Academic papers can be both obscure and intimidating for development practitioners and others whose interests are rooted in practical, everyday issues, especially academic papers written by economists. Trying to stay…
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Excerpt from a forthcoming article in the Harvard Economics Review, the on-line student economics magazine of Harvard College. The beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians and the kidnapping of 250 Assyrian Christians are latest act…
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Microfinance has been one of the most popular approaches to micro-level development over the last twenty years. It has grown in scope from just 13 million borrowers worldwide in 1997 to around…
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(Christianity Today Online, January 8, 2015) A feeling of hopelessness and insecurity in Central America has fueled the exodus of 43,000 unaccompanied Central American children and teenagers to the US…
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(World Bank Impact Blog, January 7, 2015) There is arguably little that makes development economists sharpen their fangs as the use of tear-jerking, heart-warming, credit-card-mobilizing anecdotes by development NGOs to…
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If you think that the jing-jing of Christmas bells is being slowly replaced by the ca-ching of the Christmas cash register, you are not hearing strange noises. December 2013 retail…
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Why is it that microfinance practitioners consistently argue that microfinance has large impacts on borrowers, while impact results from randomized controlled trials reveal only very small effects? In a paper…
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(From the Huffington Post, August 7, 2014) I see you, smugly smiling over your morning cup of fair-trade coffee, gratified at the unimaginable impact your thoughtfully chosen beans must be…
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In this blog the Shrewd Samaritan will occasionally wander off topic to examine an issue tangential to economic development and globalization issues. In this case, I’ve been reflecting on our…
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(Published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, June 22, 2014.) Like many World Cup aficionados, I will allocate far too much of my time to watching soccer games on ESPN…
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What do the poor do with cash handouts? There is mounting evidence from interesting new review papers that, at least in developing countries, cash grants do not increase purchases of…
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(Written for Christianity Today Online, June 18, 2014. Click for full article.) This summer many of us will head out on short-term mission trips, spending anywhere from a week to a…
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(PRISM Magazine, April 2014–click to read full article at PrismMagazine.org.) One of the most exciting new ways for people to give to the poor in developing countries is through transferring cash…
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(Christianity Today, February 2014.) This past July in Massachusetts, Eileen Taylor, a customer in a Heavenly Doughnuts drive-thru, paid not only for her own doughnuts, but for the order of…
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(Christianity Today, December 2013–click for full article at ChristianityToday.com.) What kind of Christmas present should you get for your rich uncle who has everything? Or perhaps even more importantly, what if…
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(Christianity Today, June 2013.) “What can an ordinary person like me do for the poor in developing countries?” I have been asked this question casually at parties and social gatherings…
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How can you say that you’re not responsible? What does it have to do with me? What is my reaction, what should it be? Confronted by this latest atrocity Driven…
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(Christianity Today, October 10, 2011.) A sign flashed at the Occupy Wall Street protest reads “People Before Profit.” It is an effective sign. Who could support Profits Before People?…
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A Migration Story that Made Me Think
Life in Oaxaca: A First-Hand Story that Impacted my Feelings on U.S. Immigration My wife and two young daughters and I are living in an indigenous village in Oaxaca during…
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