37Th ANNUAL FALL RESEARCH CONFERENCE the GOLDEN AGE
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GPI's Research Agenda
A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR THE GLOBAL PRIORITIES INSTITUTE Hilary Greaves, William MacAskill, Rossa O’Keeffe-O’Donovan and Philip Trammell February 2019 (minor changes July 2019) We acknowledge Pablo Stafforini, Aron Vallinder, James Aung, the Global Priorities Institute Advisory Board, and numerous colleagues at the Future of Humanity Institute, the Centre for Effective Altruism, and elsewhere for their invaluable assistance in composing this agenda. 1 Table of Contents Introduction 3 GPI’s vision and mission 3 GPI’s research agenda 4 1. The longtermism paradigm 6 1.1 Articulation and evaluation of longtermism 6 1.2 Sign of the value of the continued existence of humanity 8 1.3 Mitigating catastrophic risk 10 1.4 Other ways of leveraging the size of the future 12 1.5 Intergenerational governance 14 1.6 Economic indices for longtermists 16 1.7 Moral uncertainty for longtermists 18 1.8 Longtermist status of interventions that score highly on short-term metrics 19 2. General issues in global prioritisation 21 2.1 Decision-theoretic issues 21 2.2 Epistemological issues 23 2.3 Discounting 24 2.4 Diversification and hedging 28 2.5 Distributions of cost-effectiveness 30 2.6 Modelling altruism 32 2.7 Altruistic coordination 33 2.8 Individual vs institutional actors 35 Bibliography 38 Appendix A. Research areas for future engagement 46 A.1 Animal welfare 46 A.2 The scope of welfare maximisation 48 Appendix B. Closely related areas of existing academic research 51 B.1 Methodology of cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis 51 B.2 Multidimensional economic indices 51 B.3 Infinite ethics and intergenerational equity 53 B.4 Epistemology of disagreement 53 B.5 Demandingness 54 B.6 Forecasting 54 B.7 Population ethics 55 B.8 Risk aversion and ambiguity aversion 55 B.9 Moral uncertainty 57 1 B.10 Value of information 58 B.11 Harnessing and combining evidence 59 B.12 The psychology of altruistic decision-making 60 Appendix C. -
Should the Randomistas (Continue To) Rule?
Should the Randomistas (Continue to) Rule? Martin Ravallion Abstract The rising popularity of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in development applications has come with continuing debates on the pros and cons of this approach. The paper revisits the issues. While RCTs have a place in the toolkit for impact evaluation, an unconditional preference for RCTs as the “gold standard” is questionable. The statistical case is unclear on a priori grounds; a stronger ethical defense is often called for; and there is a risk of distorting the evidence-base for informing policymaking. Going forward, pressing knowledge gaps should drive the questions asked and how they are answered, not the methodological preferences of some researchers. The gold standard is the best method for the question at hand. Keywords: Randomized controlled trials, bias, ethics, external validity, ethics, development policy JEL: B23, H43, O22 Working Paper 492 August 2018 www.cgdev.org Should the Randomistas (Continue to) Rule? Martin Ravallion Department of Economics, Georgetown University François Roubaud encouraged the author to write this paper. For comments the author is grateful to Sarah Baird, Mary Ann Bronson, Caitlin Brown, Kevin Donovan, Markus Goldstein, Miguel Hernan, Emmanuel Jimenez, Madhulika Khanna, Nishtha Kochhar, Andrew Leigh, David McKenzie, Berk Özler, Dina Pomeranz, Lant Pritchett, Milan Thomas, Vinod Thomas, Eva Vivalt, Dominique van de Walle and Andrew Zeitlin. Staff of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation kindly provided an update to their database on published impact evaluations and helped with the author’s questions. Martin Ravallion, 2018. “Should the Randomistas (Continue to) Rule?.” CGD Working Paper 492. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development. -
Income Segregation Between Schools and Districts Ann Owens Et Al.Pdf
American Educational Research Journal August 2016, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 1159–1197 DOI: 10.3102/0002831216652722 Ó 2016 AERA. http://aerj.aera.net Income Segregation Between Schools and School Districts Ann Owens University of Southern California Sean F. Reardon Stanford University Christopher Jencks Harvard University Although trends in the racial segregation of schools are well documented, less is known about trends in income segregation. We use multiple data sources to document trends in income segregation between schools and school dis- tricts. Between-district income segregation of families with children enrolled in public school increased by over 15% from 1990 to 2010. Within large dis- tricts, between-school segregation of students who are eligible and ineligible for free lunch increased by over 40% from 1991 to 2012. Consistent with research on neighborhood segregation, we find that rising income inequality contributed to the rise in income segregation between schools and districts during this period. The rise in income segregation between both schools and districts may have implications for inequality in students’ access to resources that bear on academic achievement. ANN OWENS is an assistant professor of sociology and (by courtesy) spatial sciences at the University of Southern California, 851 Downey Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1059; e-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include sociology of education, urban sociology, social policy, and social stratification. Current research focuses on the causes, trends, and consequences of income and racial segregation between neighborhoods and schools. SEAN F. REARDON is the endowed Professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education and professor (by courtesy) of sociology at Stanford University. -
