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
Recent Comments
- Rebecca Burlingame on Be Careful What You Export: Oh so true that there are many things the developing world does not want from the...
- Tom on Be Careful What You Export: And that is without even thinking of the material dimension of institutional or organisational...
- Tim on Statement from CARE on Bruckner FOIA Request: Check out who is “Art Keys and Associates” and you will understand how...
- skeptic on Statement from CARE on Bruckner FOIA Request: Umm, why don’t they just release it themselves instead of asking USAID to...
- Andy on Be Careful What You Export: Very true, the lock-in nature of path dependent choices and the increasing returns these paths...
- Debrah Prada on Be Careful What You Export: I hope everyone GOVERNMENT could read this. Very well said.
Archives
Bill Easterly tweets
- Dear Aid Watchers, Laura and I are gone for a week, Adam Martin is Guest Editor, starting with today's great post http://bit.ly/ces1l3 02:12:45 PM August 30, 2010 from bitly
- Have a happy Last Week of the Summer 01:52:50 PM August 30, 2010 from web
- Beloved tweeps: I am going off line for a week in a last-ditch effort to regain my sanity, no more tweets from me till after Labor Day. 01:52:30 PM August 30, 2010 from web
- What to learn from those wacky animal-shaped Sudanese urban plans: rich country urban planners are just as wacky http://bit.ly/ces1l3 01:50:42 PM August 30, 2010 from bitly
Aid Watch tweets
- Be Careful What you Export: http://bit.ly/cE3e1v about 11 hours ago from web
- TransparencyBrawl 2010 continues: http://bit.ly/aG1ytu 08:18:35 PM September 01, 2010 from web
- Hayek vs. the Intellectuals, in technicolor! http://bit.ly/cSnS8m 11:25:39 AM September 01, 2010 from web
- Guest blog by Ben Powell on how to help the poor, just in time for going back to school: http://bit.ly/9pQfhi. 11:18:38 AM August 31, 2010 from web
Author Archives: William Easterly
The Battle for the Dream
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a
…
Posted in Uncategorized
7 Comments
Pete Boettke: economist extraordinaire
The WSJ has a well-deserved, laudatory profile of Peter Boettke of George Mason University. The Journal stresses mainly his role in the Hayek vs. Keynes debate. I have learned from him in the area of Hayek vs. central planning, the subject more relevant to my own interests in long-run development. He is also a generous colleague and friend. Congrats, Pete!
Posted in Uncategorized
3 Comments
I have a dream: the Powerpoint aid jargon version
Recycled this on Huffington Post for tomorrow’s 47th anniversary of MLK’s greatest speech of all time.
Posted in Uncategorized
3 Comments
This just in: there was a flood in Pakistan
We have chronicled here on Aid Watch how media coverage of disasters influences disasters, and how late the US media has been to the story of the disastrous flood in Pakistan, with apparently anemic donor response as a result.
Puzzlement deepened this morning at 7:30 am when I picked up my NYT off my doorstep and saw the four column front-page headline: Much of Pakistan’s Progress is Lost in Its Floodwaters. The NYT devotes…
Laura in NYT debate on Can Aid Buy Taliban’s Love?
NYT DEBATE: Can Flood Aid Weaken the Taliban in Pakistan?
Or is it more likely that extremist groups will capitalize on the chaos created by the disaster?
Laura Freschi’s answer: aid doesn’t help with the Taliban, but give anyway.
The idea that flood aid will change Pakistani perceptions about the U.S. in a lasting and meaningful way is both unproven and based on simplistic, even condescending assumptions about the beneficiaries of
…
Posted in Disaster/ humanitarian aid, In the news
Tagged Laura Freschi, New York Times, Pakistan
1 Comment
From Russia With Color, 1909
This amazing collection of color photographs taken in Russia in 1909-1912 is really unmissable (H/T Mari Kuraishi).
The picture is of an autocrat in Uzbekistan. Since then, there has been much progress, in the form of cheap polyester suits for today’s autocrats in Uzbekistan.
Posted in Uncategorized
1 Comment
Our internal foreign aid program
The US Recovery Act (aka “stimulus package”) has put out this great map of where the money is being spent by Congressional District.
As I looked at where the money is being spent in the part of the country pictured (the part I know best), there did not seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason between Congressional Districts as far as population or need. Is it random? Could…
Posted in Accountability & transparency
12 Comments
The Ground Zero mosque and cognitive biases
Among the many other things involved in this controversy, stereotypes of Muslims are not exactly helping.
As this blog is (excessively) fond of arguing, ethnic stereotypes are partly fueled by an obscure cognitive bias known as Reversing Conditional Probabilities. As a long ago Aid Watch post argued (sorry for indulging in self-quotation, but hey it’s August, time for reruns):
{People perceive} from media coverage that the probability that IF you are a terrorist, THEN you are a Muslim
…
Posted in Cognitive biases, Uncategorized
17 Comments