On Becoming Shrewd Samaritans During the COVID-19 Pandemic
by Bruce Wydick and Kent Annan, appearing in Christianity Today online 10/23/20 Particularly in this time of global pandemic, we want to know how to care for our local and…
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Snap-Back and Gone-Forever Goods: Understanding the COVID Recession’s Economic Winners and Losers
The smartest administrators will not only plan for delivering education during the pandemic, but will develop capacities to meet the surge in demand for higher education when the pandemic fades.
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Reflections on a Self-Experiment: 24 Hours of Homelessness in San Francisco
We as development economists are poverty “experts” in many respects. We are experts at talking and writing about poverty. We are experts at developing mathematical models that explain poverty. And…
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On Giving Tuesday: The Gift of Entrepreneurship
It’s Giving Tuesday, a day that has become prominent enough in our culture to make us either give, feel guilty about not giving, or come up with a powerful, self-justifying…
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Myths About Immigrants and Why We Believe Them
From the San Francisco Chronicle, Online July 13, Print July 15, 2018 The Trump administration repeatedly makes two claims to justify its crackdown on immigrants and their families: 1) Immigrants…
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Secrets of Effective Giving
Published in Christianity Today, 11/27/2017 Ryan Loofbourrow is a homelessness guru, a recognized leader in the urban poverty field. He is also my brother-in-law. During the holidays, we have been…
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The Behavioral Economics of Police Stops
by José Gutierrez, Police Officer, Oakland, CA Police Department and Bruce Wydick, Professor of Economics, University of San Francisco Stephon Clark. Michael Brown. Freddie Gray. Alton Sterling. Keith Scott. Compliments…
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The Statistical Case Against the NRA and America’s Relationship with Guns
The most recent school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, warrants an update of a post I wrote recently about the statistical case against the arguments put forth by the National…
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For Black History Month: A Review of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a novel that I’d heard about since elementary school, but never read until now. February is Black History Month, and I thought I would contribute by…
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New Year’s Resolutions for Development Practitioners and Researchers
Another cycle around the sun and here we are again, the season of New Year’s resolutions, the time when we resolve not to do the stuff we were disappointed that…
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Cash With No Strings Attached?
This Story Appears in Christianity Today, December 2017 (Print Edition) One year, instead of buying my dad the usual unattractive necktie for Christmas, we bought him a goat. He loved…
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On Domestic Poverty and the Family
Earlier this month I was invited to speak at a retreat led by the Archbishop of San Francisco for the board of Catholic Charities. They asked me to talk on…
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Millennials, Commitment, and Strategic Bridge-Burning
Appearing in Christianity Today Online: September 25, 2017 Our pastor recently preached a sermon on strategic bridge-burning. Well, he didn’t really call it that, but that’s what it was about. …
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Calfornia’s New Industrial Policy: Tesla
Pulling away ever farther from the federal government Washington, California seems to be developing its own strategic industrial policy. This one is not only designed to create jobs in its…
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What Trump Could Learn from the Golden State Warriors
Op-Ed in the San Francisco Chronicle, June 15, 2017 As the travails of President Trump have dominated the headlines, so has the jubilant season of the Golden State Warriors filled…
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Review of At Home in Exile by Russell Jeung
It’s not often that a book comes along that is delightfully written, hilariously funny, and at the same time may change your life. But At Home in Exile (Zondervan) by Russell…
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On Fake News, Narrative, Science, and Truth
Fake news and the demise of truth is one of the leading news stories of 2017. The front cover of Time magazine last month asked: Is Truth Dead? Recently the value…
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The Behavioral Economics of Why Hyperopic People Like Me Prefer Gift Cards over Cash
Consider the following scenario: The Christmas deadline is quickly expiring, and even by your own poor standards, you have displayed an impressive level of procrastination in Christmas shopping for your…
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Trump’s Reckless Economics & Why His Presidency Could Cost You Your Job
(From the Huffington Post, October 27, 2016) In the barrage of issues surrounding the personal character of Donald J. Trump — his derision of ethnic and religious minorities, his public mocking…
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A Letter to My Evangelical Friends about Donald Trump
This article also published in the Huffington Post, March 31, 2016. Updated 10-31-16. You identify as an evangelical Christian, and you support Donald Trump to be our next president. A recent Pew…
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Spank or Treat
How Game Theory Can Transform Your Kid’s Halloween Candy from Your Worst Enemy to Your New Best Friend As a parent, you will dread these days after Halloween. That stash…
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Syria: Child Sponsorship in Reverse
A colleague of mine sent me an email recently, remarking that what is transpiring in countries like Syria, Iraq, Afganistan, Sudan, and Somalia was like child sponsorship in reverse. It is…
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A Migration Story that Made Me Think
Life in Oaxaca: A First-Hand Story that Impacted my Feelings on U.S. Immigration My wife and two young daughters and I are living in an indigenous village in Oaxaca during…
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Prophets Against Profits: What Occupy Wall Street Misses
(Christianity Today, October 10, 2011.) A sign flashed at the Occupy Wall Street protest reads “People Before Profit.” It is an effective sign. Who could support Profits Before People?…
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Why I Cannot (Fully) Embrace Effective Altruism
One of the most popular schools of thought in global ethics today is a movement called Effective Altruism. Founded on the work of Princeton philosopher Peter Singer, it draws heavily…
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