I’m an academic development economist. I’m currently ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of International Development, UEA, UK. You can find my cv here and website here. They contain links to work I have taken care over.
Why write a blog? First, partly to write things I don’t have to take a lot of care over: initial reactions and general impressions. Second, I hope that writing about aid will aid my writing. Richard Herring (a British comedian) uses a daily blog as a commitment device to make sure he practices writing, and it seems like a good idea. Third, I don’t want my work to be academic. I hope blogging will keep me honest, and focused on ideas that are in newspapers and policy conversations, not just journals and seminar rooms. Fourth, when I’m in Europe I feel far from the people who I hope my work will effect, when I’m not I feel far from the people that will actually read my work. This blog is an attempt to bridge those gaps.
