- Interesting GiveDirectly blogpost about people refusing to accept their cash transfers in one part of Kenya: typically 95% of people have accepted the transfers, but in one new county 45% of households were declining
- An introduction to machine learning for Economists – a nice set of links to papers, examples, statistical software etc. by Anton Tatasenko.
- Uri Simonsohn on why a new AER paper can’t replicate the famous Bertrand and Mullainathan (BM) audit study findings – his contention is that the typically black names used by BM are also associated with low socioeconomic status, which he provides some evidence for.
- If you want a little refresher in key concepts of development economics thinking, Marc Bellemare has been discussing non-separability, heterogeneity, and this week non-anonymity.
- In VoxEU, John Gibson on the importance of variances in measuring hunger
- The difficulties of reforming stupid regulations: If you ever despair about why some stupid law in your favorite developing country hasn’t been changed, Planet Money has a great episode about the Jones Act in the U.S. – “Every time you want to send something from one US port to another, the cargo must travel on a ship built in the U.S., staffed by mostly Americans, and flying the American flag.” Planet Money “Do you know any economists who like the Jones Act? STIGLITZ: No, I don't. I've never met one.”.
- Planet Money’s latest episode covers Dean Karlan and Chris Udry’s work on insurance for farmers. Includes a behind the scenes look into how they marketed the insurance product, and several attempts to get Chris to say “I told you so” to Dean.
- Science this week has a review paper on the social and economic impacts of climate, with several nice graphs summarizing key findings from a bunch of different studies.
Join the Conversation