- In the Washington Post – Jay Matthews discusses a 10,000 student experiment measuring the value of field trips – conclusion is they encourage critical thinking
- Lant Pritchett discusses the challenge of measurement of learning in education on the CGD blog in a post on “what if grade means nothing”: data from South Asia and Africa with grade meaning nothing in the sense that “(1) “grade completed” has little predictive power for measured skills/knowledge and (2) the overlap of skills/knowledge across grades is near complete so that “grade” does not represent an homogenous group for instruction.”
- David Love discusses optimal rules of thumb for personal finance on the Vox blog.
- Michael Clemens on the new agenda for migration and remittances research at the CGD blog.
- Cash transfers reduce the risk of HIV among young Kenyans by raising the age at which they first have sex – new research out in PLOS One – although note that the study does not measure HIV status.
- Angus Deaton reviews Nina Munk’s book on Jeff Sachs in the Lancet – his views on poverty traps and big push theories: “These arguments have some plausibility, but they are not endorsed by many economists today who, to be fair, do not exactly have a stellar track record in promoting development. It is also hard to avoid the fact that the now rich countries of the world escaped from poverty without even a small push, let alone one delivered from abroad. One might also ask whether gender equality was really a precondition for the Industrial Revolution, or exactly what role it played in the recent poverty reduction and health improvement in India and China which were among the most spectacular in human history.”
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IE Jobs:
- DIME is looking for an extended term consultant to work as a Nigeria impact evaluation coordinator.
- The Investment climate department is looking for a short-term consultant to work on impact evaluation
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