So consumed with US news lately, I missed the very upsetting UK news of the DFID/Foreign Office merger. DFID has been so exemplary in pushing for evidence-based aid and policy, we need more of it not less. theguardian.com/politics/2020/…

Wow indeed..

This. is. terrible.

A classic question in development economics is whether (and what types of) poverty traps exist. This new paper by Balboni, @orianabandiera, Burgess, Maitreesh Ghatak, @anton_heil finds evidence for poverty traps in Bangladesh. Let me try to explain... [1/N] dropbox.com/s/4tfuhclfvh6y…

To all my friends in the UK, watch out..

A few days ago, the University of Chicago, i.e. the president and provost, emailed the campus with a subject mentioning “public safety” The email starts out by calling for an “examination and reflection of law enforcement in our society” 🧵 👇🏾

Amid the chaos of the last few weeks, my paper on sports betting in Uganda came out. A thread for those who’d like to know more, but don't want to download the pdf/skim the intro. 1/17 aeaweb.org/articles?id=10…

Congratulations to the 16 #PhD students and young scholars who this week developed and presented their new collaborative #research projects at the PEDL and NYU Abu Dhabi DevLab Matchmaking Workshop in Abu Dhabi. We can't wait to see these projects further develop. #EconTwitter

New CEPR Discussion Paper - DP18151 Leveraging Trading Networks to Improve Tax Compliance: Experimental Evidence from Uganda Miguel Almunia CUNEF Universidad, David Henning UCLA, Justine Knebelmann J-PAL, Dorothy Nakyambadde, Lin Tian INSEAD ow.ly/IrGY50OupBX #CEPR_PE

In addition to being an excellent economist, Huihuang Zhu is a wonderful colleague, generous in his time and energy, gives great advice, and has amazing food recommendations😊He would be a stellar addition to any department!