The World Bank - Working for a world free of poverty

Syndicate content

What Will It Take to End Poverty?

Jobs in the World Economy

Arab Voices and Views
IBRD and IDA: Working for a World Free of Poverty.

What can we learn from successful companies and teams?

Submitted by Wolfgang Fengler on Thu, 01/10/2013 - 15:13
On Africa Can end poverty

This is the time of year when we make resolutions and you may be wondering what you can do better and more efficiently in 2013.A lot of books have been written on the topic but one of the best is 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey who died in 2012. The 7 habits are: Be proactive; Begin with the end in mind; Put first things first; Think win-win; Seek first to understand, then to be understood; Synergize; Renew yourself.


Covey’s son – also called Stephen – wrote another remarkable book called The Speed of Trust, which includes this noteworthy statement: “You need to trust yourself before you can trust others.”

The MDGs and Beyond

Submitted by Mahmoud Mohieldin on Thu, 01/10/2013 - 14:57
On Let's Talk Development

I feel privileged to be appointed as the World Bank Group President’s Special Envoy for the MDGs.  Nothing could be more important for achieving growth and shared prosperity than the MDGs, which are meant to provide people with the very basic capabilities they need to thrive – freedom from extreme poverty, education, health, clean water and sanitation.  Nations can only succeed when people thrive.

In my new position, with regard to the MDGs I will focus on four objectives. The first is to ensure that we are doing all we can to get as close to achieving the MDGs as possible by the 2015 deadline.  Progress on many targets is lagging, particularly in countries affected by weak governance, conflict, or large populations.  Progress is significantly lagging on some indicators, such as maternal and child health.   United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim have recently committed to a process of in-depth country-level diagnostics to identify priority actions to accelerate progress towards achieving the MDGs.  My hope is that these reviews will point not only to specific actions for governments and donors, but also serve as lessons for a broader range of countries.

Innovations for Development: 2013 Wish List

Submitted by Maya Brahmam on Thu, 01/10/2013 - 14:55
On People, Spaces, Deliberation

A recent Poverty Matters blog post in the Guardian noted that mobile technologies and social media are creating cheap ways for citizens to interact with their governments and that development projects are trying to tap into these technologies. It gave a plug to the Bank’s new Open Finances mobile app that lets users find and monitor bank-funded projects near where they live, using mapping and GPS technology.


With the advent of the New Year and given the on-going work in the Bank on the open agenda, here are three things we may accomplish in 2013:

City Transport: It’s About Moving People, Not Vehicles

Submitted by Rachel Kyte on Thu, 01/10/2013 - 13:40
On World Bank Voices

Traffic congestion in Mexico. World Bank/Curt Carnemark

The number of vehicles on the world’s roads is on pace to double to about 1.7 billion by 2035. Pair that with a rapidly urbanizing population – six in 10 of us are likely to live in cities by 2030 – and the world’s cities have a transport problem in the making.

It’s also an opportunity, one that cities, particularly the fast-growing urban centers in developing countries, must take now.

Those that build efficient, inclusive urban transport systems can connect their people with jobs, health care, and education. They can reduce congestion, and they can limit carbon emissions that are contributing to climate change.

Prospects Daily: ECB keeps key policy interest rate steady, Chinese export growth accelerates to double digits

Submitted by on Thu, 01/10/2013 - 12:11
On

Financial Markets…The euro strengthened against the dollar and the yen, gaining 0.9% to $1.3184 and 1.3% to 116.32 yen, as the European Central Bank left interest rates on hold and said there are some signs of economic stabilization. Spain’s successful bond auction today, in which the government sold more than the maximum target amid strong investor demand, also weighed positively on the single currency.

Spanish 10-year government bond yields fell 21 basis points to 4.92% on Thursday, sliding below 5% for the first time since March, after the country raised €5.82 billion (surpassing a maximum goal of €5 billion) in its first debt auction of the year, adding to signs the region’s debt crisis is easing. Italian debt also rallied with the country’s 2-year and 10-year yields dropping 22 bps and 12 bps, respectively.

Developing-country stocks headed for the most gain in a week, with the benchmark MSCI Emerging Market Index gaining 0.4% in afternoon trading, as better-than-expected Chinese trade figures in December highlighted signs of a global demand recovery. China’s Shanghai Composite index climbed 0.4%, while South Korea’s Kospi index added 0.8%. Elsewhere, Brazil’s Bovespa index rose .03%, and Hungary’s BUX index jumped 0.7%.

