Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 25/08/2026RIP to a true hero. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...theguardian.comDolly Parton, country star, actor and philanthropist, dies aged 80Songwriter of I Will Always Love You, Jolene and 9 to 5 also invested millions in child literacy, Covid-19 vaccine development and other causes 010
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Genuinely devastated. The greatest centre back I ever saw play. When he lined up alongside Maldini, Costacurta and Tassotti, you may as well have inked in a 0 on the match report before kick off. A genius and properly tough (his knee surgery to WC final in 94!). www.theguardian.com/football/202...theguardian.comFranco Baresi, iconic Milan and Italy legend, dies aged 66Baresi, who captained club and country, was one of the most recognisable players of the golden era of Italian football in the 1980s and 1990s 110
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 27/07/2026The primary weakness here is that it was only once a month. 031
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 26/07/2026An intervention by Michal Kalecki to the UN conference on the Application of Science and Technology for the Benefit of Less Developed Regions in 1963. Amazing how much, even as the characters and methods change beyond recognition, the fundamental issues we argue about remain similar. 0104
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 19/07/2026The ball is round. The game lasts ninety minutes. And everything else is theory. 020
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 14/07/2026Apropos of nothing, do people remember how good peak Rakim was? The third verse here might be the greatest in rap history; the whole song is dense with brilliant, unexpected rhymes and rhythm changes. The difference between 'greatest' and 'great' is sometimes huge. www.youtube.com/watch?v=95gP...youtube.comEric B. & Rakim - Follow The Leader (Official Music Video)YouTube video by EricBAndRakimVEVO 110
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 10/06/2026Showing my five year old the mechanics (and policy implications) of exponential growth and he understood it better than some adults I knew during Covid. 110
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeMichael Clemens @mclem.org · 01/06/2026Remember that recent paper claiming to show that "ideological bias" determined the results obtained by immigration policy research teams? A careful, open-code reanalysis by @kauspurg.bsky.social & Josef Brüderl finds that the result arises from a coding error. —> doi.org/10.31222/osf... 1310107
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 10/05/2026Jane Jacob’s in 1969 in The Economy of Cities. I know it hardly needs restating, but she was a genius. This is still basically it. 020
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 13/04/2026LeBron James is the greatest athlete I have ever seen. The only near comparison I can make is Serena. Just so physically superior to everyone else it’s absurd. Add that to their obvious intelligence and it’s not a surprise they were so dominant for so long. 010
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 21/03/2026I often wonder how being an economist affects the way I communicate with my family. Today my five year old, in the middle of eating a bowl of noodles, told me “I’m an outlier because I love the rain so much.” So I might need to rein it in a little. 061
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 24/02/2026I last (seriously) wrote for Aid Thoughts around 15 years ago. It's kind of amazing, reading back, how I've changed (both how little and how much) since then. I often tell people I manage to write as much and as often as they can--you only get good at it through trial and error. I miss blogging. 020
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 23/02/2026What amazing news. Another great public policy school at a time when we most certainly need to shine a light on public policy and the role of governments worldwide. 000
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 06/02/2026A lesson: no matter how talented, working on the basics matters. True across basically all disciplines. 000
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 31/01/2026Yes, everything sucks. But: www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...theguardian.comThe Muppet Show: this thrilling return is so great I can’t even count how many times I laughedSabrina Carpenter fangirling Miss Piggy, Beaker losing his eyes … yes, Kermit and co are back for a trip down memory lane – and it’s a perfect, saucy joy 130
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 06/12/2025Nothing says Christmas like the Australians traumatising 11 visiting Englishmen over a small wooden urn full of ashes. 020
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 05/11/2025Really looking forward to reading this update. 040
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeRoyal Economic Society @resmedia.bsky.social · 10/09/2025📢 Join our next Active Bystander Training for economists! 🗓️ 18 Nov 2025 | 09:30–11:00 | Online Learn tools for safe, effective intervention & fostering an inclusive profession. 👉 Register: ProgrammesOfficer@res.org.uk 🔗 bit.ly/466tIur #Economics #EDI #EconSky 0105
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 15/09/2025Tolstoy and his confidante (a lizard). From Gorky’s Fragments from My Diary 020
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeOliver Hanney @olihanney.bsky.social · 21/08/2025What is development economics? I find it more and more difficult to define what development economics actually is. So, for this @voxdev.bsky.social blog, I asked development economists how they define development economics: voxdev.org/topic/what-d...voxdev.orgWhat is development economics?I asked development economists for their definitions of development economics. 193
