Research on charitable giving by IPA President Dean Karlan and Research Affiliate John List is mentioned in Ian Ayres' review of the new Superfreakonomics.
Randomized field trials get a shout out as well, since Ayres writes that all regressions wish they could be based on randomized experiments:
There is a new zeitgeist in the way economists think about running regressions. Today, statistical economists explicitly think of their regressions in terms of randomized experiments. They think of the variable of interest as the "treatment" and ask themselves what kind of assumptions they need to make or what kind of statistical procedures they need to run on the historic data to emulate a randomized study.
Has anyone read Superfreakonomics yet? I'm curious especially to hear a randomista's opinion on the field experiments chosen and how they're presented.
Editor’s Note: I’m going to assume that you are seeing plenty of AI content (news and papers, not AI slop, though I’m sure you’re getting plenty of that too) from other sources, so I’m trying to think hard about the marginal value that the faiV can provide. As far as I’ve gotten so far: a) make sure that directly AI-related content does not take up more than 2 of the 5 items, and b) try to focus specifically on the cybersecurity issue for financial inclusion. Beyond that, I’m open to feedback on the value you get from the faiV in relation to AI to help guide us in the future. On a different note, I’ll be making a brief cameo appearance at the e-MFP Inclusive Finance Conference to moderate the opening plenary. If you haven’t registered, do so and I hope to see you there! - Tim Ogden