Category Archives: development

Factories as an Alternative to Aid

The NYT on Saturday gave valuable op-ed space to hedge fund manager Justin Muzinich to roll out his big idea: cut direct US foreign aid, and use the money instead to give tax breaks to hedge funds and others who … Continue reading

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Live-Blogging Malaria

Martin Edlund is doing a great job live-blogging the Gates Foundation Malaria Forum in Seattle. It’s ambitious – everybody seems keen to talk about eradication – but it’s also realistic: the best hope right now would seem to be a … Continue reading

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Bed Net Datapoint of the Day

From Vivian Hoffmann of Cornell University, via Tom Foster: This paper reports results from a field experiment in Uganda. Whether a mosquito net was purchased or received for free affected who within the household used the net. Free nets were … Continue reading

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Inequality Datapoint of the Day

From Shanghai-based data group The Hurun Rich List, via Marketwatch: There are currently 106 mainland billionaires, up from 15 last year… The report added that China’s 800 richest individuals have net wealth of $459.3 billion, equivalent to 16% of China’s … Continue reading

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Give Anti-Malarial Bed Nets Away for Free

The NYT covers the bed-net debate today, if debate it can reasonably be called. The article itself is good; the main problem is the headline, which says that "Distribution of Nets Splits Malaria Fighters". Er, no, it doesn’t. Once upon … Continue reading

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Paul Collier in New York

I went to a great talk by Paul Collier on Friday, at the Cooper Union. I blogged his new book, "The Bottom Billion," in June, and I was looking forward to hearing him in person: after all, he comes impressively … Continue reading

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Look Who’s Winning a Liberty Medal

A rock star receives the Liberty Medal yesterday in Philadelphia. With her is some Irish dude. (Via TED Blog. Photograph by Jim Young/Reuters/Landov.)

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How Giving to Charity Will Help You Get Rich Quick

On Monday, I met Jim Whitton, a director of The Hunger Project, in a midtown cafe. The Hunger Project (THP) is a well-run non-profit which works efficiently and tirelessly towards sustainable poverty reduction in the developing world. With Whitton was … Continue reading

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140 Million Facing “Arsenic Time Bomb”

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism submits: The BBC, reporting on a meeting at the Royal Geographical Society, says that 140 million people in developing countries are drinking water with such high concentrations of arsenic as to constitute poisoning. Experts estimate … Continue reading

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They’re Both Green, As Well

The new issue of Portfolio
is now online!
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Chart of the Day: West African Trucking Obstacles

Charles Kenny points me to a study
of the obstacles to trucking on West African roads, which includes this wonderful
chart.
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How to Make Aid Work

Are you a little bit bored of the "does aid work" debate? Well, so
is Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and in a tour de force 20-minute talk
at the end of TEDGlobal, she asked us all to get "a bit more sophisticated"
in terms of how we approach such questions.
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A Brief History of Chinese Industrial Policy

The most impressive economic success story of the past 30 years has been the
astonishing resurgence of China, which is likely to become the world’s third-largest
economy
this year.
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Unexpected Correlations: Lead and Crime, Coffee and AIDS

Poverty reduction and AIDS reduction are not always, it would seem, the same thing.
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Whether Computers Can Help Poor and Middle-Income Countries

Computers can do many things, but can they make poor countries richer? One
of the leading researchers when it comes to the impact of information and communication
technology (ICT) on development is the World Bank’s Charles Kenny
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The World Bank vs China in Africa

Africa’s need for infrastructure is urgent, and any African government should jump at whatever the quickest, cheapest option is. Right now, that’s much more likely to mean looking east than looking west.
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Bono Bashing

Does anybody have a nice word to say about Bono?
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How to Help the Bottom Billion

Niall Ferguson reviews
the new book by Paul Collier, The
Bottom Billion
, in Sunday’s NYT Book Review, and I’m not sure what
to make of it.
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The Philanthropic and Societal Value of Corporations

The social value of Windows is surely not proportional to Microsoft’s monopolistic profits.
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Monday Links Do The Twist

Enough links to keep anybody happy for at least an hour.
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Lant Pritchett’s Big Idea

Advocating a huge increase in international labor mobility.
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Outsize Returns From Investing in Microfinance

Early investors in Compartamos got 100% returns on their investment, compounded over eight years.
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Jeff Sachs’s Reality Distortion Field

I’m beginning to think that Steve Jobs’s famous Reality
Distortion Field
has a rival: that of Jeffrey Sachs.
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Mwenda vs Bono in Tanzania

Easterly vs Sachs becomes Mwenda vs Bono.
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Q&A: Tom Dichter on Microcredit

“Can scores of presidents, prime ministers, monarchs be wrong? Yes. Can the Nobel committee be wrong? Yes. Can celebrities and the media be wrong? Yes!!!”
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