Ideas to action: independent research for global prosperity
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Blog Post
June 15, 2021
Preventive behaviors such as handwashing and social distancing are critical to containing the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19, particularly in densely populated areas of low-income countries with crowded living quarters and public spaces. But it can be challenging to identify and deploy ...
WORKING PAPERS
June 08, 2021
We conduct an adaptive randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of a SMS-based information campaign on the adoption of social distancing and handwashing in rural Bihar, India, six months into the COVID-19 pandemic. We test 10 arms that vary in delivery timing and message framing, changing ...
Blog Post
September 15, 2020
How much do educational outcomes around the world depend on where you were born? In a new CGD working paper, we propose a very simple strategy to overcome this problem and build a “Rosetta Stone” for test scores. We take a single sample of students and give them questions from each major exam around...
WORKING PAPERS
September 15, 2020
How can we accurately measure the global distribution of skills when people in different countries take different tests? We develop a new methodology to non-parametrically link scores from distinct populations. By administering an exam combining items from different assessments to 2,300 primary stud...
WORKING PAPERS
February 05, 2018
This paper attempts a first-cut listing of global public goods and international spillover activities, as well as providing some data on their global distribution alongside basic correlational analysis. Few if any goods are “pure” global public goods and there is a spectrum of the extent...
WORKING PAPERS
October 26, 2017
How much innovation will be needed to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals? Our results suggest that (i) best performers are considerably outperforming the average performance at a given income level, suggesting considerable progress could be achieved through policy change bu...
WORKING PAPERS
October 04, 2017
This analysis examines the relationship between legal reform and social norms surrounding homosexuality. First, about a fifth of the variation in individual preferences can be explained at a country level. Second, using a difference-in-differences strategy, legalizing homosexuality improves how indi...