The notion that human beings behave “rationally” in pursuit of objectives such as utility and profit has formed the bedrock of economic theory for well over a century. For many…
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(Originally appearing in the Huffington Post 7/19/2016) In front of the glowing new offices of Twitter on the edge of the Tenderloin, I watch the programmer step over the soiled,…
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[Note for non-economist readers of Across Two Worlds, the following post may induce drowsiness and probably should not be ingested while driving a motor vehicle or operating heavy machinery.] In…
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Those of you who knew my father well know that he was in many ways a great man, and more importantly, a very good man. He was also an excellent…
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I enjoy helping NGOs with designing ways to carry out impact evaluations within the context of their normal operations. David Evans of the World Bank and I wrote a piece for…
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Some undergraduate students from Harvard asked me to write an article for a symposium on behavioral economics they were publishing in their undergraduate economics journal, the Harvard Economics Review. I…
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What is the most precious personal possession of a college student today? Clearly for millennials, the thing they would hate to part with most is their cell phone. A recent…
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Because Their Work is Making a Difference Article in Christianity Today, December 29, 2015 As a development economist, people sometimes ask me, “What can I do to really make an…
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New blogs and articles in the public online press have brought increasing attention to the results of the six randomized trials on microfinance presented in the January 2015 issue of the…
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Reflections on Hope and Oaxaca (Extended version of piece appearing in Christianity Today, December 2015 print issue) This year we moved to a small village in Oaxaca for six months to…
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What is a Christian Development Economist Good For? Transcript of Keynote Talk Given at the Association of Christian Economists (ACE) Meeting, January 2015 Thank you for allowing me to speak…
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How Game Theory Can Transform Your Kid’s Halloween Candy from Your Worst Enemy to Your New Best Friend As a parent, you will dread these days after Halloween. That stash…
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As a development economist I naturally spend a lot of time thinking about issues related to economic development. I also have a chronic bad back, and unfortunately spend a lot…
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A colleague of mine sent me an email recently, remarking that what is transpiring in countries like Syria, Iraq, Afganistan, Sudan, and Somalia was like child sponsorship in reverse. It is…
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The more I am involved in practitioner and academic development work, the more I have become aware of a great divide separating the secular and faith-based international development communities. In not…
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Last Thursday, Vox ran a story highlighting our randomized trial with TOMS Shoes subtly titled “Buying TOMS Shoes is a Terrible Way to Help People.” In the piece the author,…
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The new July 2015 issue of the Review of Economics and Statistics contains the most rigorous academic study to date on the impact of fair trade coffee. Not only does the article…
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And 5 Reasons Why It’s Likely More Effective Although it has been a guiding principle of many development practitioners for some time, economists have begun to discover holistic development. While NGOs…
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(San Francisco Chronicle Op-Ed, May 28, 2015) The death of John Nash and his wife Alicia from a tragic automobile accident in New Jersey last weekend stunned those of us…
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Trust, Poverty, and Mexico (Christianity Today 5/22/15) What are the most important qualities of a society that allow economic prosperity to take root? A lust for learning and knowledge? A blistering work…
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Why do so many development interventions fail to demonstrate positive impacts? Even one of the most hopeful ideas, such as microfinance, has…
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TOMS Shoes is one of the most well-known “double bottom line” companies, where generally the two bottom lines include both profit and social impact. For every pair of TOMS Shoes…
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Two years ago a man named Ron Rice called me on the phone and said his friend Ayuba Burki Gufwan was in San Francisco and wanted to meet me in…
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Book review of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDun’s A Path Appears. Appearing in Christianity Today, February 25, 2015. Thanks to innovations in accountability, poverty-fighting efforts are flourishing like never before. The global…
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A Letter to My Evangelical Friends about Donald Trump
This article also published in the Huffington Post, March 31, 2016. Updated 10-31-16. You identify as an evangelical Christian, and you support Donald Trump to be our next president. A recent Pew…
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