More than 10y ago Martin Ravallion wrote about many problems with mashup indexes, and yet despite the scandal with Doing Business index, they keep on proliferating, most recently with another questionable index on the control of covid. ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/5…

A super duet of #socialprotection papers! 1) On protecting income vs jobs by Asli Demirgüç-Kunt @MishaLokshin & Iván Torre: documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099… 2) On country spending, aka Social Protection Engel Curve by Martin Ravallion @MishaLokshin & Iván Torre: documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099…

A new proposal for wage subsidies to reduce the unemployment gap between Black and white Americans. Agree with the objective, but surely there is more evaluative research on past efforts at using wage subsidies in the U.S. and elsewhere. What does that show about effectiveness?

Good news from Census Bureau on the US poverty rate, using their preferable Supplementary Poverty Measure to allow for all benefits incl. SNAP ("food stamps"). Yes, antipoverty transfers can reduce poverty. And cutting these programs will increase it. catholicnews.com/census-bureau-…

On that 2% inflation target. Further criticism from an epicenter of economic policy thinking in the developing world. Recomended. jomoks.substack.com/p/inflation-ta…

Data on public spending on social protection (SP) along with plausible covariates rejects the idea that SP is a luxury good across countries. This also holds for the pandemic, from Michael Lokshin, Martin Ravallion and Iván Torre nber.org/papers/w30484

Especially good post from the daily Historian, Heather Cox Richardson, today. Recomended. Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-28…

Congratulations to the Econ. Dept. at George Mason University on this excellent hire, and best wishes to Michael Clemens. Big loss to Center for Global Development.

📢 [I4I e-Symposium] This week I4I hosts a series of 6 posts on poverty estimation in India. Experts tackle the methodological debates raised by two working papers published by the WB & IMF earlier this year Read the introductory piece by Maitreesh Ghatak here: ideasforindia.in/topics/poverty…

Also Gaurav Datt Roy Van Der Weide @himanshu

To clarify the comment that "the benchmark has not changed much", this refers to the estimated consumption floor, up from $1.08 in 1983 to $1.35 PPP. (Mainly due to rising floor in rural areas.)

New post summarizes lessons from my work with Cait Brown quantifying the role played by antecedent inequalities as influences on social distancing behavior in the US over the course of the pandemic. economicsandpoverty.com/posts/

🚨 I am excited to share my Job Market Paper. "Jim Crow and Black Economic Progress After Slavery" (w/ Hugo Reichardt) We provide new evidence that a Black family's socioeconomic status today strongly depends on their historical exposure to racially oppressive institutions.

Using new data, this VoxEU column analyses the dynamics of social protection spending and finds little convincing evidence to support the luxury good hypothesis By Martin Ravallion eta • Martin Ravallion CEPR cepr.org/voxeu/columns/…

This UNDESA note reports strikingly high relative poverty rates (50% median) among elderly, esp. women in developing countries (based on LIS). Measurement issues begging include why one would use (strongly) relative measures, esp. in developing countries. un.org/development/de…

Jean Dreze on the claim by Surjit Bhalla and Karan Bhasin that poverty reduction in India accelerated dramatically over the last 10 years. Not some technical issue here, but a goof up. Hopefully a public retraction is coming from B&B. indianexpress.com/article/opinio… via The Indian Express

Here Bhalla and Bhasin acknowledge their "inadvertent error in reporting 2011-12 values." Focusing instead on 2015-16, they still claim that the policies of the Modi government have accelerated poverty reduction. The debate will no doubt continue. indianexpress.com/article/opinio…

School closures during the pandemic may well have magnified the inequaities of opportunity in America. calmatters.org/commentary/202…