I just finished reading a fascinating paper on the social impact of urban street paving in Mexico by Marco Gonzalez and Climent Quintana. A previous version of this paper had been presented at the Impact conference in Cuernavaca back in June 2011. It turns out that street paving – mostly with cement - has a significant impact on property values (+43%), land values (+54%) … [Read more...] about Cement is good
Mind the Gap conference cuernavaca
Policy, politics and evidence: why does it matter?
At the Mind the Gap conference in Cuernavaca, Mexico, the main theme was how to affect policy with hard evidence. Some would argue that this is the essence of why we evaluate programs. We want to know what works and why so we can improve upon what we have, replicate what works or move away from what does not. Although it seems reasonable, policy-making is about politics … [Read more...] about Policy, politics and evidence: why does it matter?
Beyond social sectors: “Productive” Impact Evaluations
It was not a surprise, but certainly an encouraging confirmation: the use of rigorous impact evaluation methodologies has spread beyond social sectors. I just participated in the conference “Mind the Gap: From Evidence to Policy Impact” and I was glad to see that 8 out 38 parallel sessions were devoted to discussing impact evaluations of programs and projects aimed at … [Read more...] about Beyond social sectors: “Productive” Impact Evaluations
Mind the Gap: from evidence to policy impact
More than 400 policy makers, experts, evaluators and academics met in Cuernavaca in the Conference: MIND THE GAP: FROM EVIDENCE TO POLICY IMPACT. … [Read more...] about Mind the Gap: from evidence to policy impact