A piece for the Contracting Excellence Journal with Caroline Anstey, summarizing The Principles on Commercial Transparency in Public Contracts.
A piece for the Contracting Excellence Journal with Caroline Anstey, summarizing The Principles on Commercial Transparency in Public Contracts.
A note for CGD with Euan Ritchie and Lee Robinson. This paper argues there is a (fuzzy) spectrum of development procedures, for some of which global innovation, evaluation, or “best practice” can be informative, for some of which local evaluation or experimentation can be useful, and for some of which perhaps only practical experience and local wisdom can help. That there is a spectrum of intervention types and research opportunities, and that local evidence is often required, has implications for the kind of research that UK aid can usefully support as part of its R&D program and where that research should happen. In turn, that suggests a reform agenda for the way UK ODA for R&D is currently spent.
A policy paper for CGD. Development finance institutions have positioned themselves as key agencies to help the world meet the Sustainable Development Goals. It is doubtful that they can deliver. This paper outlines the challenges facing DFIs in achieving (anywhere near) such an expansion in their impact, particularly in infrastructure and particularly in the poorest countries. It notes that private investment in SDG priority areas is low in the poorest countries, and the record of private investment in rolling out services is mixed. These issues are linked in part to significant supply side constraints based on country characteristics. DFIs do better than the market as a whole at investing in challenging infrastructure–but not by much. And while the scale of their ‘leverage’ in terms of attracting dollars that would otherwise not have been invested is hard to determine, in the poorest markets in infrastructure it is certainly low. Finally, DFIs and donors more broadly have long tried to improve deal flow with limited success, suggesting there are few deals on the margin of occurring which only require small extra incentives to materialize.
In the Economist: moving really helps poor kids and support for parents can make that happen.
For the Economist. A new paper suggests it displaces few people and often improves life for those who stay.
A policy paper for CGD with Lee Robinson and Euan Ritchie who did nearly all of the work. The UK has considerably increased the amount of aid it spends on research in recent years. The information associated with the majority of this research aid is vague, raising questions about transparency. A large amount of the research is financed using an allocation mechanism that effectively ties it to UK institutions. There are also questions as to the poverty focus of some of the research conducted, given the explicit intention of the UK government to find existing activity to reclassify as ODA following the legislating of the 0.7 percent target. We suggest reporting reforms that will increase transparency and allow greater scrutiny of the way UK research aid is spent. We also call for the UK to live up to its reporting to the OECD that all British aid is untied.
In the Economist: desegregation led to the rise of teacher testing, which has depressed the number of African American teachers.
Probably not very many, but the safety net is still a mess. Me for The Economist.
A CGD Working Paper examines the impact of Ukraine’s ambitious procurement reform on outcomes amongst a set of procurements that used competitive tendering. The ProZorro system placed all of the country’s government procurement online, introduced an auction approach as the default procurement method, and extended transparency. The reform was introduced with a dramatic increase in the proportion of government procurement that was conducted competitively. This paper examines the impact of ProZorro and reform on contracts that were procured competitively both prior to and after the introduction of the new system. It finds some evidence of impact of the new system on increasing the number of bidders, cost savings, and reduced contracting times.
For The Economist. Across genders and race/ethnicities, Americans get more miserable as they reach middle age. White men still kill themselves more often, though.
In The Hill, railing about the the IDA Private Sector Window.
In large part because the administration is turning away asylum seekers at regular crossing points. Me in The Economist.
The 1996 welfare reform effort in the US shrank welfare rolls, moved people into work, increased the number of very poor and led to more antisocial behavior among children. For the Economist.
Me in Slate: Absher is used for a number of government services in Saudi Arabia, but it also allows Saudi men to specify when and where adult women under their “guardianship,” including unmarried daughters and wives, are allowed to travel. It is hosted by both Google and Apple. This is bad.
