After the last week’s news you will probably be striving to avoid thinking about aid, development, or the problems of the world more generally over your holiday break (I know I’m going to try). But just in case you can’t shake your development fix, here are a few interesting reads and listens.
Drug cartels, the police, and corrupt local government: Blogging Heads has a fascinating, albeit depressing, podcast on Mexico’s ongoing travails. (To listen to the MP3 rather than watch the video go to this link.)
Just as people who like sausages should never visit a sausage factory, people who use global poverty numbers should never learn too much about how they are constructed. However, if you’re the poverty data equivalent of a vegetarian, Angus Deaton has three fascinating lectures on the problems of poverty measurement, and associated issues (the first lecture is a particularly good introduction to the challenges and politics of poverty measurement; the second lecture is more of a PPP thing; and the third lecture is marred slightly at the end by Deaton’s misunderstanding of Rawls and Nagel’s claims about obligations to the poor in other countries).
Meanwhile, if you have an uncle who often ruins Christmas lunch by propounding grand laws of capitalism (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?), have a listen to this fascinating Econotalk podcast in which Daron Acemoglu offers a lucid new-institutionalist critique of Thomas Piketty’s explanations of rising inequality, set amongst a more general critique of economic iron laws. (And, if you just want to hide from your family and take solace in equations, there is an associated working paper).
On the other hand, if that aforementioned uncle is actually an institutionalist himself, and you want to stop him in his tracks, here are four excellent blog posts that threaten to lay waste to some of the empirical evidence underpinning the “better institutions equal better development outcomes” literature. (Speaking as a new-instututionalist, and an uncle, even I have to concede to these; I really hope they don’t come up over lunch.)
And if development economics isn’t your thing (and it really shouldn’t be over Christmas), Michael Hobbes has a great polemic about the problems of development more generally. Unlike most development polemics it is remarkably well-considered and insightful. And Benjamin Black’s LSE talk on working on the Ebola front lines remains as excellent as it was when I first mentioned it on this blog.
And if you’d prefer some happier news, while a less oil-dependent United States sounds unlikely, this Bloomberg info-graphic suggests it is happening, and provides some intriguing explanations as to why.
And this New Yorker article has an interesting discussion on progress in treating AIDS and the possibilities of finding a cure for HIV.
Thanks Ashlee,
I don’t want to be seen as encouraging Jonathan’s raving, but I’ve downloaded all the Serial podcasts to listen to over summer too.
I’ve given in to peer pressure and downloaded them as well – let’s reconvene in January to see whether the raving is justified
Perhaps a panel at the aid conference to discuss their merit 🙂
‘The effect of transnational media advocacy on justice systems strengthening: lessons from the United States’.
Thanks for this Terence! If others have suggestions I reckon they should jump in here in the comments.
For those who want to dive into some fiction that cuts close to the truth, this year I read ‘A Fine Balance’ by Rohinton Mistry, recommended to me by Stephen Howes after I reviewed ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ last year. It was a great (but depressing) read that starkly highlighted the problems with any kind of ‘development’ that doesn’t consider the rights and experiences of the poor.
My favourite book this year has been ‘Americanah’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. While partly set in Nigeria, it’s not really development-related, but for those interested in the non-economic side of migration and development, or interested in issues of race and class in developed countries and developing countries with an emerging and growing middle class, then it provides some real food for thought.
My plans for the holidays include reading ‘Indonesia, etc.’ by Elizabeth Pisani (which gets rave reviews from my fellow Indonesianist friends, though I can’t speak to it personally yet), properly reading the series of articles published in The Lancet in November on gender-based violence (depressing perhaps, but more worthy than binge-watching episodes of trashy reality shows, which will probably also happen during the holidays). And I’m also planning on reading ‘The Mountain’ by Drusilla Modjeska, which Tess Newton Cain reviewed earlier this year.
I also need to listen to the NPR podcast ‘Serial’ (non-development related!), which Jonathan Pryke keeps raving about!