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 newspaper La Repubblica is conducting a investigation about the responsibilities within the Department of Civil Protection in the event of the earthquake at l\’ Aquila. Here is what is emerging from the investigation and analysis of the documentation (now public) collected by the judges: ‘It \’s the end of March 2009, the city of Abruzzo hostage for four months of shocks measuring up to 4.1 on the Richter scale
Six Italian scientists have been found guilty for having given insufficient warning to residents of L’Aquila about the seismic risks they faced ahead of earthquake that hit the city in the night of 6 of April 2009. The earthquake had a magnitude of 6.3 and caused 309 deaths, more than 1.500 injured and more than
Six years of jail to scientists for L\’Aquila earthquake. Trial against science? Read More »
I liked Michelle Obama at the Democratic Convention. I found it honest and truthful. Commentators said that she held the people at the Time Warner Arena in Charlotte in the palm of her hand. That can only happen if you speak from the hearth, with your feelings. What surprised me the most was the story of her father
Failed public state? Failed welfare society? Read More »
I am reading Michael Sandel’s What Money Can’t Buy. Sandel is a political philosopher who teaches at Harvard. His book (http://amzn.to/MYktlH ) is about the danger associated to the expansion of market economy into areas of society which should not be monetized. Here some examples: access to car pool lanes while driving solo at USD
Is there a moral argument for evidence based policy making? Read More »
I have had a very interesting meeting and discussion this week with about 20 staff of the Asia Foundation in Manila. We talked about policy entrepreneurship and development entrepreneurship and discussed the differences and similarities between the two concepts. Development entrepreneurship has been introduced and has been described by the Asia Foundation in a recent
The new research strategy of AusAID for the period 2012-16 is now online. AusAID funds research to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development. Good research leads to greater development effectiveness and AusAID has been a strong supporter of practical, policy-relevant social science research into development challenges. This strategy outlines AusAID\’s approach to delivering an effective
New AusAID research strategy 2012016 is now online Read More »