CGD has just adopted a policy that I believe will improve the quality and usefulness of our work. We have decided to become more transparent. Henceforth, the presumption will be that when authors post publications on cgdev.org that involves quantitative analysis, they will also post the data and computer code needed to fully reproduce their results. That way, any visitor to the web site will in principle be able to check our work.
My colleague David Roodman has decided to write his next book in public, not only by posting draft chapters as he completes them and inviting comments but also by sharing his discoveries and tribulations as he conducts the research that underpins the book. David writes:
As my colleague David Roodman pointed out, the financial crisis does not bode well for foreign aid to poor countries. In the early 1990s, aid from the four donor countries experiencing financial crises dropped between 10 and 62 percent in the aftermath.
When Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Computer, Inc. asked Russian Prime Minister Vladimir "how can we help?" in Davos last week, Putin's response was terse:
Remember the Washington Consensus? I attended a Davos lunch on its meaning and its fate. (My table was expertly hosted by Kristin Forbes of CGD's advisory committee.
Here's a quick recap:
Is the Washington Consensus alive and well?
Yes, yes, there is finally agreement on Morgan Tsvangirai joining the national unity government in Zimbabwe. But before anyone gets their hopes up too far, let's remember what Robert Mugabe did immediately after signing the power-sharing deal last September: grabbed all the meaningful cabinet posts, blocked Tsvangirai from travelling, and launched a new campaign of violence and kidnapping against human rights activists.
Davos does feel different this year. CEOs as a group, if I can generalize after less than one full day, are crowding into open sessions to hear the experts opine on the world economy and the financial crisis (large meeting halls are filled early and many would-be attendees are left out in the cold). In prior years they seem to have spent more time networking with each other in the corridors. The press has emphasized that the Davos stars this year will come from the political not the corporate or entertainment worlds. So it seems.
Click here (opens Google Reader) to access my weekly selection of mainstream news articles covering rich-world policies and practices that affect poor people in developing countries.
As rich countries begin to understand how the financial crisis will affect their economies, poor countries are beginning to wonder how it will affect theirs. This week's development policy news examined how rich countries can help poor countries avoid economic devastation caused by the financial crisis.
Congratulations to our friends and neighbors at the Peterson Institute on their new group blog, Real Time Economic News Watch, an excellent source of up-to-date commentary and analysis on the rapidly unfolding global financial crisis. I was particularly interested in Ted Truman's fine piece, Making the World Safe for Sovereign Wealth Funds which, contrary to its name, is really about moves this past weekend to make sovereign wealth funds less risky for the world. According to Ted:
Click here (opens Google Reader) to access my weekly selection of mainstream news articles covering rich world policies and practices that affect poor people in developing countries.