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?
What does and doesn't work in development
Vacations
A year ago I explained 5 reasons why you should take a long vacation. Here is one very big one why your kids should not. Recently, Matthew Yglesias wrote on why vacations are evil. Much of his piece was based on a RAND literature review on the impact of vacations on children. Summer learning loss is approximately one month of instruction and this loss is particularly … [Read more...] about Vacations
More power to Dams?
Large infrastructure projects have a bad rap. Many deservedly so. But new evidence is emerging that large scale dam projects in China are Pareto improving, and large scale infrastructure investments in Brazil had large positive effects on development. Dam projects have been controversial for the benefits on power generation, flood control and irrigation, and … [Read more...] about More power to Dams?
Channeling Remittances to Education
By Kate Ambler , Diego Aycinena, and Dean Yang Evaluations of supply side educational interventions such as conditional cash transfers and private school vouchers have shown that such programs can be effective in increasing the demand for education in the developing world. In a new paper, we study a program that seeks to mitigate the costs of such transfer programs by … [Read more...] about Channeling Remittances to Education
Traffic jams
In 1966, the incredible Julio Cortazar published a short story called ‘The Southern Thruway’. An accident happens in a lazy summer afternoon and traffic grinds to a halt. Nothing moves. Everybody waits. One by one people get out of their cars to stretch their legs and some start chatting. Traffic is stuck. Night slowly falls. The engineer in the Peugeot and the woman in … [Read more...] about Traffic jams