Findings: “Likes” were not highly correlated with pledges. Sometimes, you would see likes but no pledges; other times, you would see pledges but no likes. Of course, likes could have still been instrumental in getting pledges from others. But overall,…

Brett Keller asked a fantastic question regarding the Kickstarter: “If it would be this cheap, why hasn’t it been done already?” I have a few hypotheses: 1) In academia, people usually either get paid for their labour or get co-authorship. I…

With all that I have been promoting the Kickstarter, you would think I wouldn’t highlight the limits of meta-analysis. But progress depends on being honest about the strengths and weaknesses of any method. So let me tell you a story…

I use a very broad definition of aid. Because we all know that when it comes down to it, “traditional” aid contributes little to development. “Aid” for me is anything that improves well-being (well-being is also not the same thing…

A lot of smart people work in development. Those who blog include (but I am sure this list is incomplete!): http://www.chrisblattman.com/ http://www.whydev.org/ http://www.how-matters.org/ http://www.owen.org/blog http://blogs.cgdev.org/globaldevelopment/ http://rodrik.typepad.com/ http://bloodandmilk.org/ http://nyudri.org/ What am I missing? Because I am certain to have missed some…

The behind-the-scenes story of the Kickstarter is that these meta-analyses were going to happen anyway. I get involved in things, and somehow I ended up getting involved to the point of having my apartment be used as an office for students…

I’ve decided that in this day and age, I need a “platform”. For a shy person, this is horrible. But I care about the issues, so c’est la vie. Why I’m blogging: 1) Because I hate putting myself out there,…