David Evans

A Book Review of the “Handbook on Child Poverty and Inequality” www.cgdev.org/blog/book-re... Now out in the journal Population and Development Review

Paper submitted! #getyourmanuscriptout

And still today much of what people say about the promise of AI for education reflects a sci-fi fantasy of completely bypassing the teacher. That's not going to happen, at least not anytime soon.

Almost ten years ago, The Economist published this letter from me. If you think the teachers don't know enough, aren't motivated enough, or don't show up enough, look at the system that trains, recruits, mentors, and manages them. blogs.worldbank.org/en/developme...

Narrator: The third time was *not* the charm.

I just saw my favorite animated film of the year so far. Forgotten Island! letterboxd.com/daveevans/fi... Echoes of other great films, all wrapped up in a story of friendship that is deeply steeped in Filipino mythology.

Paper submitted! #GetYourManuscriptOut

Powerful piece by my colleague Eeshani Kandpal (@eeshani.bsky.social) at @cgdev.org, combining a range of lived experiences with systematic empirical evidence on both costs and solutions, with implications far beyond India. www.cgdev.org/blog/price-w...

A Paper, a Blog Post, an Email, or a Tweet? Determining the Best Format for Sharing Your Analysis www.cgdev.org/blog/paper-b...

Georgia has made great strides in tackling lead exposure. How did they do it? @mariajot.bsky.social & Caroline Mallory investigate Blog: www.cgdev.org/blog/small-c... Paper: www.cgdev.org/publication/...

📣If you are hiring in applied micro (crime, education, gender), you should look at Kennedy Johnston’s very important and novel JMP and research agenda. 📣 I’m lucky to be her advisor. People hiring this year: Feel free to email me.

Creating a place where all your papers (or whatever) are in one place is very useful. I often go to author websites to find links to working paper or open-access versions of published, subscription-only papers that I may not have access to (very common).

www.cgdev.org/blog/cgd-pod...

Paper submitted! #getyourmanuscriptout

Sharnic Djaker of the What Works Hub for Global Education on monitoring the quantity versus the quality of implementation. The program www.wwhge.org/events/2026-... The video www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smta...

Not to brag, but our product has been foldable since 1828.

Can anyone point me to recent studies or to scholars working on home-based child care in low- or middle-income countries? Self-promotion welcome! I know much of the work on center-based childcare, but less on home-based care.

"The US administration’s policies over the last year should serve as a cautionary tale. The major lesson—which has been painfully absorbed by scores of countries over centuries of commerce—is that diversification of markets and products is key" www.cgdev.org/publication/...

I completely agree with this!

This weekend I got to 200 movies watched for the year. Here are my top ones so far. letterboxd.com/daveevans/di... What are yours?

Education for girls is good for girls and for a lot of other things. How strong is the evidence across the claims? www.cgdev.org/publication/... @shelbycarvalho.bsky.social @cgdev.org

How Can Education Systems Structure Virtual Communities of Practice for Teachers Most Effectively? www.cgdev.org/publication/...

Four facts about monopsony power in Latin America and the Caribbean / Cuatro hechos sobre el poder de monopsonio en América Latina y el Caribe publications.iadb.org/en/making-la...

Today I heard Professor David Card speak about obstacles he's observed to incorporating evidence into policy. events.iadb.org/calendar/eve... I think #2 is very important when we (economists) talk about high rates of return.

I followed the process of this report's production from its early stages and am very excited that it's out! The report publications.iadb.org/en/making-la... The launch this Monday (August 3) events.iadb.org/calendar/eve...

New paper submitted!* #GetYourManuscriptOut * Okay, sent to editor with a query about an exception on word count. But I'm counting it!

A quick note on the impact of the Trump administration ending Temporary Protective Status for 350,000 immigrants from Haiti today.

Wait, how many standard deviations in learning outcomes does your program deliver? and what does that mean? www.cgdev.org/blog/standar...

I get asked to prove I'm not a robot SO much these days, and I often think of this short film. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VrL...

"Child poverty affects millions—recent estimates suggest more than 400 million children live in families earning less than $3 per day, and the number of children in poverty doubles if one considers other deprivations beyond income."

"The reason this is a very fine country is because that kind of thing can't happen"! This passage from John MacDonald's 1957 novel has not aged well... www.themarshallproject.org/records/4692...

"That is another question that will remain unanswered: I feel as though I am made of nothing else." from *I Who Have Never Known Men*, by Jacqueline Harpman, translated by Ros Schwartz lithub.com/who-have-nev...

20 years later, can we track down the people taught to read in primary school through different RCTs? We're going to try, here are the studies we're looking at, are we missing any?

Last night's commute viewing was Oriana Bandiera's talk on the case for ungendering the economy. www.youtube.com/live/6oNRYGr... (51:09) From @cgdev.org's Women in Leadership conference www.cgdev.org/blog/pipelin...

Wondering what to read this summer? Check out @CGDev's summer reading recommendations! www.cgdev.org/blog/what-we... What are you reading?

Believing that socio-emotional skills are important and believing that we know how to impart them effectively in a school system are two very different things. alejandroganimian.com/files/ganimi...

I'm excited about the new International Development Economics Association! Read @owenozier.bsky.social's introduction: www.cgdev.org/blog/introdu... Then join! idea.devecon.org

How to develop a locally appropriate intervention to reduce school-related violence www.linkedin.com/posts/david-...

New paper with @p_ganong & Avik Garg: From literature review to effect prediction for a new context - allowing for effect heterogeneity & publication bias. maxkasy.github.io/home/files/p...

Where should the next generation of violence on reducing violence in schools focus? www.cgdev.org/blog/school-... on the @cgdev.org blog

Everything we learnt about lead exposure at the 2026 global conference www.cgdev.org/blog/what-we...

Paper submitted last week got through to reviewers! #GetYourManuscriptOut #DontGetItBackForAWhile

I learn a lot from RCTs, and I learn a lot from other types of studies. I propose that it is disingenuous to claim you value evidence from a range of methods (i.e., the best evidence for the question) and then exclusively cite evidence from one method. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The new Steven Spielberg film Disclosure Day has been getting mixed reviews in the places I read, and I echo some of that, but I also liked a lot of things about it & overall had a good time. letterboxd.com/daveevans/fi... Fact fact: It's the 2nd movie with Blunt=hero + Firth=villain.

Now out in the Journal of Development Studies! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....