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeMichael Clemens @mclem.org · 14/08/2025This is a crucial point. Still relatively few economists are explicitly trained on this point, and too many econ papers show it. 1143
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeJo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 05/08/2025When thinking about how to get out of this mess we need to keep in mind 'asymmetric causation'. Knowing what caused a problem doesn't tell you how to solve it. The example that brought the point home to me was: If you're run over by a steamroller, the cure is not to have it reverse back over you 1611518
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 31/07/2025A wine that makes you think, @jowolff.bsky.social 030
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 30/07/2025This is a truly mad review of Perrow's classic Complex Organizations: 120
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 29/07/2025New entrant to the J-Rock song name hall of fame 000
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 27/07/2025Some people are cool because they’re good at something, and in others it’s just completely innate to their bearing. Jadeja is the latter. He could be a clerk in the bank and he’d be the coolest bank clerk in history. 120
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 22/07/2025Bedtime reading. I’m three pages into Apology and have already written the margin note “not just wrong but dangerously wrong.” He may yet convince me otherwise, mind. 200
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 10/06/2025Japanese punk bands have the coolest song names 151
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 25/05/2025Today is the ten year anniversary of the fuckery tweet. Yes, the Lakers were knocked out in the first round, but this year, aged 40, LeBron James averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game. The fuckery shows no signs of abating. 010
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeEeshani Kandpal @eeshani.bsky.social · 15/05/2025Took me over two years, but I have finally found my way to @cgdev.org’s London offices. Looking forward to reuniting with my former CGD colleague @scepticalranil.bsky.social and former WB colleague Sam Asher at an event gender equality tomorrow at RHUL. 171
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeSeema Jayachandran @seema.bsky.social · 13/05/2025Looking forward to presenting in this World Bank webinar tomorrow (5/13) at 9 am ET. 052
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 01/05/2025Tom Mboya sailing close to an IV here, writing in the 1960s 020
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 22/04/2025Bought this in 1996 in Nairobi, and getting down to reading it only now, not quite thirty years. What an excellent dedication, quite in tune with Mboya’s character. 050
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeSeema Jayachandran @seema.bsky.social · 19/04/2025I'm reminded of Heather Sarsons' work showing that female surgeons experience a career hit after a medical mistake, but male surgeons don't.economist.comDoctors judge female surgeons more harshly when patients dieAnd have a rosier view of male surgeons’ abilities when things go well 015830
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 15/04/2025My son requested I ask the internet if owls have noses. AI not exactly covering itself with glory here. 031
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeJim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 12/04/2025now *this* is the anecdote of the day 311847719
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeOliver Hanney @olihanney.bsky.social · 11/04/2025Important null results in development economics Despite the bias against publishing null results, they are important for policy, helping to kill bad ideas. I've highlighted some key examples we have featured on @voxdev.bsky.social: voxdev.org/topic/import...voxdev.orgImportant null results in development economicsDespite the bias against publishing null results, they are important for policy, helping to kill bad ideas. 36126
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeCharles Kenny @charlesjkenny.bsky.social · 10/04/2025Come work with @markusgold.bsky.social and me on global development stuff. centerforglobaldevelopment.applytojob.com/apply/Yb82j2...centerforglobaldevelopment.applytojob.comResearch Assistant - Center for Global Development - Career PageApply to Research Assistant at Center for Global Development in Washington, DC. 037
Ranil Dissanayake @scepticalranil.bsky.social · 22/03/2025RIP Big George.theguardian.comGeorge Foreman, boxing champion and entrepreneur, dies aged 76The death of the heavyweight champion boxer was announced by his family in a post on Instagram 010
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeOh No He Didn't @ohnohedidnt24.bsky.social · 20/03/2025Luka: "I got 20, you talking about ball don't lie" LMAO 0299
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeJeff Mosenkis @mosenkis.bsky.social · 26/02/2025Why Dean Karlan, Chief Economist of USAID resigned yesterday: "I was ready to rebuild from wherever we ended up to identify the most effective programs, figure out how to get them back in place, and to recommend new awards. But I received no response. Zero engagement." www.npr.org/sections/goa...npr.orgWhy Dean Karlan, chief economist of USAID, resigned on TuesdayHe was hired in 2022 so the aid agency could get 'more bang for our buck' with its projects. He tried to reach out to help in the rebuilding of the agency. On Tuesday he tendered his resignation. 217584
Reposted by Ranil DissanayakeDavid A. Jaeger (econ) @davidajaeger.bsky.social · 24/02/2025It's a very sad day. Just notified that @iza.org is closing its doors as of 31 December 2025. At a time when labor is under attack and technological change moves at an ever-faster pace, I can't help but think that this is a short-sighted decision. My heart goes out to those folks who work there. 11308107