+1 this view of the APSR note debate (for non-political scientists - an 'inside baseball' discussion of the framing/content of an in-many-ways-troubling note from the editors of the journal American Political Science Review, arguably political science's most esteemed journal) 1/

https://twitter.com/MorganLKaplan/status/1488987204206698500

I agree with everything @benwansell says in this thread. But would add to that that I don't think APSR is in fact a field-wide journal in practice (which need not be a bad thing, but would be good if more widely recognized). 2/

https://twitter.com/benwansell/status/1488889345708859395?s=20&t=1eFD8nkqnbCAkls7f8yMzw

New paper from Ranjit Lall, Brad Parks @AidData, & myself out in @AJPS_Editor early view today! Rambly explanation below: 👇👇 We find that access to information (ATI) policies do improve project delivery outcomes... 1/
doi.org/10.1111/ajps.1… ...but only when the ATIs have independent appeals mechanisms, drawing on a new (now public) “world’s-biggest-dataset-of-aid-project-outcomes”. 2/

Now out in @apsrjournal #APSRFirstView! Joint with @JamesBisbee, this (unusually for me) is about voters & politicians; specifically, voters' COVID fear-induced ‘flight to safety’, to the benefit of mainstream candidates. 🧵on where this paper came from & why IMO it matters 👇1/

https://twitter.com/CUP_PoliSci/status/1420297921292128257

It was March 13, 2020. I was home in Dakar; my “cold” had gotten bad. I was having trouble breathing, and indeed getting out of bed. I was reading an NY Times article on possible COVID futures, feeling for the 1st time genuinely scared about what that might mean for us all. 2/

The UK's Department for International Development (@DFID_UK) ceased to be yesterday. gov.uk/government/new… This is a bad idea for a number of reasons - not least, because of what it will likely mean for the #MissionDrivenBureaucrats who so typify DFID. 1/ While my current book manuscript on Mission-Driven Bureaucrats mentions DFID 0 times, my thinking on the topic is heavily influence by observing the agency for some time now. 2/

My family and I took an @StateDept evacuation flight from Senegal to the US on Friday. I’d like to say a few things about that, focusing on 1) The people who work for State (wonderful) & 2) The impression it left me about coordinated US airport response to COVID (disturbing). 1/ First, let me just say my family and I were and remain fine – like I imagine many of my fellow passengers, we took the flight over worries about (Senegal’s) closed borders and what might happen IF things got bad there/we couldn’t get back to America for some time. 2/

Part 2: That's what @CGDev is about to me (in research/policy/mission , not hiring of MA students, of course) - changing life trajectories. Treating everyone as people. Trying to make sure it's not just the lucky few who get a chance to do transformative things. Using data 23/ But not forgetting unmeasurable soft information, and people, and empathy, and voice, and empowerment. 24/

Thread: It's probably silly to do a CRAZY LONG tweet storm about being named a non-resident fellow @CGDev. But I feel really touched. CGD has been a special place for me for a good part of my professional life. 1/

https://twitter.com/Fihi_maFihi/status/1108760607489175552

And I kind of want to tell how that began. It was 2007 when I first heard from CGD. It was @CohanShapiro's voice, telling me I could interview for a job as a Scott Fellow (cgdev.org/article/scott-…) if I could be in DC to do so in 48 hours. I was shocked to get the interview;3/