Links

1. Awesome Pictures from Afghanistan HT: Texas in Africa

2. Sam Bowles on the similarity between hunter-gatherer economies and the modern knowledge economy. Sam Bowles is very cool. He does Marxist economics with neo-classical tools.

3. A challenge to the economics of happiness from Feministx: The paradox of enslaved female happiness (via Marginal Revolution)

4. Phelps on economics, innovation and morality

5. Owen invites aidwatchers to, "as a development community, heap scorn and opprobrium on anyone caught advocating for more resources in their sector. We need stronger social norms in development that frown upon this kind of anti-social behaviour."

Office quote of the day

"Yeah, those iPhones are very expensive. One thousand dollars. That is four cows!"

Football by Numbers

1 Game

1 World Cup place

66 flights

35,000 fans

32 fans hurt (at the last game)

15,000 police

That is Egypt vs Algeria, today, in Khartoum, Sudan. Not likely to be any trouble there then.

Proverb of the Day

"The flies and worms do not respect the province of the dead kings."

From Uganda, via the BBC World Service Network Africa

Beautiful Travel-Time Heat Maps for Ethiopia

How do people make these?

From Stefan Dercon and Ruth Vargas-Hill (2009) "Growth from Agriculture in Ethiopia: Identifying Key Constraints"

Sunday Links

1. World Bank data now in Google search results (but what about all the google-owned-gapminder data?!)

2. If microsavings are more needed, why does microcredit get more attention?

3. Dropping Joy

4. Tony Blair on China (HT: Ingrid Jones)

5. Tim Besley and James Robinson:

"This paper has posed a central question in state formation: how can a civilian government exert control over the army? We have treated this as an incentive problem where the government optimizes relative to a coup constraint. Two potential strategies emerge which seem relevant in looking at the data. The government can maintain a very weak army which is not a threat. Or it can treat the army well, paying it an efficiency wage."

It's Mango Season!

Suddenly the market price tumbles to the lowest denomination note available (SDG1 or $0.40), for a pile which grows as the season progresses.

Many of the government buildings also have a mango tree in their central courtyard.

Today I saw a man with a big stick poking the tree and a woman running around with a bucket catching the mangoes.

Tuesday Links

1. Rachel Strohm (the best Africa blog... ever) tweets:

RachelStrohm: RT @ourmaninafrica A paper on the economic impact of UN peace-keeping missions - a boost to hospitality & sex industries http://bit.ly/hFt8T

2. The East African Community moves towards a common educational curriculum (something for S Sudan to keep an eye on?)

3. Tourism [in Kenya] cruises to full recovery after poll chaos

4. Kindle for PC. Awesome.

Thursday Links

1. A poem on Gay Rights in Kenya. It's Queer.

2. Nairobi also has powerpoint. "Kenya is hitting the 21st century. Hard."

3. When economists fall in love: "One year, for Valentine's Day, Reinhart gave his wife a complete set of the League of Nations's annual economic reports from the 1920s" (the Carmen Reinhart Story, from Economic Principals)

4. New forces in anti-terrorism

5. Temporary deprivation is a cure for the hedonic treadmill and makes you happier. I wonder if Juba makes its temporary residents happier?

6. The best Superfreakonomics review so far, by Ezra Klein (HT:TH)

7. 16% of the world's adults would like to move to another country permanently (via Trade Diversion)

8. A Kenyan government pilot programme will deliver Ksh 1,500 per month (approx $20?) to 100,000 slum-residents - VIA TEXT MESSAGE. Awesome. Coolest thing I've heard all week. (HT: Rachel Strohm)

Very sophisticated Conflict Threat and Risk Mapping Analysis

Not what you expect to find in a UN report.

Know anything about contemporary African art?

Me neither, but I love this painting by Ablade Glover.

Spotted on a KMPG calendar in a Sudanese government office.

Voter Registration begins in Southern Sudan

Sunday Links

1. Chris Dillow on Democracy:

"The function of representatives in representative democracy, it seems, is take all the idiocies of public opinion, and when these are insufficient, to then add some of their own."

2. The Nobel Peace Prize committee clearly forgot about Mark Zuckerburg.

3. Nigerian lawmakers are "appealing to the patriotism of bandits" to call a "ceasefire."

4. The consolations of economics and other podcasts.

5. Some great photos of "Dickensian China" (via Bayesian Heresy), which remind me of Alex Tabarrok's TED Talk. Dystopian industrial nightmare = the world's greatest anti-poverty programme.

6. Zimbabwe only managed second highest hyper-inflation ever. Can you guess who holds the record?

7. Halloween Costume Ideas for Development Geeks

8. Something about Canadians taking the piss out of Tories warms my heart

9. "The Mo Ibrahim foundation needs to jazz it up and be more disruptive ... How about a fund for young Africans who are running for office ... Or a travel fund/scholarship for young Africans to travel within Africa ... Or an Africa corps ..."

FDI to emerging economies overtakes FDI to advanced economies

From The Economist