Links I Liked

Current refugee numbers are high, but certainly not unprecedented, and a small fraction of total global migration.

Honduran farmers sue World Bank private lending arm over human rights violations. I went there in 2012 and the palm oil sector is indeed a grim place.

Why does the Gates 2017 letter ignore ‘behaviour’, ‘politics’ and ‘institutions’? asks Suvojit Chattopadhyay

Nice summary of research and debates on the Universal Basic Income, especially in India, by Justin Sandefur, including this lovely graph from Laurence Chandy and Christine Zhang: Foreign aid is now twice the cost of ending world poverty (subject to the big if of getting the $ directly into the hands of poor people).

OECD book on applying Behavioural Economics to policy (aka nudge units): 129 cases from 14 countries. Interesting, but still feels very top down/paternalist (how do we get poor people to do what we think is best for them?)

And an International Women’s Day medley: Best (Iceland) & worst (S Korea) places in for working women in the OECD. The Economist’s Glass Ceiling Index for International Women’s Day

Unstoppable/Women Unlimited. Powerful 1 minute Oxfam soundtrack to International Women’s Day

And finally what happens when the ‘invisible’ care economy erupts on camera? Millions of hits and instant fame, that’s what. Apparently, the stressed woman is not the nanny, but interviewee Robert Kelly’s wife, Jung-a Kim (in case you were worrying about her job prospects). Both kids are awesome, and Dad recovers well from a bad start (attempted facepalm of his daughter – not good).