I am a PhD candidate at American University in Washington, DC. I am interested in state formation and governance in low income countries. My dissertation examines the influence of foreign aid on incumbent advantage in African presidential elections.What Social Science Does—and Doesn’t—Know
Jim Manzi wrote an excellent article on public policy experimentation and the difficulties in learning anything about the social world. He explains the limits of randomized trials much more eloquently than I did.
Additional remarks from Manzi and links to more commentary on his article can be found here.
Jessica Cohen and Bill Easterly have a new edited book coming out called What Works in Development? Thinking Big and Thinking Small. The volume examines the role of randomized evaluations in development research and the contributors are a who’s who of top development economists. You can find Bill’s summary of the book here. Apparently there are some problems getting the book out the door, but it is worth keeping on your radar.
Grad student alert: You can find the original (free) papers that the book is based on here.
