Markus Goldstein

Our new paper in the JEEA shows BRAC's ELA program offsets the pregnancy and drop-out impacts of the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone:

academic.oup.com/jeea/advance...

How much does it cost to provide a healthy diet? How does this vary across countries? www.worldbank.org/en/programs/... Will Masters shares an open-access resource that seeks to compare across countries at #ABCDE2025.

.@leecrawfurd.bsky.social: "Lead exposure could explain 1/5th of the learning gap between rich & poor countries"

academic.oup.com/wbro/article... #ABCDE2025

NEUDC 2025

One month left to submit papers for this year's NEUDC: neudc2025.com:

A recent blog by my colleagues @helen-dempster.bsky.social, Charley Ward and @samhuckstep.bsky.social shows the stark impact of the just-passed remittance tax on poorer countries, adding to the impact of aid cuts:https://www.cgdev.org/blog/even-1-percent-us-remittance-tax-hits-poor-countries-hard

Some Things We Don't Do Anymore - This American Life Trump froze U.S. foreign aid and dismantled USAID. We examine the agency’s impact and hear from people trying to navigate this chaotic moment.

Thoughtful and wrenching stories of the waste and damage caused by the abrupt cutting of USAID: www.thisamericanlife.org/862/some-thi...

Opinion | The Waste Musk Created

The Waste Musk Created www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/o...

The Window for Host Communities and Refugees Survives, but What Does the Future Hold Under GROW? Recently, the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) released their plans for IDA21, including for the Window for Host Communities and Refugees (WHR), now placed under a new umbrella...

The World Bank has released their IDA21 plans, with the $2.4bn Window for Host Communities and Refugees now part of a broader regional window. In this new @cgdev.org blog, @thomasginn.bsky.social and I spell out the good, the bad, and where to go from here.

www.cgdev.org/blog/window-...

Certified to Stay? Long-Run Experimental Evidence on Land Formalization and Widows’ Tenure Security in Benin In many parts of the world, women’s land rights remain informal, leaving widows—especially those without a male heir—at high risk of losing access to their land and homes when their husbands die. We…

Globally, women’s land rights remain informal, leaving widows at high risk of losing access to their homes.

In a new working paper, @markusgold.bsky.social‬ & fellow experts study if large-scale land formalization programs can improve widows’ tenure security ⬇️
bit.ly/43xQR7y

Ministers Launch International Taskforce to End School Violence Eleven countries have come together to launch a new international taskforce to tackle violence in and around schools at a high-level roundtable organised by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development O...

Proud of our education team, partnering with the FCDO and the Global Partnership with Education to support the launch of the Ministerial taskforce against violence in and around schools. Excited to see us build the data and evidence on what works to address this issue.
www.cgdev.org/article/mini...

Building the Future of Aid—Starting Now: Strategic Lessons from a Crisis Despite what administration officials have claimed about preserving life-saving work, many of the programs delivering interventions known to save the most lives per dollar spent have not received the ...

In the wake of the abrupt dismantling of USAID, there are taxpayer funded vaccines, food, and bednets sitting in warehouses, going bad. My colleagues Robert Rosenbaum, Caitlin Tulloch, and Cindy Huang blog about an initiative trying to make sure less people die: www.cgdev.org/blog/buildin...

Children Are Being Poisoned Because of Bureaucratic Inertia This month saw joint meetings of the Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Convention. These meetings are held once every two years, and are the key mechanisms for in...

Despite it's ability to cause substantial harm to human health, lead chromate is still not regulated by the Rotterdam Convention, likely due in part to bureaucratic inertia.

More from @leecrawfurd.bsky.social & @rorytodd98.bsky.social:
www.cgdev.org/blog/childre...

Cutting through the Noise: Identifying Smart Bets in AI Applications for Development There are more than 450 AI applications targeting health or education outcomes in low- and middle-income countries, but not every application will prove cost-effective. How can the development sector ...

My colleague @hanshengchia.bsky.social and I cut through the noise and lay out some ideas on identifying smart bets on AI for development:
www.cgdev.org/blog/cutting...

An AI Evaluation Framework for the Development Sector There's a common concern that AI systems are black boxes prone to unexpected behavior, from Google recommending users eat rocks to Sora’s AI videos depicting gymnasts sprouting extra limbs. While some...

Looking for some weekend reading? My colleague Han Sheng Chia and coauthors lay out a map for evaluating AI interventions in the development sector (spoiler: it does not start with an RCT): www.cgdev.org/blog/ai-eval...

Im Thinking Im Back John Wick GIF ALT: Im Thinking Im Back John Wick GIF

Professional update: In June, I’ll be joining the @cgdev.org as a Senior Fellow. I’m enthusiastic to generate and disseminate policy-actionable research with fabulous colleagues under @rglenner.bsky.social’s leadership.

📅 On Apr. 25, @cgdev.org & @theirworld.bsky.social invite you to a discussion on the benefits of supporting early childhood development & childcare, and how to increase investment in these years to achieve the triple dividend for children, women, & economies.

RSVP ⬇️
bit.ly/4jENeDt

Sub-Saharan African countries will bear the brunt of US & UK aid cuts.🌍

Join CGD & Africatalyst for a #SpringMeetings discussion on responses to the new development landscape, how leaders can react, & ways to move away from aid dependency.

RSVP!⬇️
bit.ly/4j9H8uQ

Educating international students is a massive export of services. They pay us money earned in a foreign nation for a product the US has, until now, had an absolute advantage in. We cannot effectively sell these services if these students can be deported, detained, and even kidnapped at random.

Research Assistant - Center for Global Development - Career Page Apply to Research Assistant at Center for Global Development in Washington, DC.

Come work with @markusgold.bsky.social and me on global development stuff.

centerforglobaldevelopment.applytojob.com/apply/Yb82j2...

Pity the U.S (or what 08:50:39, 10/08/2005 tells us about aid). The sudden slew of "Stop Work" emails shows that the basic decency of providing some warning before cutting off aid was not afforded to the poorest in the world. Having trusted the U.

Last month, Jishnu Das revisited his work showing the impact of US aid in the wake of the Pakistan earthquake. Particularly relevant given last week's USAID RIFs and the Myanmar quake: www.linkedin.com/pulse/pity-u...

Why the Trump Administration's Plan to Cut Funding to Gavi is Shortsighted In a list of thousands of terminated USAID awards that was sent to Congress this week is a devastating cut suggesting the Trump administration might be planning to end funding to Gavi, the global init...

@jmadankeller.bsky.social & @charlesjkenny.bsky.social take a look at the consequences of the US cancelling support for GAVI. 20-500K additional deaths: www.cgdev.org/blog/why-tru...

Thinking Through Waste, Fraud and Corruption in US Foreign Assistance The US Administration has presented a weak case for its argument that US foreign assistance was so riddled with abuse and fraud that the only answer was to shut down USAID and reboot. The lists of ter...

My colleague @charlesjkenny.bsky.social offers some trenchant thoughts on the reality of waste, fraud and corruption in US foreign assistance: www.cgdev.org/blog/thinkin...