December 12, 2014
Time for the BIG Idea in the Developing World
There is growing support in the rich world for a basic-income guarantee (BIG), in which the government would provide a fixed cash transfer to every adult, poor or not.
Views from the Center
CGD experts offer ideas and analysis to improve international development policy. Also check out our Global Health blog and US Development Policy blog.
December 5, 2014
Growth as the Cornerstone of the SDGs
I’m pleased to be on this list of “top economist” signatories of an open letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon endorsing the simple idea that economic growth should be the foundation stone on which the other Sustainable Development Goals, especially poverty reduction, are built.
December 3, 2014
The ADB Says Poverty Is Rising in Asia: I Have My Doubts
Would you believe that half of Asia lives in poverty and the absolute number is rising? That’s what the new Key Indicators report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) would have you believe.
October 21, 2014
Saturday Night Live Satirizes Kinky Development
In a recent SNL sketch Bill Haider is a white celebrity filming a commercial in a village using black people as props to plead for “39 cents a day” which he claims is “all these people need to survive.”
May 8, 2014
India’s Puzzling New PPP
Last week saw the release of the new 2011 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) rates for GDP produced by the International Comparison Program (ICP). The ICP is a major global statistical operation. The Global Office is housed in the World Bank but the ICP is implemented separately in each region by designated regional counterparts.
April 23, 2014
The Strange and Curious Grip of Country Income Status on Otherwise Smart and Decent People
A set of more or less arbitrary lines continues to do very strange things to discussions about development.
February 14, 2014
Where Is Life Better…?
Last week, we sat down with Lawrence to record a Wonkcast on our new working paper The Median is the Message: A Good-Enough Measure of Material Well-Being and Shared Development Progress. In the paper, we argue that survey-based median household consumption expenditure (or income) per capita should be incorporated into standard development indicators, as a simple, robust, and durable indicator of typical individual material well-being in a country.
January 29, 2014
Why Ending Poverty Requires Ending Everyday Violence Against the Poor
When middle class households opt out en masse of public schools — as in India and Brazil and the inner cities of USA— it’s bad news for the children of the poor majority. That’s now a familiar and important argument for radical new thinking about school systems. But it’s even worse for poor people when the middle class and rich give up on basic public security, protecting themselves instead with private guards, gated communities and bullet-proof cars.
January 3, 2014
Why Solar Lamps Are the Cash Transfers of Energy Poverty
I’m a pretty big fan of cash transfers. I’ve become convinced that cash is an efficient immediate way to help the poor and very often a better alternative than other standard development interventions like training or building schools.
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