Owen Ozier

CDE students and faculty seated in rows at the event

Owen Ozier and Esther Duflo seated and looking out at the audience

A group photo of CDE students + Esther Duflo, outside the CDE

A group photo of econ thesis students + faculty + Esther Duflo outside the CDE

Legendary economist Esther Duflo received an honorary degree at Williams College at this year's graduation - we were delighted to welcome here at our Center for Development Economics, where @owenozier.bsky.social moderated a discussion with her and our CDE Fellows, thesis students, and faculty.

White people bused to inner-city schools in the 1970's were, as a direct result, more likely to become Democrats.

This effect lasted 40+ years!

codytuttle.github.io/busing_parti...

i would say that the strongest evidence against AI reasoning is how much they suck at writing stata code despite the documentation being online, because there just isn't as much training data to crib from

Estimating the now and predicting the future: Fertility rate estimation and population projection Use the DHS to estimate fertility levels and project future population levels

In this post in our series on climate and population projections we demonstrate how to generate fertility rates and to project a population using the DHS, a vital data source in many low-and middle-income countries. tech.popdata.org/dhs-research...

How to Publish Statistically Insignificant Results in Economics Sometimes, finding nothing at all can unlock the secrets of the universe. Consider this story from astronomy, recounted by Lily Zhao: “In 1823, Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers gazed up and wondered not about ...

Another by @daveevansphd.bsky.social here: blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Important null results in development economics Despite the bias against publishing null results, they are important for policy, helping to kill bad ideas.

Two blog posts for you. One more recent by @olihanney.bsky.social here: voxdev.org/topic/import...

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a bit of a height advantage over his fellow honorary degree recipients at Harvard's commencement. #Harvard2025
news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFIo...

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, giant of African literature, dies aged 87 Kenyan writer’s death announced by his daughter, who wrote: ‘He lived a full life, fought a good fight’

Rest in peace Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

Oh no. RIP. !!! I had not seen this in the news - is it somewhere? Hadn't he just released a book?

In the most recent issue of @restatjournal.bsky.social (direct.mit.edu/rest/article...), we (Kaspar Wuthrich and @karthik-econ.bsky.social) provide guidance on how to analyze and design experiments with factorial designs (or cross-cuts). A 🧵 below:

Congratulations @frankodhiambo.bsky.social !

The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Program was central in improving the evidence base for health policies and interventions, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central & Southern Asia - figure by @aasli.bsky.social.
Our preprint on the termination of the DHS Program: osf.io/preprints/so...

Biswo Poudel appointed as 18th governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Cabinet selects Poudel from a shortlist of three after prolonged political wrangling; appointment fills vacancy left since April 7.

Berkeley PhD to lead Nepal Central Bank #econsky kathmandupost.com/national/202...

Thanks for sharing Konstantin. Here's the paper John: arxiv.org/abs/2405.20604

And a more specific breakdown by topic (comparing 2000-2015 to 2016-2024):

Introducing the new leader of our Economic Growth in LMICs program | Open Philanthropy In October 2024, we shared our plans to launch a new program in partnership with the Livelihood Impact Fund to help stimulate economic growth in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with at least...

Huge congratulations to @justsand.bsky.social and to Open Philanthropy. The perfect person for a historic challenge

Thanks for having me! This was a fun conversation to have. Hope folks find it helpful. Now I have something to send to anyone who asks me what it's like doing research at the WB!

9 Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed Everything

We wouldn't have some essential everyday things without federal funding for science.

Today's @bostonglobe.com features my thoughts on the recent, rapid rise of private after school math tutoring.

TLDR: These classes have been valuable for our kids and others unchallenged by current school offerings, but also likely exacerabte inequality in math.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/12/o...

Ever wondered why some charts are more effective and engaging than others?

I’ll be going through all the theory, evidence and principles behind compelling data storytelling from this Wednesday.

Free to watch for anyone who is interested: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-fundam...

New review paper by Levy and Buchmueller:
“The evidence now unequivocally supports the conclusion that health insurance improves health.”
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

a little pick me up lol for the academics in the room

When health data go dark: the importance of the DHS Program and imagining its future - BMC Medicine Background The suspension and/or termination of many programmes funded through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) by the new US administration has severe short- and long-te...

The short article "When health data go dark" about the DHS (Demographic and Health Surveys) is online at BMC Medicine: bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Custom Ink Design 'metricpros' Create, save, share, or order your own products at CustomInk.com

here it is: www.customink.com/designs/metr...

or a succinct one: www.customink.com/designs/metr...

Excited to welcome @daveevansphd.bsky.social back to @cgdev.org. Dave embodies the best of CGD--innovative ideas on the big challenges grounded in data and rigorous research and making practical implementable suggestions.

Here is a free access link that should work for the next month! authors.elsevier.com/a/1k-Sl5bW6o...

Check out new work by our great colleague Greg Phelan, joint with alum William Chen! They show that integrating digital currency into the financial system can benefit households, but makes a banking crisis more likely.
doi.org/10.1016/j.jf...

What makes one economic outcome fairer than another – and who decides? ⚖️ Should cheap groceries come at the cost of underpaid workers? What IS fair?

In a powerful lecture at @uzh_ch, Maya Eden lays out an ethical framework for economic policy.

📺 Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI8C...

also this: estatements.unmeetings.org/estatements/...

...on-going DHS activities; (c) assessing the impacts of the DHS’ termination and potential reductions in international assistance to surveys and (d) devising sustainable long-term solutions to demographic and health data production."

unstats.un.org/iswghs/TaskF...

I know the UN Statistics Division had discussion about this in the last couple of months but beyond that I don't know specifics: "A task force is established under the Working Group to take actions on (a) ensuring access to existing DHS data as a public good; (b) securing funding to complete...