David K. Evans | Lightnews

David Evans

@daveevansphd.bsky.social

Economist at the Center for Global Development. Formerly: Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, RAND Corporation, & my local movie theater. I mostly share about international development research plus books and movies. Views mine, not my employer's. .. more

Videos

Education 40%

Computer science 27%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Pinned

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · Nov 18

"Ten Findings about Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean" economia.lse.ac.uk/articles/10.... Now out in Economía (the LACEA journal)

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 3d

"While we collect evidence, teachers go on teaching."

I love this line from John Hattie's *Visible Learning*. I think more and better evidence on how to support teachers is crucial, and I also understand that we can't wait for perfect evidence to take action.

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 4d

The World Bank's research director Deon Filmer on the legacy of Martin Ravallion academic.oup.com/wber/article...

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 5d

Revise and resubmit has been revised and resubmitted. #GetYourManuscriptOut #DoItAgain #AllTogetherNow

a cartoon of homer simpson asking for a please

ALT: a cartoon of homer simpson asking for a please

media.tenor.com

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 6d

I saw two movies today.

One was transcendent (letterboxd.com/daveevans/fi...).

One was a trashy thriller (letterboxd.com/daveevans/fi...).

I enjoyed both, but I only cried in one.

Reposted by Dani Rodrik, Jonathan Portes, David McKenzie , and 7 more Dani Rodrik, Jonathan Portes, David McKenzie, Garry Peterson, Steve Peers, Philip N. Cohen, David K. Evans, Samuel Bentolila, Maria Abreu, Clark Gray

Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 7d

The International Monetary Fund asked me to review the literature on migration economics to draw lessons for low-income countries.

In a new @iza.org paper, I argue that policy for the 21st century must discard four outdated ideas.

www.iza.org/publications...

🧵 thread—>

1. Less skilled labor is abundant.
2. Skilled emigration is a brain drain.
3. Development substitutes for migration.
4. Migration substitutes for failing development, but doesn't cause development.

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 7d

My take was more like yours, but on your spouse's point, I enjoyed this. www.facebook.com/FrJamesMarti...

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 10d

One of the great challenges of ed-tech: sustained take-up.

publications.iadb.org/en/scaling-t...

A generative AI chatbot to support novice teachers in Chile "reached more than 3x the number of teachers ... while maintaining high user satisfaction. However, engagement declined significantly"!

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 10d

Cash doesn't accomplish everything, but it does help kids out of poverty, which is a pretty big thing. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 10d

I love this work that explores what health technologies to DISinvest in and how much of a difference that could make. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Reposted by David K. Evans

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 10d

In today's JMP blog, Shreya Tandon documents that married women often work in the same garment firm in India as their husband. 3 field experiments explore why - evidence seems to be to protect women from risk of unsuitable workplaces blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...?

Navigating risky jobs: Why married couples choose the same employer in urban India. Guest post by Shreya Tandon

blogs.worldbank.org

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Brendan Nyhan, Hugo Mercier , and 2 more Nicholas A. Christakis, Brendan Nyhan, Hugo Mercier, David K. Evans, Sam Kamin

John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · 11d

Woah.

Argentina's 1990s preschool expansion program appears to have been a smashing success.

The program increased high school completion by a whole 11.9 percentage points.

The authors estimate that for every $1 spent, the preschool expansion generated about $11 in benefits.

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 14d

A lesson for next time! :)

Reposted by David K. Evans

Seema Jayachandran @seema.bsky.social · 15d

I wrote the tweet below after I had lunch with @daveevansphd.bsky.social, shared a random thought with him, and he said, "That's so obvious in hindsight." That was enough of an endorsement for me to write it up.

www.cgdev.org/blog/case-co...

Seema Jayachandran @seema.bsky.social · Oct 23

Having a new insight that is ex post obvious is the best feeling.

Reposted by Caroline Krafft, David K. Evans

Seema Jayachandran @seema.bsky.social · 15d

I argue in this piece that the nonprofit sector should be thinking more about the counterfactual when assessing fundraising success: winning a $2M competitive bid over capable peers advances the cause less than convincing someone to donate $1M they'd have spent on a yacht.

