- The World Bank’s Enterprise Survey program is not just about surveying formal firms. In some countries (such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe & Lao DPR), they now also conduct surveys of informal firm. A harder-to-sample group than households or formal firms, the surveys use stratified adaptive cluster sampling methods—a method commonly used in the field of biology.
- The global partnership Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre works to fill in big gaps in knowledge on the lens of politics in understand development. They have opened registration to their international flagship conference From Politics to Power? Rethinking the Politics of Development which will be held September 9-11, 2019 at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. Plenary speakers include Lant Pritchett and James Robinson.
- If you missed PACDEV, Vittorio Bassi has a nice roundup of the papers.
- For those who do field work in Africa or elsewhere, you might add this to your reading list: The Politics of Conducting Research in Africa. It’s an edited volume that explores the “ethical and emotional challenges” of conducting fieldwork in Africa and the difficulties researchers face – including objectivity, access, gender issues and information risks.
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