About Aid Watch
The Aid Watch blog is a project of New York University's Development Research Institute (DRI). This blog is principally written by William Easterly, author of "The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics" and "The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good," and Professor of Economics at NYU. It is co-written by Laura Freschi and by occasional guest bloggers. Our work is based on the idea that more aid will reach the poor the more people are watching aid.
“Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.” - H.L. Mencken
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Recent Posts
- Ghana. 1970.
- Beware the fury of a patient man: Michael Clemens on Millennium Villages
- The leader bias – for example, this blog
- Undercover Economist Goes Public for Randomized Controlled Trials
- Economics tells countries to specialize…including specializing in economics
- Best in Aid: The Grand Prize
- Defending My Homeboy Hayek from Freakonomics
- Worst in Aid: the Grand Prize
Recent Comments
- J. on Ghana. 1970.: Uh… which one is you?
- lukas on Ghana. 1970.: young bill easterly?
- geckonomist on Beware the fury of a patient man: Michael Clemens on Millennium Villages: nobody needs evaluations to see whether some...
- Joe on Ghana. 1970.: Nice photo. In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a wonderful documentary on Ghana from 1950s-1980s:...
- Robert Tulip on Beware the fury of a patient man: Michael Clemens on Millennium Villages: Opportunity cost of MDVs would be clarified by...
- ugo on Economics tells countries to specialize…including specializing in economics: I think that the Paris School of Economics and the...
Archives
Popular Posts
- 100% African leaders advise Bono on reform of U2
- 84% Nobody wants your old shoes: How not to help in Haiti
- 34% Haiti earthquake: Help navigating complex terrain of disaster relief
- 18% The Civil War in Development Economics
- 16% How to write about poor people
- 15% If Martin Luther King had been an aid official -- the Powerpoint version of I Have a Dream
Bill Easterly Tweets
- Excellent guess! RT @dutchatharvard was it you? about 13 hours ago from web
- I assume you guys figured out who the white boy was in Ghana 1970 picture?http://bit.ly/dtGz96 about 14 hours ago from bit.ly
- Ghana. 1970. Old Picture. http://bit.ly/dtGz96 (T from last night) about 16 hours ago from bit.ly
- PS location of equinox sunrise in the East this morning showed that Manhattan streets do not really run East-West, they are off by a lot. about 18 hours ago from web
Aid Watch tweets
- WB: Graph showing Africa's devt pattern increasingly diverse, w/ more & more success stories via @ryanbriggs http://bit.ly/dsdqPy 11:07:43 AM March 18, 2010 from web
- Today's post: Economics worldwide is an Anglo-Saxon monopoly. Discuss.http://bit.ly/bka5vP 10:58:41 AM March 18, 2010 from web
- RT @nancymbirdsall A new way to deliver aid to Pakistan? @FP_Magazine (http://bit.ly/8Z7av5) cites #CODAid (http://bit.ly/24cpXR) 10:58:07 AM March 18, 2010 from web
- Modest manifesto on open philanthropy http://bit.ly/a8Prsg via @denniswhittle 11:44:41 AM March 17, 2010 from web
Monthly Archives: February 2009
How About a Free Press to Hold Aid to Africa Accountable?
Courageous independent Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda was featured in a mass circulation magazine last weekend, getting some well-deserved recognition.
Mwenda has been in and out of jail for his criticism of the (aid-supported) authoritarian Ugandan government. He was a recipient of the International Press Freedom Award for 2008.
Mwenda started his own independent newspaper (known appropriately as the Independent) in Uganda, after complaining the government was curtailing the freedom of…
Begin it Now: The Inspirational Success of Ashesi University in Accra, Ghana
Ashesi (which means “beginning” in a local language) is a remarkable private university begun in 2002 by a returning Ghanaian expatriate, Patrick Awuah.
A recent column in the Seattle Times interviewed Awuah and profiled the university: “So far, its four graduating classes have had a 100 percent placement rate. Most graduates have stayed in Africa, and some have even started companies that are hiring Ashesi students.”
Half of the students are on scholarship.…
I Call Your Authenticity, and I Raise You One Ideology
People sometimes try to win a debate by playing “trump cards” that allegedly overturn any other argument, instead of practicing reasoned arguments based on logic, common sense, and evidence.
One attempted “trump card” is that an “authentic” member of group X is in favor of a certain policy towards group X. The hidden assumption is that any “authentic” member of group X can speak for all other members of group X, and knows what is…