Economists have a reputation for being sceptical. So much so that there is a book called the Skeptical Economist, and a new book referring to economics as the dismal science. This has a lot to do with our teaching. For …
Last week, there was a great quotation doing the rounds on Twitter, Pinterest and other social media from the Mayor of Bogota in Colombia. The quotation was "A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's …
Did you participate in Al Gore's Climate Reality Project last week? I wasn't able to because I was working in Ethiopia (my next post will tell you why), so I’ve been reading up on responses from participants, some of whom have …
A few days ago, a report by the UK’s Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), declared that over 5,000 women were missing from the top jobs in the UK. If you’re a development economist, you might recognise the language from Amartya …
I don’t know about you but I always dread “that time of the year” when I have to revise all my contracts – home insurance, energy, water, and so on. I dread it so much that I usually stick to the …
One of last week's editions of the Financial Times featured an article by John Kay, a top UK economist, saying that "clarity of thought and clarity of expression tend to go together". And he's right – presenting complexity in a …
I’ve been a Senior Economist in DFID for just over a month. Many friends and colleagues are excited about my new role…even people I don’t know that well. My first challenge has been giving a clear answer to the question “what …
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