I miss the old brand #CDC

The brilliant Dean Karlan, with whom I worked when he was Chief Economist of USAID, talks about how to reform foreign aid in the long run. This is what genuine commitment to efficiency looks like. Not ignorant sneering sledgehammers. Smart, conservative, evidence-based reallocation of resources.

What do you think are the biggest implications of USAID's elimination (and other aid shifts) for how development economists should/can/will do research or what they should study?

Earlier this year, I explained why I donated 16% of my annual income directly to help save USAID programs that were terminated. Now there's an easy way to do that. This Response Fund pools donations directly to urgent and vetted programs in need of support: proimpact.tools/rapid-response

LAUNCH DAY 🚀 Today I’m launching a new podcast, Hard Drugs, with Jacob Trefethen (@jacobtref.bsky.social) Our first episode is about lenacapavir — a new HIV drug that blocks infections with an efficacy rate of nearly 100%, and which could completely change the fight against HIV worldwide.

Very excited to welcome ‪‪@justsand.bsky.social to Open Phil as the inaugural leader of our new program devoted to accelerating economic growth in developing countries, where he'll allocate over $30m over the next 3 years www.openphilanthropy.org/research/in...

On May 12, join @cgdev.org President @rglenner.bsky.social & Stefan Dercon (@gamblingondev.bsky.social, @oxfordcsae.bsky.social & @blavatnikschool.bsky.social) for a @voxdev.bsky.social discussion on the future of foreign aid in an era of falling budgets. Register: cepr-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

As I meet people from aid agencies around the world this week I will be making the case for a radical simplification in how we do aid: fewer countries, fewer projects, radically simpler programs. It was key takeaway from my time in govt. Read why. www.cgdev.org/blog/radical...

If you hate the news cycle but love high-impact research to help kids learn and thrive, we've got a great opportunity for you: Register now CGD's First Annual Research Conference on Global Lead Exposure(!), hosted as part of the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future. www.cgdev.org/event/first-...

In a new analysis (note, back-of-the-envelope) @charlesjkenny.bsky.social and @justsand.bsky.social estimate that US foreign aid saves around 3.3 million lives per year. You can read more about their methodology and results here: www.cgdev.org/blog/how-man...

"We can heal the sick and save children’s lives, all inexpensively... We properly honor a firefighter who saves a single child, but three cheers for us as taxpayers for rescuing millions of children around the world from AIDS, starvation and disease. That is, until January." -- Nick Kristof

Thank you to @charlesjkenny.bsky.social, @justsand.bsky.social and others @cgdev.org whose careful data work underpins this important and devastating article by @nickkristof.bsky.social in @nytimes.com. A great eg of combining data with the human face of that data.

Just a little thread on (some) of my favourite charts I've made. 🧵

How could @ourworldindata.org maps be better? Do you experience any annoyances or pain points when you interact with our maps? Is there something you wish you could do that you currently can’t? What’s the next cool thing we could build on top of our maps? Any notes welcome! Thank you 🙏

👋 Hi! J-PAL is now on Bluesky! 📊 We’re looking forward to bringing conversations on evidence-informed policy to this new space. Follow us for updates on the latest research, policy insights, and how rigorous evidence is helping shape a better world.

Congratulations all and great news for @cgdev.org !

My favorite from today’s 50501 March in Boston.

Earlier this week I did a long interview with the Belgian newspaper DeMorgen. It’s out today. I just arrived in Belgium and found it at the newsstand. They illustrated it really nicely with some Our World in Data charts.

If you conduct research with federal data of any kind I strongly suggest you spend this weekend downloading copies of everything you use.

We use a new machine learning technique to identify the most cost-effective policies to boost immunization demand in India. We evaluated 75 combos of reminders, incentives, and local community ambassadors. The most effective increased immunization by 44%. https://buff.ly/4j0v3IF

Congratulations to Johannes and the whole team for an incredible year of growth! Very proud to serve on Malengo's board.

It's time for an end-of-year update on @malengo.org! Our goal is to alleviate extreme poverty by facilitating international educational migration. Our flagship program supports Ugandan high school graduates in applying for and obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Germany. Here is what we're been up to!

We just donated to @malengo.org if anybody's looking for a great non-profit to support at the end of the year!

I believe such technical work is key to achieving our mission — making data easier for everyone to access and use. But it is extremely hard to find funding for technical work. If you’d like to support us, we would very much appreciate if you support our non-profit work: ourworldindata.org/donate

So excited that the BREAD Asia Conference on Development Economics at NUS Singapore is starting in a few minutes! Please follow the livestream at breadasia2024.com! Program is below, times are in Singapore standard time.

📣 Our paper "How to improve education outcomes most efficiently" was recently published in the Journal of Development Economics! Co-authored w/ @daveevansphd.bsky.social Filmer Glennerster Sabarwal Rogers. Rewarding to see this work inform research & policy www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Spread the word! DIL is hiring postdocs to work closely with Faculty Director Michael Kremer on development economics projects. We are reviewing applications on a rolling basis so we encourage you to apply soon and latest by January 5th here: dil.uchicago.edu/postdoctoral...

🚨 Call for papers for the 1st annual @cgdev.org conference on lead exposure, held in DC on 3-4 June 2025 - send us your submissions! www.cgdev.org/blog/call-pa...

When I was younger, I wondered if I would live to see this wonderful news. Now I have: The latest generation of malaria vaccines, today being delivered to African children, have efficacy 75–79% in infants a year later (age <18mo.) pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38310910/

🆕The gap between education policy and practice Today on VoxDevTalks, Noam Angrist (What Works Hub for Global Education) speaks to Tim Phillips about the policy-practice gap in education, how it varies by geographic region & what this means for policymakers & researchers: voxdev.org/topic/educat...

Hello Bluesky.