High-income Economies…US initial unemployment claims rose by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 371,000 in the week ending January 5. The four-week moving average for new claims, a less volatile measure, increased 6,750 to 365,750, suggesting that uncertainties associated with fiscal negotiations in the US are weighing on the labor market. 

The European Central Bank held its key policy interest rate for the Euro Area at 0.75 percent, citing a significant improvement in financial market conditions and broad stabilization in some indicators, and that medium-term inflation expectations remain in line with the ECB’s target of below but close to 2%. But the bank acknowledged that the Euro Area economy remains weak and growth would pick up only later this year.

The Bank of England kept its target for quantitative easing for the UK at 375 billion pounds, and also held its key interest rate at a record low of 0.5 percent.

Industrial production in France rose 0.5% (m/m) in November, mainly due to a rebound in the production of transport equipment and energy, following a 0.6% contraction in October. France’s consumer price inflation edged down to 1.5% (y/y) in December from 1.6% in November, but consumer prices rose 0.4% (m/m). 

Developing Economies…Brazil’s inflation of 5.84% in 2012 was near the top of the official target range of 4.5% +/-2 percentage points, but down from 6.5% in 2011, with food prices contributing to higher inflation during the second half of 2012.

China's exports grew 14.1% (y/y) in December, the fastest pace in seven months and considerably faster than 2.9% (y/y) growth recorded in November. Imports gained 6% following no change in November. The trade surplus increased to $31.6 billion in December from $19.6 billion in November. According to preliminary estimates, export growth of 7.9% in 2012 was lower than the government's full-year target of 10%. Imports gained 4.3%. The trade surplus for the year was $231.1 billion.
 
Indonesia's central bank held its benchmark reference rate steady at 5.75%.

Industrial production in Malaysia rose 7.5% (y/y) in November, faster than 6.4% recorded in October. On a monthly basis, industrial production was up 1.4% in November.

Romania's industrial production contracted 1% (y/y) in November led by a 3.65% decline in production and supply of electricity, gas, heat, steam and air conditioning and a 0.9% decline in the manufacturing sector, while production in mining and quarrying sector grew 3.7%. On a monthly basis, industrial output decreased 0.8% in November.

South Africa's manufacturing production growth accelerated to 3.4% in November from 2.7% in October led by 11.4% increase in production of petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products and 6.7% growth in production of motor vehicles, accessories and other transport equipment. On a monthly basis, manufacturing production increased 2.3% in November.
 

Links of the week: the rise of development, rising Africa, good teachers, and more…

Submitted by David McKenzie on Thu, 01/10/2013 - 11:18
On Development Impact

·         There is a promising sounding new blog about replication in Political Science. This week a post on how to get a masters degree for a replication discusses many of the things done to make a good replication. Also a summary of some of the social science examples of this week’s Twitter fun on #overlyhonestmethods.

·         In a new NBER working paper, David Card and Stefano DellaVigna provide Nine Facts about Top Journals: Papers are getting longer and fewer of them are getting published - papers in Development and International Economics published since 1990 are more highly cited than older (pre‐1990) papers in these fields, whereas recent papers in Econometrics and Theory are less cited than older papers in these fields. Here is an interesting graph showing how top journals have started publishing more development papers – the light blue- (but not enough more!)

#1 from 2012: Tuning in to Facebook’s Global Frequency

Submitted by Jim Rosenberg on Thu, 01/10/2013 - 10:54
On People, Spaces, Deliberation

Our Top Ten Blog Posts by Readership in 2012


Originally published on January 4, 2012


Though I work full-time on social media for the World Bank, my career started in public broadcasting. “Radio is the modern version of oral tradition,” a former journalism professor of mine would say, likening radio to the way in which people have communicated for years: using stories, narratives, to connect, to break down complex ideas into concrete pieces. That line resonated with me, summing up the power of radio to connect people using the shared experience of a broadcast.

Weekly Wire: the Global Forum

Submitted by Kalliope Kokolis on Thu, 01/10/2013 - 10:23
On People, Spaces, Deliberation


These are some of the views and reports relevant to our readers that caught our attention this week.


ICT Works
The Choice Between Facebook and Running Water Isn’t Obvious


"Over the past several years two seemingly independent ideas have been gaining traction:



  1. New technology allows developing nations to leapfrog over traditional growth patterns (M-PESA, long-range wi-fi).

  2. The increasing move towards “convenience models” may be pointing the US’ tech sector away from innovation (Peter Thiel’s “they promised us flying cars but instead we got 140 characters”).