A note for CGD. There is a lot we don’t know about what automation will mean for jobs in the future, including its impact (if any) on gender inequality. This note reviews evidence and forecasts on that question and makes four main points: (i) Past automation has been (broadly) positive for women’s average quality of life, economic empowerment, and equality. (ii) Forecasts of the gendered impact of automation and AI going forward based on the current distribution of employment suggest considerable uncertainty and a gender inequality of impact that is marginal compared to the potential impact overall. (iii) The bigger risk—and/or opportunity—is likely to be in the combined impact of automation, policy, and social norms in changing the type of work that is seen as male or female. (iv) Minimizing any potential aggravating impact of automation and AI on inequalities in economic power in the future can best be achieved by maximizing economic equality today.
Undocumented immigrants provide a lot of child care. If they aren't around, it is harder for working mothers. For The Economist.
Scare people that they may not be able to apply for citizenship later, they will apply for citizenship now. Me in the Economist.
The U.S. shouldn’t get to pick the head of the World Bank. And not just because Trump is president. Me in Slate.
For the Economist --gay marriage and more minorities in the workforce are good for the economy. Patriotic heterosexual white men should support equality.
You can't have equality in the workplace if you don't have it in parenting and childcare. Me in The Economist.
Opioids and a lagging public health response. In The Economist.
Bipartisan dinners are shorter. In the Economist.
On stagnating regional convergence in the US. In the Economist.
Resentful Nativists Oppose Free Trade and Immigration—Don’t Appease Them. Me in Foreign Affairs.
I you want more babies, let in more women and help them work. For the Economist.
Discussing Anand Giridharadas' idea for a boycott on accepting Saudi investment money, in Slate.
Trump is in a shrinking minority. For the Economist.
Where and to whom you are born in the United States are both hugely important to life chances. For the Economist.
In one town the average age of death is 97; in another, it is 56. For the Economist.
ID laws and other restrictions on voting don't lower voter fraud but they do disenfranchise minorities. For the Economist.
In part because baby boomers have always been profligate. For the Economist.
Piece on Trump administration getting rid of work authorizations for spouses of H1-B visas, for the Economist.
For the Economist: expectations are up, support for parents isn't.
For The Economist. Secure Communities lowers employment and access to the safety net among US citizens.
Women don't like Donald Trump. They also appear energized to vote. For the Economist.
For the Economist. Slowing wage convergence between migrants and natives isn't driven by lower skills as much as by native discrimination.
For the Economist: there are sometimes big divisions in attitudes and consumer behavior, but they aren't growing between races, genders, income groups, religions, regions or urban and rural areas.
Family detention centers are harsh and unnecessary. For the Economist.
Because the old, white, aging (temporary) majority isn't having kids... for the Economist.
A column on the rising number of deaths of despair among older whites for the Economist.
Bemoaning the victory of culture war over class war in US politics. In The Economist.
For The Economist: welfare reform was bad and Trump is doubling down.
A piece for Vox on the barely progressive arguably regressive tax and spending systems of poorer developing countries.
A CGD Working Paper on policy coordination to help meet the SDGs. TLDR: Important, but hard.
This paper discusses the role for policy integration to speed progress towards delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is required because the goals set very ambitious targets for progress across a range of interlinked areas, encompassing both synergies and tradeoffs. Lessons of policy integration at the national level suggest that it is usually at best partially successful, requiring significant commitment from the highest levels of government. Policy integration regarding foreign affairs has proven even more challenging. This paper suggests a mechanism for prioritizing coordination and the use of coordination tools including regulation, safeguards, taxes, and subsidies. It also suggests re-orienting ministerial responsibilities where possible from input control to achievement of outcomes as well as tools to promote innovation by subnational governments and the private sector.
ICE going rogue with the support of the President. For the Economist.
On the grim economic prospects for black males in the US, for The Economist.
A review of Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now for The Democracy Journal: Its Not as Bad as All That.
And a review of Gregg Easterbrook's It’s Better Than It Looks for The Washington Monthly: Dear Democrats, Don’t Despair.