Monday, May 21, 2012

If people don't go to the lab, the lab goes to the people

While it has been more than a decade since behavioral experiments are conducted on the field in developing countries, it is usually very difficult to find established facilities for this kind of research. This is why the BUSARA CENTER FOR BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS is a very welcomed contribution.

The Center is a state-of-the-art facility for experimental studies in behavioral economics located right outside the Kibera slums in Nairobi. They have a pool of participants from the area, that are recruited via SMS and then receive the payments using MPesa (then dismissing the problem of lack of credibly in the experimenter). 

Busara seems to be very open to receive researchers interested in using their facilities, and the contact with them can be via email or even facebook.


ht: poverty-action

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Friday, May 11, 2012

Chapter II : Is Jeffrey Sachs in a highway to hell?

The road to hell is paved with good intentions....

Now he is really loosing completely his scientific reputation. The recently published "evaluation" of the MVP  has mistakes that are high school level.

Here Gabriel Demombynes shows a very crude analysis, including links to other (even more severe) critiques. This is a complement to this paper that already revealed many of the problems.

At least we have good material to teach our students how not do an evaluation.




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Is Jeffrey Sachs in a highway to hell?