PUBLIC WELFARE Targeting in Social Programs Avoiding Bad Bets
Targeting in Social Programs Avoiding Bad Bets, Removing Bad Apples Peter H. Schuck & Richard J. Zeckhauser 00 7880-6 front.qxd 9/24/2006 2:00 PM Page i Targeting in Social Programs 00 7880-6 front.qxd 9/24/2006 2:00 PM Page ii 00 7880-6 front.qxd 9/24/2006 2:00 PM Page iii Targeting in Social Programs Avoiding Bad Bets, Removing Bad Apples Peter H. Schuck Richard J. Zeckhauser brookings institution press Washington, D.C. 00 7880-6 front.qxd 9/24/2006 2:00 PM Page iv ABOUT BROOKINGS The Brookings Institution is a private nonprofit organization devoted to research, educa- tion, and publication on important issues of domestic and foreign policy. Its principal purpose is to bring the highest quality independent research and analysis to bear on cur- rent and emerging policy problems. Interpretations or conclusions in Brookings publica- tions should be understood to be solely those of the authors. Copyright © 2006 THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 www.brookings.edu All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the Brookings Institution Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data Schuck, Peter H. Targeting in social programs : avoiding bad bets, removing bad apples / Peter H. Schuck, Richard J. Zeckhauser. p. cm. Summary: “Provides a framework for analyzing the challenges involved in defining bad bets and bad apples and discusses the safeguards that any classification process must pro- vide. Examines public schools, public housing, and medical care and proposes policy changes that could reduce the problems these two groups pose in social welfare pro- grams”—Provided by publisher. -
Outlawing Honest Graft
\\jciprod01\productn\N\NYL\16-1\NYL106.txt unknown Seq: 1 28-MAR-13 9:53 OUTLAWING HONEST GRAFT Paul D. Brachman* The American public believes that Congress is dishonest and corrupt, and this perception was recently reinforced by reports that members of Congress were immune from insider trading laws. In response to the public backlash, and in an overwhelming display of bipartisanship, Congress passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (STOCK Act). The Act clarified that members of Congress are indeed subject to prohibitions on insider trading, and subjected congressional securities transactions to new and more rigorous disclosure requirements. Neverthe- less, some observers were disappointed with the strength of the STOCK Act, and there is also reason to fear that the Speech or Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution may frustrate most attempts to prosecute members of Congress for insider trading, despite the passage of the Act. This Note analyzes the merits of the STOCK Act as an enforcement mechanism and concludes that it is likely a mostly ineffective tool for com- bating congressional insider trading. This Note then asks whether the Act may have independent value because it addresses the appearance of con- gressional impropriety, or whether such appearances may be detrimental if the Act fails as an enforcement device. Finally, this Note suggests that in- creasing transparency, and requiring Congress to police its own corruption may be more attractive alternatives for combatting congressional insider trading. INTRODUCTION .............................................. 262 R I. THEY SEEN THEIR OPPORTUNITIES AND THEY TOOK ‘EM: ASSESSING THE PROBLEM OF CONGRESSIONAL INSIDER TRADING ................................... -
Heterogeneous Treatment Effects in Impact Evaluation†
American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings 2015, 105(5): 467–470 http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/aer.p20151015 Heterogeneous Treatment Effects in Impact Evaluation† By Eva Vivalt* The past few years have seen an exponential which programs work best where. To date, it growth in impact evaluations. These evalua- has conducted 20 meta-analyses and systematic tions are supposed to be useful to policymakers, reviews of different development programs.1 development practitioners, and researchers Data gathered through meta-analyses are the designing future studies. However, it is not yet ideal data with which to answer the question of clear to what extent we can extrapolate from how much we can extrapolate from past results, past impact evaluation results or under which as what one would want is a large database of conditions Deaton 2010; Pritchett and Sandefur impact evaluation results. Since data on these 20 2013 . Further,( it has been shown that even a topics were collected in the same way, we can similar) program, in a similar environment, can also look across different types of programs to yield different results Duflo et al. 2012; Bold see if there are any more general trends. et al. 2013 . The different( findings that have The rest of this paper proceeds as follows. been obtained) in such similar conditions point First, I briefly discuss the framework of hetero- to substantial context-dependence of impact geneous treatment effects. I then describe the evaluation results. It is critical to understand this data in more detail and provide some illustrative context-dependence in order to know what we results. -
