder (for those for whom it’s relevant), snow tires matter more than all wheel drive. (Please tell this to your Subaru-loving relatives on Thanksgiving)
- IPA is 16 years old this week, with over 700 randomized evaluations in 52 countries! If you’d like to support us (and these links), a donor will match your gift dollar-for-dollar through November 29th. Thanks!
