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...
Archives
Bill Easterly tweets
- RT @hangingnoodles: "a self-satirizing plan…pouring in money to a fictional government” http://t.co/K9yCiLgs06 @bill_easterly NYT on Mali … about 20 hours ago from Twitter for iPad ReplyRetweetFavorite
- Good article on aid to Mali, even though I'm quoted http://t.co/1aWi9mjWAo 02:03:59 PM May 17, 2013 from bitly ReplyRetweetFavorite
- RT @dandrezner: Um... http://t.co/R8U5P6jbid MT @bill_easterly Thoughtful, well-written critique of Krugman anti-austerity crusade http://t… 06:43:31 PM May 16, 2013 from Twitter for iPad ReplyRetweetFavorite
- Thoughtful and well-written critique of the Krugman anti-austerity crusade http://t.co/3dAjHsz5WN 02:19:33 PM May 16, 2013 from bitly ReplyRetweetFavorite
Aid Watch tweets
- Where is the line between marketing social impact and exploitation? | http://t.co/YTc7AoLRMc via @Thehumanosphere about 23 hours ago from Buffer ReplyRetweetFavorite
- Why the rise in global trade may have less to do with policy and more to do with metal boxes. http://t.co/QN6uw0wLys via @TheEconomist about 23 hours ago from Buffer ReplyRetweetFavorite
- “I thought you were here to help.” http://t.co/z7hbKP8RtX via @NYTimes 05:29:12 PM May 17, 2013 from Buffer ReplyRetweetFavorite
- African traders flocked to Guangzhou for the cheap goods but are staying to run manufacturing operations http://t.co/gK7jmSS3qW via @qz 05:03:40 PM May 17, 2013 from Buffer ReplyRetweetFavorite
Tag Archives: RCTs
The Counter-Revolution of Development Economics: Hayek vs. Duflo
This post is by Adam Martin, a post-doctoral fellow at DRI.
F.A. Hayek, well known as a critic of central planning, also criticized what he called “scientism,” a blind commitment to the methods of the physical sciences beyond their realm of applicability. In The Counter-Revolution of Science, Hayek opposed to “scientism” the genuine spirit of scientific inquiry.
Esther Duflo’s emphasis on small-scale experimentation has affinity with Hayek’s critique of grand schemes of central planning. As…
Posted in Aid policies and approaches, Metrics and evaluation Also tagged Adam Martin, Esther Duflo, Experiments, Friedrich Hayek 24 Comments
Michael Clemens won’t let up on the Millennium Villages + bonus links
It’s nice to see scholars bringing attention to the critical need for evaluation and informed public dialogue (not just “success stories” or short-term impact evaluation) for the Millennium Villages Project, which we have also covered on this blog. Michael Clemens of the Center for Global Development is currently carrying on a very revealing dialogue with Millennium Villages.
In Michael’s first blog post which we blogged, he makes three central points:
- The
…
Undercover Economist goes public for randomized controlled trials
Tim Harford column in today’s FT (VERY strong endorsement of RCTs)
The coming age of accountability
There was such a great audience yesterday at the Brookings event on What Works in Development. (If you are a glutton for punishment, the full length audio of the event is available on the Brookings web site.)
In the end, what struck me was the passion for just having SOME way to KNOW that aid is benefiting the poor, which dwarfed the smaller issue of Randomized Experiment methods vs. other methods.
And extreme dissatisfaction with…
“What works in development” is available again
After my whining in a previous post that the great publication “What works in development: Thinking Big and Thinking Small” was not easily available, it is once again available on Amazon.
Let me repeat the previous sales pitch: although I am one of the editors, this is not about self-promotion. The main contribution of the book is to feature a galaxy of academic superstars heatedly debating how or whether to apply randomized evaluation to development projects…
Posted in Metrics and evaluation 1 Comment
A balanced reaction to “The Civil War in Development Economics”
Aid Watch received the following very thoughtful comment. The author wishes to remain anonymous:
The debate in the academic world sounds fascinating! And it mirrors in some ways the ongoing debates I have within the international development practitioner community, where I work. Due to my background and current job, I’m the resident RCT “expert” of sorts in my organization and get to have lots of fascinating discussions with program and M&E staff. I see the…
Posted in Metrics and evaluation 8 Comments
The Civil War in Development Economics
Few people outside academia realize how badly Randomized Evaluation has polarized academic development economists for and against. My little debate with Sachs seems like gentle whispers by comparison.
Want to understand what’s got some so upset and others true believers? A conference volume has just come out from Brookings. At first glance, this is your typical sleepy conference volume, currently ranked on Amazon at #201,635.
But attendees at that conference realized that…
Posted in Academic research, Books and book reviews, Metrics and evaluation Also tagged Brookings 21 Comments
Development Experiments: Ethical? Feasible? Useful?
A new kind of development research in recent years involves experiments: there is a “treatment group” that gets an aid intervention (such as a de-worming drug for school children), and a “control group” that does not. People are assigned randomly to the two groups, so there is no systematic difference between the two groups except the treatment. The difference in outcomes (such as school attendance by those who get deworming vs. those who do not)…
Posted in Data and statistics, Metrics and evaluation 23 Comments