David Evans
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daveevansphd.bsky.social
David Evans
@daveevansphd.bsky.social
4K followers 89 following 680 posts

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

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Computer science 27%
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daveevansphd.bsky.social
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)

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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.

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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...

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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

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In a new @iza.org paper, I argue that policy for the 21st century must discard four outdated ideas.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

daveevansphd.bsky.social
David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 8d
My take was more like yours, but on your spouse's point, I enjoyed this. www.facebook.com/FrJamesMarti...

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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"!

daveevansphd.bsky.social
David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 11d
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...

daveevansphd.bsky.social
David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 11d
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

dmckenzie.bsky.social
David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 11d
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

johnholbein1.bsky.social
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.

daveevansphd.bsky.social
David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 14d
A lesson for next time! :)

Reposted by David K. Evans

seema.bsky.social
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.bsky.social 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.bsky.social
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

daveevansphd.bsky.social
David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 16d
Thanks to @bencasselman.bsky.social, in some of what is surely his highest impact writing.

Reposted by Caroline Krafft

daveevansphd.bsky.social
David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 16d
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!
daveevansphd.bsky.social David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 21d
As we enter a holiday season, some essential advice. fivethirtyeight.com/videos/white...

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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

daveevansphd.bsky.social
David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 17d
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...

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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!)

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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.
daveevansphd.bsky.social 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

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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

mclem.org
Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 18d
A superb forum run by first-rate scholars, and a big opportunity for early-career economists of migration
joelmachado.eu 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

princetonecon.bsky.social
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

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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...

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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.

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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....)

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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

daveevansphd.bsky.social
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

daveevansphd.bsky.social
David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 21d
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...

daveevansphd.bsky.social
David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 21d
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...