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?
