Foreign Policy’s July/August issue features a couple of interesting articles. 

 

In “Can Silicon Valley Save the World?”, Charles Kenny and Justin Sandefur question the effectiveness of the solutions popular among some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs giving large sums to development projects. A system of vaccine development incentives tested by IPA affiliates Michael Kremer and Rachel Glennerster is cited as an example of assisting markets in creating effective development solutions, while research by network members William Jack and James Habyarimana on road safety stickers in Kenya is cited to emphasize the potential of rigorously tested, low-tech innovations.

 

Meanwhile, Paul Starobin’s “Does It Take a Village?” takes a critical look at economist Jeffrey Sachs’s Millennium Villages Project. IPA affiliate Edward Miguel voices concern about Sachs’s methods, while Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee are mentioned as economists preferring small-scale change to Sachs’s broad approach.