Chris Blattman

Christopher "Chris" Blattman (born August 24, 1974) is an economist and political scientist working on international development and policy, as well as a leading blogger on international economics and politics.[1] He is an Associate Professor of Political Science and the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University,[2][3]

Blattman is also affiliated with the Centre for Economic Policy Research, Innovations for Poverty Action,[4] the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, the Center for Global Development,[5] Yale Economic Growth Center, International Growth Centre, Experiments in Governance and Politics, and Scholars Strategy Network.[1]

Education

Blattman received a BA in Economics from the University of Waterloo. He completed a Master's in Public Administration and International Development (MPA/ID) from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley for thesis titled Essays on instability and development: War, violence, and natural resources under the supervision of Edward Miguel.[1][6]

Career

Blattman was a faculty member at Yale University from 2008 to 2012 before moving to Columbia University in 2012, where he is an associate professor of political science as of July 2014.[1] His research focuses on the causes and consequences of violence, principally in Africa. He also focuses on post-war recovery and poverty alleviation, particularly the role of cash transfers in stimulating employment in Africa. He has blogged at his popular personal website[7] since 2007, as well as for the Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog since 2014.[8]

Research & Writing

Blattman's research has investigated the role of direct cash transfers in generating jobs and alleviating extreme poverty in Africa, including a 2014 article in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.[9] This and other research[10] by Blattman has used randomized control trials to argue that poor and unemployed young people in Africa tend to invest cash in small enterprises and thus raise their incomes. This work has been covered by several news outlets, including National Public Radio,[11] the New York Times,[12] Slate,[13] and the Financial Times,[14] among others.

He advocated for cash transfers to the poor in a 2014 New York Times op-ed[15] as well as a 2014 Foreign Affairs magazine article.[16]

Blattman's work also focuses on the causes and consequences of violence and civil wars, and he authored a Journal of Economic Literature review of the social science on warfare literature with Edward Miguel.[17] His work on the causes of civil war include the role of income shocks from trade on civil war,[18] as well as the effect of poverty alleviation on the whether men commit crimes or rebel.[19] His work on the consequences of war has studied the long term economic effects of conscription,[20][21] the effects of war violence on long term political participation,[22] and the role of conflict resolution techniques in averting violence.[23] Most of this research is based on field work, surveys, and experiments in post-war Uganda and Liberia.

He has also published widely on child soldiers in Africa.[20][24][25]

Blattman and collaborators have also pioneered the use of local-level data to forecast outbreaks of riots and crime in fragile states, including Liberia.[26] This work has received news coverage in Quartz,[27] SciDevNet,[28] and academic blogs.[29]

Blattman's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the World Bank, the UK Department for International Development, the Aspen Institute, the John Templeton Foundation, UNICEF, and the United States Agency for International Development, among others.

Blogging

Blattman has a widely read and award-winning blog on international economics, politics, and development.[30][31]

Some of Blattman's most widely viewed posts provide academic advice, such as advice to students for emailing professors[32] as well as advice for prospective graduate students and post-docs seeking him as adviser,[33] both of which were commented upon in an Inside Higher Ed article.[34]

Along with Esther Duflo, Dean Karlan, Donald Green, and others, he is a proponent of field experiments in the social sciences, though he has also advised against doing field experiments for one's dissertation.[35][36]

Reception

Interviews

Blattman has been interviewed by National Public Radio's Planet Money,[11] New York Times Economix blog,[12] the UN Dispatch,[37] the Georgetown Public Policy Review,[38] and Gadling.[39]

Citations in news and blog pieces

Blattman has been cited and quoted in a number of news and opinion pieces related to international development, such as a New York Times Magazine article about cash transfers and GiveDirectly[40][41] and a Slate Magazine article discussing a claim by Bill Gates that by 2035, the world would have no poor countries.[42]

Blattman's longstanding work in Liberia has led to a number of interviews and writing on the 2014 Ebola crisis. Controversially, he has argued that international hysteria will cause more economic harm than good to the affected countries, that it will draw attention away from potentially more harmful diseases, and that the international financial institutions are not to be blamed for the health crisis, as reported in the a wide range of news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. [43] [44] [45]

Blattman's research on child soldiers was discussed by Lawrence MacDonald on the Center for Global Development blog.[24]

Blattman's blog posts on economic development have been cited by many other economists on their own blogs, including William Easterly[46][47] and Tyler Cowen.[48][49] The Freakonomics blog frequently hat tips Blattman for interesting research it blogs about, having discovered it via Blattman's blog.[50] Duncan Green's Oxfam blog From Poverty to Power frequently hat tips and occasionally critiques Blattman.[51]

