Distinguished Professor of Economics, Oxfam Professor in Environmental and Resource Economics, & Faculty co-Director of the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA)
“We know that institutions matter: They transform the [scientific] dedication of individuals to the next generation,” remarked representatives of the Einstein Foundation Berlin as they awarded the Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research to BITSS on March 14.
Randomised controlled trials have many problems. They may still be the best tool for solving poverty
The Einstein Foundation Berlin is to honor Belgian bioinformatician Yves Moreau, the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences, and the Responsible Research Assessment Initiative with this year’s Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research 2023.
Edward (Ted) Miguel is the Oxfam Professor in Environmental and Resource Economics and co-Director of the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) at Berkeley. After a famous early paper with Michael Kremer had him known as “that worms guy”, Ted has gone on to study a wide range of topics on African economic development, including health, infrastructure, ethnic divisions, violence (and even witchcraft), agricultural productivity, and vocational education. He has also been a leading voice in the movement towards greater transparency (helping popularize pre-analysis plans), and done important work on the environment and development before it was even trendy to do so.
Ted Miguel is the Oxfam Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley. He is a founder of CEGA, and his research focuses on development economics, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Two Berkeley Economic Review members got the chance to ask him about his background and research earlier this year.
Miguel has collaborated with us since our early days, starting with our Deworm the World program, which was launched based on his research with Michael Kremer that determined deworming is a cost-effective way to improve children’s school attendance. We’ve continued to collaborate with him over the past ten years as his research on deworming expanded to look at health outcomes and long-term economic impacts.
If sweating through your shirt in summer’s extreme heat makes you mad, you’re not alone. In fact, research shows that there’s a direct correlation between high temperatures and hot tempers, and that anger can sometimes lead to bad behavior.
Here’s an experiment that seems excruciating to imagine in the midst of the current global heat wave: Starting six years ago, researchers began putting thousands of people in baking hot rooms to find out if high temperatures may make us more violent. The findings surprised even the scientists – and could have major implications for world peace.
As the adverse effects of the climate crisis become increasingly imminent, the call for equity in all spheres of life needs to be equated with the call for climate change education (CCE). It is imperative for the educational curriculum to incorporate climate education as an integral element of every discipline, from STEM courses to literature and the arts. The significance of a curriculum inclusive of climate education lies in its interdisciplinary potential to build students who can initiate cross-sectoral climate action. However, school curricula in India currently lack this focus on interdisciplinary climate studies.
As the world warms, the link between heat and social disturbance is an increasingly important one and, this summer, an especially concerning one. Each upheaval has its own causes, but certain factors make disturbances more likely everywhere. Surging temperatures, rising food prices and cuts to public spending—three of the strongest predictors of turmoil—have driven estimates of the potential for unrest to unprecedented highs in recent months. These estimates will probably rise higher still this summer. Temperatures are unlikely to have peaked. Russia’s exit from the Black Sea Grain Initiative to export supplies from Ukraine and India’s recent ban on rice exports may raise the price of staples. Social unrest is already bubbling in Kenya, India, Israel and South Africa.
Experts at the 11th Africa Evidence Summit on evidence-informed policy governance in Nairobi, urged the governments to use available evidence-informed policies to improve the lives of people.
Evidence-informed policies are what Africa needs to improve people’s lives, experts meeting in Nairobi for the 11th Africa Evidence Summit on evidence-informed policy governance said.
