In his blog, Forbes' Tim Ferguson brings attention to an investment into a development think tank at Stanford:

Investor Robert E. King and his wife have given $150 million (part of which is a challenge grant) to found the Stanford school's Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies, which will informally be known as SEED. It will join the other work being done to identify and remediate social, cultural, physical and legal barriers to uplift from poverty.

Ferguson brings up IPA Affiliates' two most recent books, noting the active work in development recently as he joins others in the business world calling attention to the field.

Beyond Collier's early work, others active intellectually in this field include Yale's Dean Karlan, author of “More than Good Intentions: How a New Economics Is Helping to Solve Global Poverty,” and  Esther Duflo, winner of the John Bates Clark Award for outstanding young economist and co-author of “Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty.” (SEED itself will be chaired by Nobel winner Michael Spence, another specialist on development economics and dean emeritus of Stanford GSB.)

Read his full post here.