Lawrence Sherman is one of the world’s most renowned experts on crime prevention. His use of empirical evidence, mainly derived from randomized field experiments in criminal sanctions and crime prevention, has had a profound impact in policy in the developed world. He recently developed for the IDB a protocol designed mainly for people working to reduce crime and improve … [Read more...] about 10 principles on crime prevention
9 useful links
Starting today we will publish every Monday a few links that we find particularly useful or interesting. If you have any suggestions please post them in the comments section. As school is starting it is useful to review some development economics resources and syllabi. Here is Chris Blattman’s on the political economy of African Development at Columbia, Nancy Birdsall’s on … [Read more...] about 9 useful links
Legal bribes?
About a year and a half ago, the economist Kaushik Basu - then a Cornell professor on leave as Chief Economist for the Ministry of Finance in India- proposed legalizing some forms of bribing. Some highlights: There are different kinds of bribes and what I am concerned with in this paper are bribes that people often have to give to get what they are legally entitled to. I … [Read more...] about Legal bribes?
5 reasons why to take a vacation
Now that most of the northern hemisphere is on vacation, most are watching the Olympic Games, and the World Bank Impact blog is in hiatus, I thought we should take a break too. But before we do that, it is good to know that taking a break can be good. These are just five reasons (Hint: happiness and productivity are two of them) … [Read more...] about 5 reasons why to take a vacation
2 additional examples of strategic ignorance
In a previous previous blog, I explored the positive impact of impact evaluations and impact evaluation institutional frameworks have had on policy formulation. And in a previous blog, I discussed two examples of areas where one would hope that investments and policy reflect the evidence, but do not: migration and investing in young males in urban areas. Two … [Read more...] about 2 additional examples of strategic ignorance