Research evidence is important for policy and decision making, we argue in our RAPID programme at ODI. Policies and decisions which are informed by research evidence lead to better decision and policies. Decision and policies which are grounded on the knowledge and the truth that comes from scientific research. I thought about this while reading […]
What comes first? Research evidence or ideology? Read More »
I have written this blog which takes a look at the way evidence is informing social welfare policy in Indonesia, arguing that Indonesia requires an (endogenous) big push to strengthen the use of research and data analysis for the design of public policies and to sustain growth. Read and comment to the blog which is
Interesting paper by Francis Fukuyama for the CGD: What is Governance? Here the abstract: This paper points to the poor state of empirical measures of the quality of states, that is, executive branches and their bureaucracies. Much of the problem is conceptual, since there is very little agreement on what constitutes high-quality government. The paper suggests
What is Governance? A paper by Francis Fukuyama Read More »
You may have faith or not. You may be religious or not. You may follow the church precepts or not, it does not matter. The announcement of the Pope’s resignation as of 28. February is something that will be in the history books for many years (centuries) to come. Growing up in Italy you just
The resignation of the Pope, courage and Italian politics Read More »
Today I received an email from a friend and learned a new Italian word: oblatività. In English? Something like: altruism, selflessness, unselfishness. The origin of this word is in the Latin words such as oblativu(m), oblatus which means something like giving without the expectation of getting something back. If you Google it, you will find
A new Italian word I discovered today and the connections it made in my mind Read More »
Paul Krugman has written in his End This Depression Now! ‘In normal times, the latest academic research plays a very small role in real-world policy debates, which is arguably how it should be – in the heat of the political moment, how many policy makers are truly equipped to evaluate the quality of a professor’s
Evidence gone missing in the Italian election campaign show Read More »
Prof. Mario Monti was nominated senator for life in late 2011 by the Italian president Giorgio Napolitano. This move allowed our president to assign to Prof. Monti the task to establish a new government after the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi at the time when Italy was on the brink of default (October 2011). Prof. Monti’s
The solitude of an academic in the world of Italian politics Read More »
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Here\’s an excerpt: The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,400 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people. Click here to see
2012 in review for Tambobo Bay 1210 and Imagines Read More »