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Oliver Hanney @olihanney.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

🆕 Aggregating evidence, the research process, and empowering the public to understand research All that & more in this week's episode of Ideas in Development with @economeager.bsky.social. Really enjoyed discussing how we can improve the evidence base in economics by aggregating.

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Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Oliver has chosen the coolest pull quote ever for me… I urge you all to pick up the phone if voxdev ever calls you because they know how to make you sound cool

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Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

I missed this but VoxDev @olihanney.bsky.social interviewed CGDev fellow and my wonderful past phd student @mrao.bsky.social about her work on the relationship between evidence and policy! So exciting to see this work getting more of the attention it deserves :)))) youtu.be/FNzZHYvhMG0

youtu.be

The evidence gap on evidence use | Michelle Rao | Ideas in Development

YouTube video by VoxDev

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Oliver Hanney @olihanney.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

🆕 The evidence gap on evidence use This week on Ideas in Development, @mrao.bsky.social @cgdev.org joined me to discuss evidence use, her research on how evaluations shape funding, and a key evidence gap in development economics ⤵️

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Amen Jalal @amenjalal.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Thanks to the World Bank Development Impact blog for featuring my job market paper! Read about it here: blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

blogs.worldbank.org

The Price of Flexibility: Revealing Salaries in Job Postings. Guest post by Amen Jalal

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 10/10/2025

All I want in life is to persuade everyone, when encountering politics & culture, to ask, "why are we talking about this?" I mean that very literally: anything you encounter on your screens reflects a choice. Someone covered that, talked about that, rather than the many other things out there. Why?

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Daniel de Kadt @dandekadt.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

🚨 “Good Description” with @annagbusse.bsky.social 🚨 What sets 'good' description apart from 'mere' description? We develop a framework for evaluating descriptive research, whether we are doing it as scholars or assessing it as readers. Two main contributions... 🔗📄 tinyurl.com/gooddesc

tinyurl.com

good_description/good_description_ddk_agb.pdf at main · ddekadt/good_description

Homepage of "Good Description" by Daniel de Kadt & Anna Grzymala-Busse - ddekadt/good_description

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

This is a key table to understanding public opinion on migration. *When confronted with the real trade offs* people go for protecting the NHS and the economy over reducing migration. The problem as per the rest of the thread is many don't believe those trade offs exist.

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G²LM|LIC @g2lmlic.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

📢FREE Online Development Economics Course for students in Africa and South Asia PLUS access to impact evaluation video course by Stefano Caria May 12-July 14 Apply by: April 21, 2025 Taught by Oriana Bandiera & Robin Burgess & amazing TAs from LSE Details & submission form: rb.gy/ct9ikf

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John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 24/02/2025

NEW: updated long-run gap in voting between young men and women in Germany: Gender divide continues to widen, but contrary to what is often assumed, young men continue to vote roughly in line with the overall population, while young women have swung sharply left. www.ft.com/content/29fd...

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Justin Sandefur @justsand.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Elon says 90% of US aid never reaches communities. He confuses USAID's 90% reliance on intermediaries -- US companies delivering HIV drugs, WFP delivering food aid -- with waste. Comical if not so dangerous. @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social & I break down where aid goes: www.cgdev.org/blog/no-90-p...

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Atul Gawande @agawande.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Musk's claim that just 10% of US aid reaches recipients is absurd. @cgdev lays out the facts: - US gov costs are just 10% - Rest reaches recipients mostly thru US corps/nonprofits + multilateral agencies - ~10% goes thru foreign organizations www.cgdev.org/blog/no-90-p...

cgdev.org

No, 90 Percent of Aid Is Not Skimmed Off Before Reaching Target Communities

A viral claim, spread and amplified by Elon Musk, suggests that only 10 percent of USAID money reaches its intended beneficiaries. This is a wildly incorrect and misleading interpretation of a differe...

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

People have gathered outside USAID HQ for press event with Democratic Congressmen Beyer, Raskin, Connolly and Olzewski and Senator Van Hollen where they're addressing the building's mysterious shutdown today in the midst of the Trump admin dismantling the agency. (Photos shared with me)

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Ioana Marinescu @imarinescu.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Timely program evaluation is most likely to influence spending on the program. Highly relevant to all of us who do policy evaluation and hope to have an impact #EconSky

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Mike O’Sullivan @mbosullivan.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Do check out @mrao.bsky.social's excellent and important job market paper. It raises a bunch of important questions for those of us trying to conduct research to inform policy.

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Michelle Rao @mrao.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Thanks for the summary Rachael! One big implication of the paper is that the link between research and policy cannot be taken as given, and needs to be rigorously studied -- this is what I do in my current and future work. Read more here: www.michellerao.com/research #EconJMP #EconSky

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Max Nathan @maxnathan.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Extremely 👀 JMP showing that policy evaluation, including RCTs, has *zero* link to further spending on the policy. The exception is when evaluations are a) done fast and b) are owned by the party in power. The context is LatAm/Caribbean countries, but there’s lot’s here for us all to think about.

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Cassia Rowland @cassiarowland.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

This is a really interesting paper from @mrao.bsky.social! In my consultancy days I was always struck by how much money & time gets spent doing surface-level lit reviews, that have previously been done in more depth by someone else, w/ no observable impact on decision-making.

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Sergei Schaub @seschaub.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

👇 👏 important insights on how much (or little) policies are based research. (I would be curious if this also applies to other fields/setting)

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Wayne Sandholtz @wsandholtz.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

All policy is politics! Really cool work by @mrao.bsky.social

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Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

This is a super interesting thread. Attention #econsky and #publicpolicy peeps:

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Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

We still have a relatively poor understanding of the relationship between evidence and policy. Program evaluation in particular is often motivated by a desire to make policy better. But how effective is program evaluation itself?Michelle Rao's JMP tackles this question. www.michellerao.com/research

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Michelle Rao @mrao.bsky.social · 07/11/2024

Thanks to the World Bank Development Impact blog for the opportunity to post about my job market paper! I study the relationship between program evaluations and policy spending, in the context of CCTs in Latin America and the Caribbean. Read here for insights 👇

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