Chris Blattman
Person on 4 sites
Economist and political scientist at the University of Chicago's Harris School, studying conflict, organised crime and development; author of Why We Fight.
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5 facts on wiqqi (opens wiqqi.app)
Who people, organisations and podcasts are, and how they connect, with sources.
Updated 2026-11-01 -
2 channels on ppll (opens ppll.app)
Where public figures publish, and what they are on record saying.
Updated 2026-10-28 -
12 beliefs on korrents (opens korrents.com)
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Cash transfers are the index fund of development: the benchmark every actively managed aid programme should have to beat. (opens korrents.com)
“You can think of cash transfers like the index fund of development (making GiveDirectly the Vanguard).”
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Judging aid programmes against each other on cost-effectiveness is the right standard, even when it counts against the programme you champion. (opens korrents.com)
“If it’s becoming standard to judge interventions by their cost effectiveness, then I can’t be more thrilled.”
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Many aid programmes will beat cash on cost-effectiveness, and the ones that do will be those that fix a market failure or a supply problem. (opens korrents.com)
“There will be, I am confident, a great many interventions that do better than cash on any number of metrics. Ones that solve market failures or supply problems are big candidates, just like Starr and Hattendorf say.”
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Cash transfers are the index fund of development: the benchmark every actively managed aid programme should have to beat. (opens korrents.com)
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8 recommendations on rcmnd (opens rcmnd.app)
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Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century (opens rcmnd.app)
“But now there is a fabulous non-fictional account of Mead and her unorthodox fieldwork, by Charles King. The subtitle is How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century.”
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Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (opens rcmnd.app)
“The Genghis Khan book was the next one to really satisfy. The leader and his troops arrived out of the desert and devastated the civilizations that had grown up, but laid the foundations for the next ones to grow.”
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Taliban (opens rcmnd.app)
“It’s a great book. How the Taliban prosecuted the pre-2001 civil war is a great start to understanding why some of its leaders were unwilling to compromise with the United States.”
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Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century (opens rcmnd.app)