The Case for Counterfactual Thinking in Nonprofit Fundraising

When a nonprofit wins a major government contract or foundation grant, it’s cause for celebration. These wins reflect hard work and organizational strength. Yet beneath the success lies a subtle, ofte...

www.cgdev.org

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 15d

Thanks to @bencasselman.bsky.social, in some of what is surely his highest impact writing.

Reposted by Caroline Krafft

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 15d

I can confirm that I used this strategy at my office's white elephant gift exchange and was very pleased with the outcome.

Here is the result of my rating every gift docs.google.com/document/d/1... and I ended up with my #1!

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 21d

As we enter a holiday season, some essential advice. fivethirtyeight.com/videos/white...

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 16d

Sadly, *Hardcore Henry* was not a belated sequel to sweet 1991 Harrison Ford/Annette Bening *Regarding Henry*. My bad. letterboxd.com/daveevans/fi...

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 16d

Tomorrow at 8am (DC time) I'll be presenting on "Keeping Every Child Safe at School: What We’ve Learned from Impact Evaluations and What the Next Generation of Evidence Should Tell Us."

It's streaming: come check it out! wfp-org-conference.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 17d

Many years ago, one of my kids had to give examples of "scarcity" in elementary school, and his prime example was his dad eating his cookies.

(Note the panic on my face at being discovered in this drawing!)

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 17d

I write a bit about violence in schools and the need to reduce it, but it's useful to remember that schools can also be key places to identify (and then get help for) kids experiencing violence at home or elsewhere.

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 17d

Tools in schools to identify kids who are being maltreated or neglected publications.iadb.org/en/enhancing... Evidence from Argentina

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 17d

Tools in schools to identify kids who are being maltreated or neglected publications.iadb.org/en/enhancing... Evidence from Argentina

Reposted by David K. Evans

Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 18d

A superb forum run by first-rate scholars, and a big opportunity for early-career economists of migration

Joël Machado @joelmachado.eu · Nov 24

‪
With @jeromevalette.bsky.social & Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga, we are happy to announce the CfPapers for the

4th edition of the Junior Workshop on the Economics of Migration

on May 26-27, 2026 @uc3meconomics.bsky.social, Spain.

Submit until February 1, 2026 on economig2026.sciencesconf.org

Reposted by Seema Jayachandran, David K. Evans

Princeton Economics @princetonecon.bsky.social · 18d

Professor Seema Jayachandran (@seema_econ) recently joined the Vox Dev Economics podcast with co-author Alessandra Voena to discuss their new new review paper, "Women’s Power in the Household."

Listen: https://bit.ly/448YAdt

Women’s power at home

What has economic research taught us about women’s power in the household?

bit.ly

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 19d

*Vermiglio* is a heartrending film about a family in a remote Italian village making tough choices. letterboxd.com/daveevans/fi...

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 19d

I could tell during the movie that there would be much higher returns to someone who loved the French New Wave more broadly.

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 20d

I'm reminded of research that finds adolescent girls enrolled in school are significantly less likely to experience violence than those unenrolled, but that this difference is likely associated with early marriage among the unenrolled. (See section 3.1 of www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....)

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 20d

The interplay between early marriage and girls' education

journal.uiii.ac.id/index.php/me...

from focus groups in rural Gambia

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 20d

My whole career is somehow curating a set of studies so that people think exactly that.

a man wearing glasses and a vest with the word success written on it

ALT: a man wearing glasses and a vest with the word success written on it

media.tenor.com

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 20d

It's tough to be a teacher.

In Sierra Leone:

Public school teachers = dissatisfied with salary and promotion prospects

Private school teachers = dissatisfied with job security and workload

"Both groups identified poor working conditions."

ejournal.uiidalwa.ac.id/index.php/ad...

David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 20d

I love this idea of highly flexible childcare, and the care during night shifts reminded me of this work on nighttime childcare in the US: www.erikson.edu/research/ill...

Add to Home Screen

Light up
your news

Add to Home Screen

Light upyour news

Sign in to Lightnews

Sign up to start reading

Connect Bluesky

Connect with Bluesky

Light up
your news