New App for Effective Altruism Released Aidgrade’S New Tool Helps the Public Understand Latest Research Results in International Development
Contact: Eva Vivalt For Immediate Release 202-630-6763 [email protected] New App for Effective Altruism Released AidGrade’s new tool helps the public understand latest research results in international development November 7, 2013 — AidGrade, a research institute dedicated to discovering what works in international development, has just released a much-expanded version of its meta-analysis app which allows people to download and analyze results of individual studies. Meta-analysis combines findings from academic studies in a statistically sound way. It is to be contrasted with “vote counting”, which simply tallies how many studies found positive or negative effects and can be misleading. AidGrade previously released an app that allowed people to conduct their own meta-analyses online. AidGrade simultaneously built a database of impact evaluation results from academic studies, such as those produced by the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, at MIT; Innovations for Poverty Action, based around Yale; and the Center for Effective Global Action, at the University of California, Berkeley, among others. More than 5,000 results from 300 papers have now been coded and are coming online. “It’s awesome to see these results,” enthused Eva Vivalt, founder of the project and post- doctoral fellow at New York University. “You hear so much in the media about ‘this study says this’ or ‘this study says that’, but each academic paper only gives a small part of the story. We need to look at the aggregate results, but in a way that makes sense. Economics isn’t like other disciplines where results can be easily replicated across contexts. -
"Academic Disaster Areas": the Black College Response to Christopher Jencks and David Riesman's 1967 Harvard Educational Review Article
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons GSE Faculty Research Graduate School of Education March 2006 Salvaging "Academic Disaster Areas": The Black College Response to Christopher Jencks and David Riesman's 1967 Harvard Educational Review Article Marybeth Gasman University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs Recommended Citation Gasman, M. (2006). Salvaging "Academic Disaster Areas": The Black College Response to Christopher Jencks and David Riesman's 1967 Harvard Educational Review Article. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs/12 Copyright The Ohio State University. Reprinted from Journal of Higher Education, Volume 77, Issue 2, March/April 2006, pages 317-352. This material is posted here with permission of the Ohio State University Press. Content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv or website without the copyright holder's written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs/12 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Salvaging "Academic Disaster Areas": The Black College Response to Christopher Jencks and David Riesman's 1967 Harvard Educational Review Article Abstract During my junior year at Grambling College, the campus was roiled by the release of an article in Harvard Educational Review. [One of the articles] launched a broadside attack against Black colleges essentially questioning whether these hard-fought for institutions deserved to exist. The article’s publication caused the handful of whites on the faculty to become noticeably uncomfortable and regrettably led some of the colleagues and students to question their fealty to Grambling. -
JOSHUA TASOFF August 28, 2019
JOSHUA TASOFF August 28, 2019 https://scholar.cgu.edu/joshua-tasoff/ Department of Economics, Phone: 909-621-8782 School of Politics & Economics, Fax: 909-621-8460 Claremont Graduate University, [email protected] Harper E. 204 160 E. Tenth Street Claremont, CA 91711 EMPLOYMENT Associate Professor (with tenure), Claremont Graduate University, July 2016 – Present Assistant Professor, Claremont Graduate University, July 2010 – July 2016 Visiting Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, Spring 2018 Visiting Professor, University of Southern California, Fall 2013 EDUCATION Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Economics, June 2010 Dissertation: “Essays in psychological and political economics” Advisors: Botond Kőszegi and Matthew Rabin B.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Economics, June 2003 RESEARCH INTERESTS Behavioral Economics, Experimental Economics, Economics of Microbial Communities, Food Choice REFEREED PUBLICATIONS 10. “The Role of Time Preferences and Exponential-Growth Bias in Retirement Savings”with Gopi Shah Goda, Matthew Levy, Colleen Manchester, and Aaron Sojourner. Economic Inquiry, Vol. 57 (3), July 2019, pp1636-1658 9. “Exponential-Growth Bias in Experimental Consumption Decisions” with Matthew Levy. Economica, 20 March 2019, https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12306 8. “Fantasy and Dread: The Demand for Information and the Consumption Utility of the Future”, Management Science, Vol. 63 (12), December 2017, pp. 4037–4060, http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2550 with Ananda Ganguly 7. “When Higher Productivity Hurts: The Interaction Between Overconfidence and Capital” Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Vol. 67, April 2017, pp 131-142 with Andrew Royal 6. “Exponential-Growth Bias and Overconfidence”, Journal of Economic Psychology, (Lead Article) Vol. 58, Feb (2017), pp 1-14 with Matthew Levy 5. -
