Interview with Pranab Bardhan on corruption, development, India, and many other interesting things Google Flu is overrrated The comparative Constitutions project Interview with Teju Cole
On Friday the Wall Street Journal previewed the key bits of the annual B&MG letter on aid and development. Today the full letter came out. This
In contrast to corruption-hyping, this is what a thoughtful approach to governance problems in development looks like Cash versus food transfers in Niger How the
“Every dollar that a corrupt official or a corrupt business person puts in their pocket is a dollar stolen from a pregnant woman who needs
Rema Hanna and Shing-Yi Wang give us evidence from India: we demonstrate that university students who cheat on a simple task in a laboratory setting
I was talking with a prominent development economist a couple of weeks ago. He expressed surprise that Angus Deaton’s new book on development wasn’t getting
Another plug for grand theory, and disparagement of empirics. Development economists spend their time these days performing randomized controlled experiments, in which a particular intervention
ODI’s Marta Foreti adds her voice to the ongoing corruption and development debate. My favorite bit: According to recent research by ODI and IPPR the UK public
David Cameron, Britain’s PM, is one of three world leaders chairing the UN’s post-2015 development agenda. Today he outlined his vision in a WSJ op-ed.
The competition has arrived! Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok have launched MRU — Marginal Revolution University –and their first course is… development economics! Development Economics will
Simple stories make for very effective advocacy. The problem with simple narratives, arise, however, when they drive simple-headed policy. Severine Autesserre takes aim at the Enough project and
For starters, I’m among those surprised that the Peace prize didn’t go towards more players in the Arab Spring. I’m also among those that wonder
A car trip with a colleague yesterday spurred the question. Here is my answer, with books that (a) changed the way I think about development,
The USAID director is asked about his five recommended readings in development. Interesting picks. One comment that caught my eye: Solow is absolutely right. Institutions
David Leonhardt asks how the new government of South Sudan can best improve the lives of their citizens. (h/t MR and Ezra Klein) Duflo: First of
Randomized evaluation is not without its critics, who say that there is little benefit in learning rigorously about one context because the lessons will not
People are so confused about what to look for and how to buy it but I think it’s really simple. The highest quality extra virgin
The Cote d’Ivoire open thread drew in excellent comments. Some highlights: From Joseph Lake and Random African, a rightful pointer to Jeune Afrique (tweeting at @Jeune_Afrique) for
Development practitioners… need to close off their existing assumptions and mental models about governance and development. Their default position is to look at the world
Without much notice,agriculture recently ceased to be the largest sector in the economy for the first time in Ethiopia’s history. This heralds a major structural