Some blog posts of Blattman that have been widely cited and critiqued are a blog post on cash transfers[52][53] as well as blog posts discussing randomized controlled trials.[48][54][55]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Blattman, Chris. "About me".
  2. ↑ "Chris Blattman". School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Christopher J. Blattman". Department of Political Science, Columbia University. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Chris Blattman". Innovations for Poverty Action. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Chris Blattman". Center for Global Development. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Essays on instability and development : war, violence, and natural resources / by Christopher Blattman.". Oskicat Berkeley Library Catalog. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  7. ↑ "Chris Blattman: International development, economics, politics, and policy".
  8. ↑ "Chris Blattman: Contributor, Monkey Cage". The Washington Post.
  9. ↑ "Generating Skilled Self-Employment in Developing Countries: Experimental Evidence from Uganda".
  10. ↑ "The returns to cash and microenterprise support among the ultra-poor: A field experiment".
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "What Happens When You Just Give Money To Poor People?". NPR Planet Money. November 8, 2013.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lowrey, Annie (June 20, 2013). "Ending Poverty by Giving the Poor Money". New York Times Economix blog.
  13. ↑ Yglesias, Mathew (May 29, 2013). "The Best and Simplest Way to Fight Global Poverty".
  14. ↑ Harford, Tim (July 12, 2013). "The Undercover Economist: How to give money away".
  15. ↑ "Let them eat cash". June 29, 2014.
  16. ↑ "Show Them the Money". May–June 2014.
  17. ↑ "Civil War" (PDF).
  18. ↑ "Economic Shocks and Conflict: Evidence from Commodity Prices".
  19. ↑ "Can employment reduce lawlessness and rebellion? A field experiment with high-risk men in a fragile state".
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "The Consequences of Child Soldiering" (PDF).
  21. ↑ "Civil War, Gender and Reintegration in Northern Uganda" (PDF).
  22. ↑ "From Violence to Voting: War and Political Participation in Uganda" (PDF).
  23. ↑ "How to promote order and property rights under weak rule of law? An experiment in changing dispute resolution behavior through community education" (PDF).
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 MacDonald, Lawrence (May 4, 2010). "The Economics of Child Soldiering: Chris Blattman". Center for Global Development.
  25. ↑ "The logic of child soldiering and coercion" (PDF).
  26. ↑ "Predicting local violence".
  27. ↑ Sonnad, Nikhil (October 22, 2014). "This statistical model can predict outbreaks of violence in Liberia". Quartz (publication).
  28. ↑ Howgego, Joshua (October 31, 2014). "Violence-forecasting model offers peacekeeping hope".
  29. ↑ "Forecasting Round-up No. 8". Dart-Throwing Chimp.
  30. ↑ Blattman, Chris (November 8, 2010). "2014: The annual report".
  31. ↑ "The best in aid blogging, 2011".
  32. ↑ Blattman, Chris (November 8, 2010). "Students: How to email to your Professor, employer, and professional peers".
  33. ↑ Blattman, Chris. "Columbia PhD and post-doc advising".
  34. ↑ Flaherty, Colleen (September 16, 2013). "'If You Want to Be My Student'". Inside Higher Ed.
  35. ↑ Blattman, Chris (July 14, 2011). "Aspiring PhD students: Should you become a field research assistant for an RCT?".
  36. ↑ Blattman, Chris (February 12, 2013). "How to pick a dissertation project (and why it should not be a field experiment)".
  37. ↑ Goldberg, Mark (January 5, 2014). "Chris Blattman".
  38. ↑ "Experimentation and Empowerment: An Interview with Columbia University’s Chris Blattman". Georgetown Public Policy Review. February 14, 2014.
  39. ↑ Hotfelder, Aron (August 20, 2008). "Talking Travel with global development researcher Chris Blattman". Gadling.
  40. ↑ Goldstein, Jacob (August 13, 2013). "Is It Nuts to Give to the Poor Without Strings Attached?". New York Times.
  41. ↑ "GiveDirectly and Chris Blattman in New York Times and This American Life". Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  42. ↑ Keating, Joshua (January 22, 2014). "Incomes in Africa Have Barely Budged for the Last 15 Years". Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  43. ↑ Talley, Ian (December 31, 2014). "Is IMF Austerity at Fault in Ebola Epidemic?". Wall Street Journal.
  44. ↑ Phillip, Abby (September 5, 2014). "How Ebola is stealing attention from illnesses that kill more people". Washington Post.
  45. ↑ Ohlheiser, Abby (December 31, 2014). "Ebola is ‘devouring everything in its path.’ Could it lead to Liberia’s collapse?". Washington Post.
  46. ↑ Easterly, William (June 15, 2012). "Yet another perspective on China: It’s History, Stupid". New York University Development Research Institute. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  47. ↑ Easterly, William (August 9, 2010). "A Lecturer answers The Big Question". Aid Watch. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 Cowen, Tyler (January 9, 2009). "Chris Blattman on randomized control trials". Marginal Revolution (blog). Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  49. ↑ Cowen, Tyler (December 14, 2009). "Chris Blattman on why aid seems to fail". Marginal Revolution. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  50. ↑ "Blattman (search results)". Freakonomics.
  51. ↑ Green, Duncan (September 7, 2010). "So do food price spikes cause riots or not?". From Poverty to Power, Oxfam blogs. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  52. ↑ Blattman, Chris (May 23, 2013). "Dear governments: Want to help the poor and transform your economy? Give people cash.". Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  53. ↑ Maurer, Noel (May 26, 2013). "Chris Blattman is a genius". Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  54. ↑ Blattman, Chris (July 16, 2009). "On development experiments". Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  55. ↑ Karnofsky, Holden (July 20, 2009). "Development experiments (randomized controlled trials) as a counterpoint to marketing materials". GiveWell blog. Retrieved February 18, 2014.

External links