If you like trains, you must love reading Paul Theroux. As all good travel writers, Theroux balances crankiness, curiosity and charm. One of his best books is Dark Star Safari in which he describes his travels through the arteriosclerotic veins – trains, roads, rivers - of Africa. Theroux goes down the Nile by train and boat, through the Sudan by train and bush taxi, … [Read more...] about Reinventing the wheel
Leave the bureaucrats alone?
A few months back we shared some disheartening results in this blog: kids didn’t improve their test scores if taught by teachers from the Kenyan Ministry of Education but did better if the teachers were managed by an NGO. Although the results were striking, the policy implications were non-starters. Even if it were politically feasible, which NGO in the World is capable of … [Read more...] about Leave the bureaucrats alone?
Like water for economics
Last night, I started reading Tim Harford´s The Undercover Economist Strikes Back. Like anything Harford touches, it is pure gold. Or should I say pure water from the most pristine source. The book is about macroeconomics and although this blog is not about macroeconomics, I cannot resist the temptation to bring up the first chapter. … [Read more...] about Like water for economics
Trick-or-Treat Halloween: LACEA 2013
As the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) decided to start its annual meeting on Halloween, here are some spooky jovial papers. your guess is as good as mine as to which are crunchy treats and which are veiled tricks. And yes, all of these treats are from colleagues from the IDB. You can call it shameless institutional promotion, if you wish. … [Read more...] about Trick-or-Treat Halloween: LACEA 2013
Five steps you need in education evaluation
One thing that you probably needed when you first learned how to count was your ten fingers (or twenty if you count your toes too). So it is very handy that the IDBs new Guide on evaluating education projects comes in five steps. Not easy steps, mind you, but if you take them one at a time, it will save you a lot of time next time you want to know if hiring extra teachers is … [Read more...] about Five steps you need in education evaluation