In a recent working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, economist Robert J. Gordon writes that the US’ current wave of innovation is less of a step forward and more of a lateral move, merely finding novel ways to use innovations made 20 years ago, sitting him squarely alongside Thiel. To illustrate, Gordon asks the following hypothetical question between two options, A and B:


With option A you are allowed to keep 2002 electronic technology, including your Windows 98 laptop accessing Amazon, and you can keep running water and indoor toilets; but you can’t use anything invented since 2002. Option B is that you get everything invented in the past decade right up to Facebook, Twitter, and the iPad, but you have to give up running water and indoor toilets. You have to haul the water into your dwelling and carry out the waste. Even at 3am on a rainy night, your only toilet option is a wet and perhaps muddy walk to the outhouse. Which option do you choose?" READ MORE


Human Development and Inequality of Opportunity: a reply to Wagstaff

Submitted by Francisco Ferreira on Thu, 01/10/2013 - 10:18
On Let's Talk Development

In a recent post in Let’s Talk Development, my colleague Adam Wagstaff raised a number of interesting points about measuring inequality of opportunity in the context of human development indicators, such as access to health services or educational achievement variables.  His three main arguments, as I read them, were: 



  1. The Human Opportunity Index (HOI), first proposed in this LAC regional study, inevitably understates the true extent of unfair inequality in access to services among children. This is because the dissimilarity index – the measure of inequality of opportunity within the HOI – captures only some of the inequality in (say) access to water among children while, in Adam’s view, all of that inequality is unfair.

  2. The Index of Economic Opportunity (IEO), used in the second part of that regional study, is also likely to understate the share of inequality in, say, student achievement among 15 year-olds, for a similar reason: students are partitioned into groups with identical circumstances (family background, gender, place of birth, race or ethnicity, etc.), and inequality of opportunity is measured as the share of the overall variance in test scores that occurs between – rather than within - those groups. Adam feels this is too little, because some of the within-group inequality may also be caused by factors beyond the young person’s responsibility – such as feeling sick on the day of the test, for example.

  3. Finally (though not in this order), Adam questions whether the HOI really is of much use to policymakers, because “it makes it hard to dig down and see what’s going on”. He suggests, as an alternative, the between-component of the Gini coefficient or, I think more precisely, of a concentration index.

Prospects Daily: Inflation slows in Mexico and accelerates modestly in Russia, Egypt’s PMI plunges to record low

Submitted by Global Macroeconomics Team on Wed, 01/09/2013 - 18:27
On Prospects for Development

Financial Markets…Moody’s Investors Service upgraded the sovereign credit rating of Paraguay by one notch to ‘Ba3’ from ‘B1’, citing the country’s steady financial strength. The rating agency said in a statement Paraguay’s public finances are likely to remain robust despite volatile growth, and noted the country’s steady accumulation of foreign-exchange reserves. Moody’s upgrade puts the country’s rating at par with that of El Salvador and Nigeria.

Poland kicked off the year with a global Eurobonds issuance, selling €1 billion ($1.3 billion) worth of debt maturing in January 2019 at a yield of 1.705% on Wednesday, as the country took advantage of record low borrowing costs. Notably, Poland’s new issue comes a day after the Turkish government’s $1.5 billion 10-year international bond sale, which was priced at an all-time low yield of 3.473% amid overwhelming demand.

Vietnam shares climbed to a eight-month high on Wednesday, with the benchmark VN Index extending its gains by 0.4%, after the government said it may boost the foreign-ownership limit on companies in some sectors. The State Securities Commission said it is planning to launch a pilot program allowing international investors to own more than 49% of some companies.

High-income Economies…German industrial production rose a modest 0.2% (m/m) in November, following a 2% fall in October, suggesting that industrial activity still remains weak despite a recent increase in business sentiment. From a year earlier, industrial output fell 2.9% (y/y), a slightly slower pace of decline than the 3% fall recorded in October.

The UK trade deficit narrowed slightly 3.5 billion pounds in November from 3.7 billion pounds the previous month, as exports rose 2.9%, while imports rose a more modest 1.1%. The merchandise trade balance fell to 9.2bn pounds from 9.5bn pounds.

