By Lina Salazar Ortegón* Right after the IDB joined the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), the Inter-American Development Bank’s Opportunities for the Majority Initiative (OMJ), which focuses on Base of the Pyramid sustainable business models, restructured its impact measurement system across its grant and investment portfolio, putting Impact Reporting & … [Read more...] about 5 things you need to know about impact investing metrics
Evaluation methods and techniques
Do Leaders Matter?
There is ample evidence that managers have a large effect on firm performance and productivity. In a recent study of the performance of development projects in Latin America we find that project team leaders matter for project success, and to the extent that they do, on aggregate they matter for the success of development finance. Even if the impact of additional development … [Read more...] about Do Leaders Matter?
The cost of inaction
I just finished reading The Cost of Inaction, Case Studies from Rwanda and Angola by Sudhir Anand and others. T he Foreword, by Amartya Sen, is worth the whole price-tag. According to Professor Sen this is a far-reaching book that goes well beyond the two case studies and its “modest title” and provides a good occasion to think about some foundational issues in the … [Read more...] about The cost of inaction
10 principles on crime prevention
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
8 qualities of good economists
Alfred Marshal regarded himself as “a wanderer in the land of dry facts; looking forward to a speedy return to the luxuriance of pure thought.” Keynes, in his 1924 Economic Journal obituary, (ungated here) thought that Marshall combined “the most essential and fundamental of the economist's necessary gifts-he was conspicuously historian and mathematician, a dealer in the … [Read more...] about 8 qualities of good economists