- Andrew Gelman argues that it can make sense to do design analysis/power calculations after the data have been collected – but he also makes clear how NOT to do this (e.g. if a study with a small sample and noisy measurement finds a statistically significant increase of 40% in profits, don’t then see whether it has power to detect a 40% increase – instead you should be looking for the probability the treatment effect is of the wrong sign, or that the magnitude is overestimated, and should be basing the effect size you examine power for on external information). They have an R function retrodesign() to do these calculations.
- Annie Lowrey interviews Angus Deaton in the Atlantic, and discusses whether it is better to be poor in the Mississippi Delta or in Bangladesh, opioid addiction, and the class of President Obama.
- Duncan Green on humanitarian cash transfers and one way to make policy change
- Justin Sandefur on the case for a UBI in India. And if you haven’t had enough of UBIs, Vox discusses the GiveDirectly program in Kenya and Berk’s critiques.
- Dave Evans is the interviewee on the aidpreneur podcast “The power of the impact evaluation revolution”
- Marginal Revolution on the Devil is in the Details – discussing work by Iqbal Dhaliwal and Rema Hanna in the JDE on the limits of reforming the bureaucracy in India.
- In self-sabotaging policies of the week: NPR’s Goats and Soda notes that South Sudan will now start charging $10,000 for aid worker work permits.
- Job opening: DIME is recruiting a field coordinator for a project in Brazil.
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