Greece's industrial production dropped 2.9% (y/y) in November, after a rise of 3.5% in October, in part due to a steep decline in electricity production. In the 11 months through November 2012, industrial production was 3.5% lower from the same period a year earlier.

Consumer price inflation in the Czech Republic slowed to 2.4% (y/y) in December from 2.7% in November, but prices edged up 0.1% (m/m). The unemployment rate rose to 9.4% in December from 8.7% the previous month.

Developing Economies…Bulgaria’s industrial output declined 2.1% (y/y) in November in a third monthly consecutive decline, although at a slower pace than 4.4% observed in October. The largest decline was recorded in mining and quarrying industry (-11.6%) followed by a 4.8% output decline in utilities sector. On a monthly basis, industrial production rose by 0.9% in November recovering from a 0.4% fall in October.

The HSBC/Markit purchasing managers index (PMI) for Egypt plunged to a record low 37.1 in December, from 49.8 in November following three consecutive months of contraction indicating that business conditions in Egypt's private sector worsened substantially in December as output and new orders fell sharply while inflationary pressures intensified.

Malaysia's merchandise exports increased 3.3% (y/y) in November led by accelerating exports to the ASEANs (7.8%) and to the United States (11%). Shipments to Japan and to the EU dropped by 16.2% and 11.3% respectively. Malaysia’s imports grew 4.3% (y/y) in November led by imports from ASEAN countries, which accounted for 27.7% of total imports. During January-November period, Malaysia's total exports increased 1.3% (y/y), while imports grew 7.1%.

Mexico’s inflation slowed to 3.76% (y/y) in December from 4.18% in November falling within the Bank of Mexico’s annual inflation target of 3, +/- 1%.

Russia's inflation accelerated modestly to 6.6% (y/y) in December from 6.5% in November led by increase in food prices.

Vehicle sales in South Africa increased 1.8% (y/y) in December with new passenger car sales growing 7.6%.

Thailand's central bank kept its policy rate steady at 2.75%, stating that the Bank will closely monitor financial stability risks related to the rapid credit expansion, rising household debt and volatile capital flows. Thailand's headline inflation rate accelerated to 3.6% (y/y) in December from 2.7% in November, but core inflation, eased to 1.78% from 1.85%.

Assessing the Impact of the Euro Crisis on Long-Term Credit Provision in Europe

Submitted by Erik Feyen on Wed, 01/09/2013 - 17:27
On All About Finance

In the run up to the global financial crisis, European banks significantly increased their lending activities both domestically and outside home markets driven by a pro-cyclical spiral of cheap abundant funding, increasing profitability, and economic growth. In the process, European banks became excessively leveraged and reliant on sources of wholesale short-term funding making them more susceptible to shocks which could force them to adjust their operations abruptly and shrink their balance sheets (Le Lesle (2012)).

When the crisis erupted, a process of bank deleveraging was put into motion and European bank lending standards deteriorated significantly during various episodes of financial stress (Feyen, Kibuuka, and Ötker-Robe (2012), Giannetti, and Laeven, (2012)). First lending standards in Europe deteriorated considerably as the US subprime mortgage crisis unfolded in 2007 and reached a peak in 2009 in the wake of the default of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. Credit supply weakened significantly in 2011Q4 again when the European crisis deepened.

What will 2013 look like for Kenya’s economy?

Submitted by Wolfgang Fengler on Wed, 01/09/2013 - 15:26
On Africa Can end poverty

The dawn of a new year is a good time to reflect on the past year and look ahead. As it turns out, 2012 was a pretty average year for Kenya, mainly because the much anticipated national and regional elections, which will determine the course of the nation and its economy for years to come, were postponed to March next year.


Why do I say that 2012 was such a normal economic year for Kenya? Let’s rewind 12 months back. Kenya was facing major macroeconomic challenges: inflation stood at almost 20 per cent, the exchange rate was volatile and public debt increased markedly due to the weakening shilling. Economic pessimists predicted a global economic storm as the challenges in the euro-zone seemed unmanageable.

Implementing Governance Reform for Development Results: the 2013 Summer Institute is Now Accepting Applications

Submitted by Johanna Martinsson on Wed, 01/09/2013 - 15:25
On People, Spaces, Deliberation


The World Bank Institute's Leadership and Governance Practice, the World Bank's External Affairs Operational Communications Department, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California are pleased to announce the 2013 Summer Institute in Communication and Governance Reform. 


