As if they weren’t sexy enough, the NYTimes and Economist have decided to sexy it times 10 in the past few weeks. [Links to specific articles]

I like ‘em too. Would like to implement them into my monitoring and evaluation plans for the NGO I work for. It would help us monitor schools on a daily basis, all over the Southern Department (picture teachers texting their daily attendance each morning, along with the weather, possible health concerns, etc., with each text automatically filed away digitally into a database.)

Without further ado, a roundup of cell phone in development solutions.

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I’m posting a paper I wrote for Ricardo Godoy in the Spring of 2009 for his course, “The political economy and measure of income inequality, social capital, and empowerment in developing countries.” If the title of the course seems a bit long to you that’s because it is. It’s ridiculously long. I’ve never seen a course with a title like that.

Anyway, you can download the full PDF, or read it here. Enjoy.

PDF Download: Development, Aid, and Inequality: Relationships in Haiti 1987-2007

It should be noted that, while this paper makes some interesting points, and I was pleased with a lot of the graphs (scroll down to the end if you want to skip the writing), ultimately this paper was a failure in that it did not prove its central thesis, which is that external shocks such as hurricanes cause more foreign aid, which in turn creates greater inequality in Haiti. I got the first connection between external shocks and foreign aid, but could never really establish a strong link between foreign aid and inequality. Still, the paper does have value. I hope.

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