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February 23, 2010

David Roodman on Microfinance and a Year of Blogging

Posted by Lawrence MacDonald in Finance, Inequality, Poverty Tags: , ,

David RoodmanMy guest on this week’s show is David Roodman, a research fellow here at CGD who has spent the past year writing a book on microfinance. He has shared this experience online through his open book blog, posting chapter drafts, analyzing ongoing research in the field, and soliciting comments and suggestions. I ask David why he decided to write his book in such a public way, and what he’s learned over the last year.

David replies that when it comes to policy research, people write books for four reasons. “One is to help you think through a complicated process… Another is to provide a basis for shorter spin-off pieces… Another is to signal that you’re an expert about something. And then the last is, oh yeah, to write something for people to read.” David says blogging about the book-writing process has helped him to partially accomplish the first three goals even before the book is complete. It has also, somewhat unexpectedly he says, changed his writing style, something he discussed recently on the blog.

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October 22, 2009

Benchmarking America: The 2009 Commitment to Development Index

Posted by Lawrence MacDonald in Aid Effectiveness, Capital Flows/Financial Crises, Global Development, Private Investment, Trade Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Congratulations to Sweden for ranking first in CGD’s 2009 Commitment to Development Index (CDI) for the first time since the creation of the Index in 2003. The United States, meanwhile, manages only a meager 17th place among the 22 wealthy countries ranked. In Benchmarking America, our second Global Prosperity Wonkcast, I ask CDI architect David Roodman to tell us why Sweden ranks first, why the United States gets such a mediocre score, and why Japan and Korea once again fall at the bottom of the list. Whether or not you are a podcast listener, I urge you to take a look at the greatly enhanced 2009 CDI Web site (now multilingual!). You can also watch the Webinar and read the brief or press release.

Subscribe to the podcast if you have iTunes.

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