A long list of things we’ve been reading online over the past month. Let us know if we missed anything important via comments. Happy holiday reading!
- Tim Besley reviews Poor Economics, More Than Good Intentions, & Portfolios of the Poor in Foreign Affairs
- "Latest findings from Randomized Evaluations of Microfinance," a new paper from CGAP, FAI, IPA and J-PAL
- David Roodman explains the Pitt & Khandker debate and “The Logging Business” and “Six Distinctions in Mapping the Landscape of Data and Research” in microfinance j.mp/vkrYWP
- M-CRIL's in-depth analysis of Andhra Pradesh crisis
- NYT's Vikas Bajaj on resignation of SKS microfinance 's Vikram Akula
- “SKS to Add Financial Services to Microfinance as Founder Quits” - Business Week
- "Microsave asks clients: How are you coping in AP without MFIs?" Not so well apparently.
- The Wall Street Journal on “Are India's poorest catching up?”
- Who should regulate India's microfinance sector?
- “Do we still need a microfinance bill?” asks M.S. Sriram at Livemint.com
- “Lords of Poverty Struggle to Survive” and the demise of microfinance from the Business Standard
- Microsave’s new report: Analysis of Financial Institutions Riding M-PESA Railsand a summary from David Roodman: Immobile Money: M-PESA's Early Struggles as Financial Service Platform
- "Why small is not beautiful when it comes to savings?" from the IFMR Trust
- What Americans can Learn from others: "Global Lessons for Better Savings Habits"
- Esther Duflo: "Women Empowerment and Economic Development"
- The Economist weighs in on evaluating the MillenniumVillages
- A Kenyan Economist Offers the First Independent and Rigorous Evaluation of the Millennium Villages Project
- Owen Barder and the open data revolution
- "Nudge thyself--economists have more to learn to claim a realistic model of human behavior" on the Financial Times
- IPA Research Affiliate Eldar Shafir delivers this TED talk examining decision making under conditions of scarcity
- William Easterly in the Guardian: "A firewall should be built between USAid and the defence department"
- Great overview of the development blogging sector in 2011
- “Hey girl, international development Ryan Gosling” is not to be missed. HT @aidwatch
- Chris Blattman on “The publication bias problem (and the redemption of Blattman?)”
- Why development research often gets it wrong: "A little thing called general equilibrium"
- How should economics lecturers respond to the recent Greg Mankiw walk-out?
Editors’ Note: Hi, Laura and Jonathan here. A few of the pieces this week come from people who spent years up close with how poor households actually handle money, and keep coming back with something more tangled than the story usually told, and more persistent. Tim will be back for the next edition. - Laura Freschi and Jonathan Morduch