CHRISTOPHER JENCKS Office
7/17/2013 CHRISTOPHER JENCKS Office: Kennedy School of Government Harvard University Cambridge, MA 02138 Phone: (617) 495-0546 Fax (617) 496-9053 e-mail: [email protected] Current Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 1996 - present Employment: Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy, 1998 - present Current Social and economic consequences of economic inequality Research: Intergenerational economic mobility School accountability systems Other Current Editorial Board, The American Prospect, 1989- Activities Advisory Board, Journal of Economic Perspectives Born: October 22, 1936 Education: Harvard College (A.B., English Literature, 1958) Harvard Graduate School of Education (M.Ed., 1959) London School of Economics (Sociology, 1960-61) Past Professor of Social Policy, Kennedy School, Harvard University, 1996-98 Employment: John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University, 1990-96 Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University, 1979-90 Professor of Sociology, Harvard University, 1973-79 Visiting Professor of Public Policy, University of Chicago, 1994-95 Visiting Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1977-78 Associate Professor of Education, Harvard University, 1969-73 Director, OEO Educational Voucher Project, Center for the Study of Public Policy, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969-70 Executive Director, Center for Education Policy Research, Harvard University, 1968-69 Lecturer in Education, Harvard University, 1967-69 Resident Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, -
Deaton Cartwright Rcts with ABSTRACT August 25
Understanding and misunderstanding randomized controlled trials Angus Deaton and Nancy Cartwright Princeton University Durham University and UC San Diego This version, August 2016 We acknowledge helpful discussions with many people over the many years this paper has been in preparation. We would particularly like to note comments from seminar participants at Princeton, Columbia and Chicago, the CHESS research group at Durham, as well as discussions with Orley Ashenfelter, Anne Case, Nick Cowen, Hank Farber, Bo Honoré, and Julian Reiss. Ulrich Mueller had a major influence on shaping Section 1 of the paper. We have benefited from gen- erous comments on an earlier version by Tim Besley, Chris Blattman, Sylvain Chassang, Steven Durlauf, Jean Drèze, William Easterly, Jonathan Fuller, Lars Hansen, Jim Heckman, Jeff Hammer, Macartan Humphreys, Helen Milner, Suresh Naidu, Lant Pritchett, Dani Rodrik, Burt Singer, Richard Zeckhauser, and Steve Ziliak. Cartwright’s research for this paper has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No 667526 K4U). Deaton acknowledges financial support through the National Bureau of Economic Research, Grants 5R01AG040629-02 and P01 AG05842-14 and through Princeton University’s Roybal Center, Grant P30 AG024928. ABSTRACT RCTs are valuable tools whose use is spreading in economics and in other social sciences. They are seen as desirable aids in scientific discovery and for generating evidence for poli- cy. Yet some of the enthusiasm for RCTs appears to be based on misunderstandings: that randomization provides a fair test by equalizing everything but the treatment and so allows a precise estimate of the treatment alone; that randomization is required to solve selection problems; that lack of blinding does little to compromise inference; and that statistical in- ference in RCTs is straightforward, because it requires only the comparison of two means. -
Policy and Choice: Public Finance Through the Lens of Behavioral
advance Praise For POLICY and CHOICE Mullai Congdon • Kling “Policy and Choice is a must-read for students of public finance. If you want to learn N William J. Congdon is a research director in Traditional public ἀnance provides a powerful how the emerging field of behavioral economics can help lead to better policy, there is atha the Brookings Institution’s Economic Studies framework for policy analysis, but it relies on a nothing better.” program, where he studies how best to apply model of human behavior that the new science , Harvard University, former chairman of the President’s Council of N. GreGory MaNkiw N behavioral economics to public policy. Economic Advisers, and author of Principles of Economics of behavioral economics increasingly calls into question. In Policy and Choice economists Jeἀrey R. Kling is the associate director for William Congdon, Jeffrey Kling, and Sendhil economic analysis at the Congressional Budget “This fantastic volume will become the standard reference for those interested in understanding the impact of behavioral economics on government tax and spending Mullainathan argue that public ἀnance not only Office, where he contributes to all aspects of the POLICY policies. The authors take a stream of research which had highlighted particular can incorporate many lessons of behavioral eco- agency’s analytic work. He is a former deputy ‘nudges’ and turn it into a comprehensive framework for thinking about policy in a nomics but also can serve as a solid foundation director of Economic Studies at Brookings. more realistic world where psychology is incorporated into economic decisionmaking. from which to apply insights from psychology Sendhil Mullainathan is a professor of This excellent book will be widely used and cited.” to questions of economic policy.