Research on Sub-Saharan Africa
Course Text: “The Effect of an Integrated Multisector Model for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals and Improving Child Survival in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa: A Non-Randomised Controlled Assessment”
This article has been assigned as required reading for Program Evaluation, a spring elective at the CDE.
Read MoreCourse Text: “Methods of Household Consumption Measurement through Surveys: Experimental Results from Tanzania”
This article has been assigned as required reading in the CDE spring elective, Program Evaluation.
Read MoreProf. Ashraf recommends: “Replication Redux: The Reproducibility Crisis and the Case of Deworming”
In this article, Owen Ozier of the World Bank examines the difficulty of reproducing the results of seminal experiments through the example of the debate around mass deworming interventions.
Read MoreExecutive Summary: “Poverty and Witch Killing”
This executive summary provides a synopsis of an article in which Edward Miguel analyzed the relationship between witch killings and extreme weather among the poor in Tanzania.
Read MoreArticle: “Poverty and Witch Killing”
In this study, Edward Miguel analyzes the relationship between witch killings and extreme weather that particularly affects the livelihoods of the poor in Tanzania. What he finds suggests that witch killings might be related to the desperation people feel when things go wrong.
Read MoreFull Article: “Nudging Farmers to Use Fertilizer: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Kenya”
In this experiment, Esther Duflo, Michael Kremer, and Jonathan Robinson investigate why it is that farmers in Kenya don’t use as much fertilizer as they could. They find that small inconveniences might be making a large difference.
Read MoreFull Article: “Missing in Action: Teacher and Health Worker Absence in Developing Countries”
This article investigates absenteeism among teachers and healthcare workers in many developing countries, and finds it to be a considerable problem.
Read MoreFull Article: “Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities”
This paper on the effects of deworming treatments on children in Kenya, by Michael Kremer and Edward Miguel, was one of the pioneers in the use of randomized controlled trials at a scale of interest and with implications for cash-strapped governments.
Read MorePodcast: Choosing Community Leaders in Uganda
Choosing Better Community Leaders This podcast from VoxDev discusses how different methods of choosing leaders can lead to different outcomes. If leaders in this experiment in Uganda were chosen in an open discussion, the researchers found that the most influential people tended to be chosen. However, these influential and loud people weren’t exactly the best…
Read MoreAudio: Achieving Meaningful Impact through Aid
VoxDev host Tim Phillips talks with Rachel Glennerster, the Chief Economist of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) about the role of aid in development.
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