Jul 13, 2011

Bad News for Cynics and Optimists: An Extended Interview with Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo

Whenever I read one of Banerjee’s and Duflo’s papers or talk with them I walk away with the exhilaration that only comes from (as the economist’s would say) changing my priors—in other words, I learn something and look at the world in a new way. That’s why I was so excited to spend more than an hour talking with them this spring after Poor Economics came out. We’re publishing a transcript of that extended interview in parts because it runs to over 6000 words in its entirety. 

Over the course of the interview we discuss microcredit, microenterprise funding and growth, labor markets in developing and developed countries, the evidence for focusing on women and girls with aid programs, the debate over RCTs and how they think about their own impact on changing the world.

Apr 15, 2011

Time for Microfinance to Reflect, But Not Too Much

Nov 02, 2010

The Microfinance Impact and Innovation Conference Round Up

There was a huge amount of information and data presented at the recent Microfinance Impact and Innovation Conference. It was hard to take it all in, but thankfully there were a number of bloggers and other interested parties at the event who have provided summaries, interviews and reactions. Those posts are collected here for easy access and we’ll be updating the list as we go.

Oct 21, 2010

Microinsurance: It Works but Nobody Wants It

In summary, the various studies showed that there is tremendous potential for microinsurance—it has large benefits if the barriers to adoption are overcome. It seems that the most important area for innovation is around the cost of delivery and administration. If insurance providers can bring down those costs, they will find demand and will be able to grow a sustainable business that provides substantial benefits to clients.

Jun 29, 2010

U.S. Lagging, Not Leading, Social Entrepreneurship

Jun 02, 2010

The Brown Revolution

It’s often discussed that philanthropy has a fad problem. Philanthropic attention tends to gravitate to the “new”, and even when these “hot” areas show success, they are infrequently carried to scale. In other cases, donors simply declare victory and move on, leaving programs that require on-going funding to spiral downward into failure.

Agriculture is one area that has been a victim of philanthropy fads. Investment poured into the sector during the 1960s and 1970s and yielded perhaps the greatest success in the history of global philanthropy: the green revolution. But the success of the green revolution in Asia led many funders to focus on other sectors, believing the problem was solved. As a result, investment in agriculture and agricultural research declined and progress on improved varieties of global staple crops slowed—and the green revolution never reached Africa.

Recently there has been some movement on this front. The Gates Foundation in particular has become vocal about agriculture in Africa in particular, initiating the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and bringing other funders on board.

But the neglect of the agricultural sector has exposed us all to a counter-revolution, a brown revolution.

May 31, 2010

Patient Optimism In Other Words

Feb 26, 2010

A Lesson from Haiti: Are Search and Rescue Teams Worth It?

The images of people being rescued from the rubble in Haiti by international search and rescue teams were inspiring and have led some to call for more investment in search and rescue teams. But looking at the data, I think that’s exactly the wrong lesson from the experience in Haiti. As a public health practitioner, and someone dedicated to outcomes measurement, it seems likely to me that SAR-focused relief efforts improperly subordinate the good of the many to the good of a very few. In other words, there are much better ways to direct disaster relief than SAR.

Feb 24, 2010

Helping Haiti’s Children, Part II

What should people do who want to help Haiti’s children?

Jan 22, 2010

Will Donor Advice Do Any Good?

As I see more and more advice on giving to Haiti appear, I’ve begun to wonder: how will we know if this proliferation of good advice has had an impact on the Haitian relief and recovery effort? What metrics will tell us that donors to Haiti and the nonprofits working there learned the lessons of the tsunami, Katrina, and Nargis?