Category: E. Economic Development
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Afro-Pessimism is Misplaced is a comment piece for for This is Africa. It based on some of the arguments from Getting Better which, just in case you were wondering, you can pre-order here…
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The latest FP column –what will happen in Southern Sudan after independence. (Answer: something between Botswana and Eritrea. What about that for exacting prognostication?).
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This column argues that traditional banks using mobile phones, smart cards and biometrics are likely to reach more people with financial services more quickly than microfinance.
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Two more FP columns: one on the likely long term impact of the earthquake (probably small), another on the international response (not as bad as people think).
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Let There Be Light is the second weekly column for Foreign Policy –a paen to the light emitting diode and its potential impact in Africa.
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What Resource Curse? is the first of my weekly columns ("The Optimist") for Foreign Policy. It suggests there isn't a resource curse. But that doesn't stop EITI and Todd Moss' cash transfer scheme being good ideas.
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Good Ideas for Bad Times is the latest piece for Foreign Policy –it rounds up some new(ish) ideas related to development thinking including just giving money to the poor, geotagging, transparency in aid flows and new approaches to migration policy.
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Suerpfast: Is It Worth A Subsidy? is a working paper written with my brother, Robert Kenny, at Communications Chambers. Governments around the world are investing multiple billions to support the roll-out of fiber. These subsidies are based on the premise that fiber to the home brings substantial externalities. However, the evidence that basic broadband has…
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We Don't Need No Universal Education? was published online by the Harvard International Review. The piece notes that there are multiple links in the chain between building schools and an economic impact to education, and argues that some of those links are often very weak, indeed. It concludes that we might want to spend more time…
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Best Decade Ever is in the September/October issue of Foreign Policy. It argues that the "Naughty Aughties" (pls. blame editors :-)) have been the finest ten years in history.