The course is primarily designed for strategists and advisers in the public sector and civil society, senior development professionals, and seasoned communication specialists who want to strengthen critical competencies in providing implementation support to change agents and reform leaders in developing countries.


The 9.5-day course will be held at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, May 28 - June 7, 2013. It will equip participants with knowledge about the most recent advances in communication and proven techniques in reform implementation. Participants will develop core competencies essential to bringing about real change, leading to development results in a wide range of sectors. 


Participants will acquire critical skills in five key areas:

Mobilizing Development via Mobile Phones

Submitted by Otaviano Canuto on Wed, 01/09/2013 - 14:41
On Growth & Crisis

I'm sure I'm not the only one who uses my mobile phone for almost everything but to make a call. Thanks to technological advances and the explosion of social media, we text, tweet or do Facebook posts on our devices. But beyond mere communications tools, mobile phones are also crucial for fostering economic activity and development. And I don't mean just in the U.S. and rich countries, but in developing countries.

Around three-quarters of people around the world have access to a mobile phone. The number of mobile subscriptions has actually grown from fewer than 1 billion in 2000 to over 6 billion now, of which nearly five billion are in developing countries, according to the World Bank report, Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile.

This increasing use of mobile technology in developing countries has allowed people to access the financial system, and governments to improve service delivery and citizen-feedback mechanisms.  From making cash payments via cell phone in Mexico, to job-matching services in the West Bank and Gaza, to providing  information services for Senegalese farmers, mobile phones seem to be doing a lot.

Media (R)evolutions: 2012 Social Networking Stats

Submitted by Kalliope Kokolis on Wed, 01/09/2013 - 10:26
On People, Spaces, Deliberation

New developments and curiosities from a changing global media landscape: People, Spaces, Deliberation brings trends and events to your attention that illustrate that tomorrow's media environment will look very different from today's, and will have little resemblance to yesterday's.



#2 from 2012: Media (R)evolutions: Global Internet Use

Submitted by Kalliope Kokolis on Wed, 01/09/2013 - 10:09
On People, Spaces, Deliberation

Our Top Ten Blog Posts by Readership in 2012

Originally published on April 4, 2012


New developments and curiosities from a changing global media landscape: People, Spaces, Deliberation brings trends and events to your attention that illustrate that tomorrow's media environment will look very different from today's, and will have little resemblance to yesterday's.



Learning from the experiments that didn't happen: Part II

Submitted by Markus Goldstein, co-authors: David McKenzie on Wed, 01/09/2013 - 10:09
On Development Impact

In our post on Monday, we discussed a paper (joint with F Campos, A Coville, and A Fernandes) where we lay out our failures to evaluate a number of matching grant programs in Africa.   In terms of background, for those of you who missed it, matching grant programs are government co-financing (typically 50 percent) for the costs of a firm purchasing business development services or undergoing quality improvement or technological upgrading.    We undertook seven evaluations -- and all of them have pretty much failed as experiments (although a couple are still hoping to do non-experimental evaluations). There are three main proximate causes why these evaluations went awry: 1) some governments decided not to randomize (sometimes reaching this conclusion after management changes), 2) insufficient numbers of applicants to allow for randomization, and 3) implementation delays.  

Behind these proximate causes are five underlying causes -- which may provide some insight into how we can do this better in the future:

What will it take for Bangladesh to become a Middle Income Country?

Submitted by Zahid Hussain on Wed, 01/09/2013 - 07:27
On End Poverty in South Asia

This is the fifth in a series of six posts about the recent report, Bangladesh: Towards Accelerated, Inclusive and Sustainable Growth. The previous post looked at the numbers behind Bangladesh’s goal of middle income status by 2021. The next and last post will look at the way forward.

For Bangladesh, achieving its goal of middle income status by 2021 will require more than business-as-usual: the average annual GDP growth rate will have to rise from the current 6 percent to 7.5-8 percent, while sustaining remittance growth at 8 plus percent. Faster growth in turn will depend on four main factors: (i) increased investment, (ii) faster human capital accumulation, (iii) enhanced productivity growth, and (iv) increased outward orientation.

Increase investment by at least 5 percentage points of GDP. Investment is constrained by infrastructure, business environment, land, and skills. Analysis based on Investment Climate Assessment surveys highlights the role of infrastructure in triggering a virtuous cycle of growth: better infrastructure will improve productivity which in turn will make exports more competitive and attract FDI, thus leading to further increase in productivity. Expanded provision of infrastructure has to come with easing difficulties in doing business, increasing access to serviced land, and meeting skill shortages.

