Its been a whirlwind two months in India and this is a post which has been in the pipeline for a while (hence the length). For those unaware of my current research project, I’m working on a study of Microfinance Self-Help Groups in villages near Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh. It is the first time that I have conducted a real survey. Needless to say, it has given me a deep appreciation of the process of data collection and work of the surveyor.
First, designing a questionnaire is not simply about putting …

On March 9th, I tore myself from the prep for a Political Economy final to check out a talk by Gilles Dorronsoro on the recent escalation of the War in Afghanistan, as part of UChicago’s excellent “World Beyond the Headlines” series. The video from his lecture is not up yet, but keep a lookout for it (older ones include Stiglitz and Thurrow).
Preemptory conflict of interest note here: I worked with Gilles last year at the Carnegie Endowment. Which in this case was one of the reasons I have immense respect …

Last month, the McKinsey Global Institute published a discussion paper which argued that conventional wisdom , which says that US enjoys an “exorbitant privilege” because of the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency, is wrong.  It estimates that the financial benefit to having the dollar as a global reserve currency, was in fact, a piddling $40 – $70 billion in a “normal” year and between -$5 to $25 billion in a “crisis” year.
The McKinsey results are interesting in that they appear to challenge a key defense of American proponents …