- Chris Blattman on using qualitative measurement to validate quantitative measures of risky behaviors.
- Rachel Glennerster on individual vs community incentives for service provision.
- A new From Evidence to Policy note looks at the results of an employment program for ex-combatants in Liberia – based on work by Jeannie Annan and Chris Blattman.
- Going cold on rainfall as an instrument? Perhaps you should consider moderate snow days as an IV for educational attainment? New work from Massachuetts showing moderately snowy days (4 to 10 inches) lead to more absences and lower test scores – of course this wouldn’t work in DC/Northern Virginia where schools close at the whisper of snow…not likely to be a great instrument in most developing countries either alas.
- Science this week has a story on the most ambitious research project I’ve heard about for a long time: tracking 100,000 babies in the U.S. from birth until age 21, with measures of environmental exposures, at a cost of $1.5 billion for the first 7 years. It has been put on hold given concerns about leadership and concerns about the scientific robustness of the leading hypotheses.
- Summer conference round-up: the summer always brings a number of interesting development conferences. If you want to get a sense of the newest work, examining the programs of SITE, the NBER development and productivity and development summer sessions, the CGD/AFD/WB/Oxford migration and development conference, and the Barcelona summer forum are all good programs to look through.
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