Build on achievements in human capital formation. Bangladesh has done well in increasing the stock of human capital, topping the list of Asian countries along with Vietnam by improving average years of schooling by 1.3 during 2000-10. Our analysis indicates that achieving the needed GDP growth rate will require further increases from the current 5.8 to 7.3 average years of schooling. In addition, relatively low returns to schooling point to the importance of improving quality of education. These will require addressing external and internal inefficiency as well as weaknesses in education management and finance.

Prospects Daily: Euro Area economic sentiment rises, Turkey’s industrial production rebounds, Inflation slows in Chile and Colombia

Submitted by Global Macroeconomics Team on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 15:04
On Prospects for Development

Financial Markets… Ireland auctioned through a syndicate of banks its first bond since its sovereign bailout in November 2010, selling €2.5 billion of debt maturing in October 2017. The National Treasury Management Agency targeted a transaction size of around €2 billion, but strong investors’ demand pushed the total order book to €7 billion. The new issue was sold at a yield of 3.35%, down from 3.45% indicated at its launch.

Syndicated lending volumes in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) tumbled 17.6% to $376.4 billion in 2012 from $456.8 billion in 2011 as rising borrowing costs forced companies to turn to less expensive funding alternatives, such as bonds and bilateral loans. Meanwhile, bond issuance in Asia outside of Japan surged 46.6% to a record high of $788 billion in 2012 and the number of transaction jumped 29.2% to 4,907, according to Bloomberg data.

Gold for February delivery advanced 0.4% to $1,653.30 an ounce in New York trading, gaining for the first time in four days, as multi-month low prices and speculation of increased demand from China spurred buying. Gold price tumbled to a four-month low of $1,626 last Friday.

High-income Economies…Euro Area monthly retail sales rose for the first time in four months in November, increasing a modest 0.1% (m/m) following a 0.7% drop in October. However, seasonally adjusted sales declined at a 5.1% annualized pace in the three months to November, a faster pace than the 3.3% fall recorded in October.  

The European Commission’s Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for the Euro Area rose for the second consecutive month in December, with the index climbing to 87 in December from 85.7 in November. Economic sentiment in the Euro Area improved among consumers and across all sectors, except retail trade.

A separate release from Eurostat showed Euro Area unemployment rate edging up to 11.8% in November from 11.7% in October. At 26.6%, Spain had the highest unemployment rate in the Euro Area; Germany’s unemployment rate was 5.4%; and France’s stood at 10.5%.

German manufacturing orders declined 1.8% (m/m) in November, partially reversing October's 3.8% increase in orders. Foreign orders were down 4.1% (m/m), led by a 6.5% drop in orders from countries outside the Eurozone. In contrast, domestic orders rose 1.3% (m/m) in November, building on to October's 0.2% increase.

Developing Economies…Chile’s inflation slowed to 1.5% (y/y) in December from 2.1% in November - coming in well below the central bank's 3% annual inflation target.

Colombia’s inflation slowed to 2.4% (y/y) in December from 2.8% in November and is well within the annual inflation target of 2-4%.

Industrial production in Turkey increased 11.3% (y/y) in November reversing a 5.7% (y/y) contraction recorded in October. Manufacturing output grew 13.3% (y/y), while mining and quarrying output rose 7.5%. On a monthly basis, production grew by 1.5% in November compared with a 2.6% contraction in October.

Numbers Are Never Enough (especially when dealing with Big Data)

Submitted by Susan Moeller on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 14:30
On People, Spaces, Deliberation

The newest trend in Big Data is the personal touch.  When both the New York Times and Fast Company have headlines that trumpet: “Sure, Big Data Is Great. But So Is Intuition.” (The Times) and “Without Human Insight, Big Data Is Just A Bunch Of Numbers.” (Fast Company) you know that a major trend is afoot.


So what’s up?


The claims for what Big Data can do have been extraordinary, witness Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson’s seminal article in October in the Harvard Business Review: “Big Data: The Management Revolution,” which began with the showstopper:  “‘You can’t manage what you don’t measure.’”  It’s hard not to feel that Big Data will provide the solutions to everything after that statement.  As the HBR article noted:  “…the recent explosion of digital data is so important. Simply put, because of big data, managers can measure, and hence know, radically more about their businesses, and directly translate that knowledge into improved decision making and performance.”

footermenu