By Ichiro Toda* There is a growing interest in how to measure the contribution of private sector activities to development of low income countries. Rigorous impact evaluation methodologies, with randomized control trials, have been applied in private sector initiatives, including support for microfinance institutions, business development or SME support. In terms of … [Read more...] about Evaluation standards for private sector projects
Failing successfully
By Belissa Rojas The race for accountability, transparency and clear results is creating incentives to report the positive: demonstrating that project outputs were delivered, and in the best case, that the interventions had the desired impact. A quick look at the monitoring, evaluation and reporting systems from the MDBs shows that there are clear incentives to … [Read more...] about Failing successfully
Is economics research credible?
By Conner Mullally Many of us believe that studies following the “gold standard” of randomized assignment, such as those generated by academic labs in the hard sciences, are beyond reproach. According to Bruce Booth - a scientist turned venture capitalist - “the unspoken rule is that at least 50% of the studies published even in top tier academic journals – Science, Nature, … [Read more...] about Is economics research credible?
Inequality of opportunity: an emerging body of literature
By: Lucas Figal Garone Academia, general public and governments seem to understand inequality differently. While many in academia and in the public sector focus on the measurement of the distribution of certain outcomes – e.g. income or total consumption –, in the real world, people seem to care about opportunity: that all individuals have the same opportunities to … [Read more...] about Inequality of opportunity: an emerging body of literature