A little boy in Dhaka

For those of you who read icelandic, I have a new column on Deiglan.com. For the rest, here’s a rough translation:
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On the streets of Dhaka
I’m currently in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The month of Ramadan started a few days ago so finding an open restaurant during the day is tricky. So, I went yesterday to the KO-MART [...]

In Dhaka

I’ve made it to my hotel in Dhaka, trying to stay awake to reset my sleep schedule. I’ll have tomorrow and Saturday to look around this city of 12 million people but unfortunately I might have to save central Dhaka for later since the security situation is a bit shaky ahead of the national elections [...]

On the road

I’m not updating much here since I’m on my way over to Bangladesh, in Heathrow at the moment. First observations from Dhaka coming tomorrow or Friday.

New categories and comments policy

I’ve added new categories and reorganized old posts within them. Now posts are organized within “Economic Development”, “International Health” and “Economics” in addition to the old categories “Books”, “Bangladesh” and “Random things”.
Also, Greg Mankiw has a new comments policy — I think I might have to institute something similar here.

PROGRESA moving north

One of the most successful development programs that have been evaluated with randomized controlled trials is the PROGRESA program in Mexico (see also a CGD case study PDF).
The basic idea of the program is to provide stronger incentives for poor families, using cash payments, to achieve certain health and education goals. This means, basically, to [...]

Kristoff reviewing Easterly: Can Aid Work?

Here’s NY Times Nicholas Kristof reviewing Easterly’s book White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Effort to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. The tip is from the CGD with commentary.
Very highly recommended. Btw, the two economists he mentions in the article (but does not name) in connection to the [...]

I, Pencil

If you haven’t read Leonard Read’s classic essay I, Pencil then you’re missing out. How is it that there are ample, cheap pencils available everywhere but nobody knows how to make them?
If you scroll down there’s also an introduction by Milton Friedman (tip, Prof. Mankiw).

Up and comming

Various entities pick the “brilliant, up and comming” people every year, such as:

Popular Science Brilliant 10

McArthur Fellows 2006

Technology Review Young Innovators under 35

I don’t know how PS and TR pick their people but the group of past MacArthur Fellows includes some very impressive people such as economists Kevin Murphy, Sendhil Mullainathan and Michael Kremer; public [...]

Bangkok botch

Good thing we decided that I wouldn’t fly through Bangkok (which was the other option). I would have been welcomed by guys in tanks.

Freedom map and WDR 2007

The image is from the Fraser Institute with data from The Economic Freedom of the World Index. Tip from the Division of Labour:

The Fraser Institute has produced a seriously cool color 24×36 map using the Economic Freedom of the World index. For information about ordering the map, send an e-mail to sales@fraserinstitute.ca, or call (604) [...]