If You Want to Say "I Told You So," First Tell Us So

Here's something interesting. Dean Karlan, who is leading a study of the impacts of microcredit delivered by the controversial Compartamos in Mexico, just asked for help in crowd-sourcing research questions and hypotheses.

Think the academics have been defining poverty too narrowly or otherwise asking the the wrong questions about how microcredit affects households? Tell them what questions they should pose to the data instead. (Dean has posted the survey "instruments" so you can see what the surveyors are asking and what data will roll in.)

Think you know what the answers will be? Or at least, as an armchair academic with integrity, are you ready to go on record with hypotheses? Share those too. Then, later on, if you want to say "I told you so," you really will have.

I guess I better do it too.