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
Recent Comments
- Rukmini on Aid Watch blog ends; New work on development begins : This has been a valuable resource for me and I’m sorry to see it...
- Jesse on From Hell to Prosperity: I would like to see this graph with a comparative one which shows the number of people in each religion...
- Ellie on Aid Watch blog ends; New work on development begins : Sad to see you go, but I certainly respect the decision. Hope it is...
- Vivek Nemana on From Hell to Prosperity: Jeff, Well, the billionaire effect might explain a disproportionately high mean income, but...
- M on Aid Watch blog ends; New work on development begins : I agree that Bill and Laura should think about how they can get their message...
- Mr. Econotarian on Are Lax US Gun Laws Spilling Violence into Mexico? : The paper says: “DHS data gives the number of illegal...
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Bill Easterly tweets
- RT @tkb: @meighanstone @bill_easterly @viewfromthecave Thanks from @worldbankdata team! http://t.co/aD4zp3Px & http://t.co/6APTLA7D ... about 5 hours ago from Twittelator ReplyRetweetFavorite
- RT @meighanstone: @bill_easterly @WorldBank @viewfromthecave you should be singing praises of @tkb and his team then (upstart World Bank ... about 5 hours ago from Twittelator ReplyRetweetFavorite
- Praise the @WorldBank! (for data visualization) http://t.co/ri7CvwdZ HT @viewfromthecave about 5 hours ago from Twittelator ReplyRetweetFavorite
- RT @lustrefound: New idea for Sandel: Writers as public intellectuals replaced by economists. RIP Carlos Fuentes. http://t.co/Zkpq1Shj h ... about 8 hours ago from Twittelator ReplyRetweetFavorite
Aid Watch tweets
- RT @viewfromthecave Healthy Dose top story: UNDP to Africa, End Hunger to Ensure Growth http://t.co/6b1tghMg about 7 hours ago from web ReplyRetweetFavorite
- RT @bill_easterly Leonardo DiCaprio's coffee has a remarkable effect on development. We're just a bit fuzzy on how. http://t.co/ITkKtwVG 08:08:48 PM May 15, 2012 from TweetDeck ReplyRetweetFavorite
- RT @NatalieNYT Study points to the complexities of giving & measuring the impact of charity http://t.co/zjZCCxth 06:25:03 PM May 15, 2012 from TweetDeck ReplyRetweetFavorite
- “Poverty: The audacity of hope” @TheEconomist describes an RCT by Esther Duflo http://t.co/ahFAljgc 05:23:35 PM May 15, 2012 from web ReplyRetweetFavorite
Monthly Archives: December 2009
Avatar
I just saw Avatar. This movie is a metaphor for a lot of stuff we care about here at Aid Watch, such as…
Sorry, not this time. It’s a fabulous movie. I loved it. There’s nothing more to say.
Underwear Bomber illustrates limit of “Do Something” approach to public policy, with aid application
One of the celebrities once said about global poverty, “just do something, even if it’s wrong.”
This approach is deeply appealing to politicians. Politicians love to show off to the public they are addressing a tragic problem by “doing something,” without having to bother with all that crap about “whether it actually works.”
The latest terrorism scare provoked by the Underwear Bomber prompted these profound insights into political economy. The New York Times reported a…
How to write about poor people, cont’d (the Interactive Edition)
This second post is the result of crowd-sourcing this satire.
I turned to all of you in response to one commenter who really thought I needed to improve the satire quality of the previous post. Another commenter suggests reading the all-time-great classic “How to Write About Africa,” which was of course an inspiration, and whose brilliant author, Binyavanga Wainaina, I would no more dream of matching than Shakespeare.
An anonymous commenter (an extremely talented, knowledgeable, and well…
Posted in Badvocacy and celebs 37 Comments
How to write about poor people
Use a precise definition of poverty: living on less than $1.25 a day, adjusted for purchasing power. Give the precise number who fit that definition.- Ignore the recent revision of this number by 42%.
- Do not excessively analyze geographic or ethnographic distinctions amongst poor people.
- Discuss the following: poverty traps, vicious circles, aid financing gaps.
- There probably won’t be time left to discuss the following concepts: initiative, savings, inventiveness, resourcefulness, adaptation to
…
Posted in Badvocacy and celebs, Cognitive biases, Maps 22 Comments
World Map of Remoteness vs. Connectedness (HT Tyler Cowen)
Posted in Economics principles, Maps 15 Comments
Peter Singer and I on Tough Love for Our NGOs at NYT (the 6 minute video excerpt)
I am so grateful and humbled that my message on the accountability of aid has finally reached this extremely high profile — wait, I just realized, there is NO audience, it’s the holidays.
For those of you who didn’t have enough heavily spiked eggnog to listen to the whole 46 minute version, here is the New York Times’ 6-minute excerpt of the conversation, emphasizing microcredit, evaluation, overhead costs, and the limits of generic “answers.”
The audience gave us…
Posted in Aid policies and approaches Tagged Chris Blattman, New York Times, Peter Singer, Tyler Cowen 7 Comments
Christmas Charity Gift-Giving Video Edition: Peter Singer and I on Bloggingheads.tv
Today, the New York Times-sponsored Bloggingheads.TV put up a 45 minute video discussion {video link: Peter Singer & William Easterly on Bloggingheads.tv}, where Peter and I discuss imposing tough love on the global poverty charities who take your Christmas gifts and donations. I had given a critical review of Peter’s latest book in the Wall Street Journal. Yet, Peter and I wound up agreeing that there is just as big a moral obligation on you to make sure your favorite charity gets…
Who knew that the aid organization most responsive to feedback is: the military?
I didn’t see this one coming: that the nicest responses I have ever gotten to criticisms made on this blog came from military officers (both this time and on one previous occasion). I didn’t know that a command-and-control ARMY would prove about 1 trillion times more responsive than the civilians at USAID. I didn’t know that a Lieutenant General would handle criticism better than a Starbucks PR executivewho flamed out in response…
Posted in Grand plans and aid targets, Maps 11 Comments
What exactly is “Climate Aid”?
Alan Beattie has a great piece on this murky concept in the FT. Here is Alan’s exposition recast in the form of Q and A:
Q: Should “climate aid” be additional to existing aid?
A: Of course, except how do you define “existing aid”? Should the yet-to-be-fulfilled climate aid pledges be added to the yet-to-be-fulfilled pledges for general aid made in Gleneagles in 2005? Or should they just be added to the actual current…
Posted in In the news 3 Comments