Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Bureaucrats in business class

A bit of moral indignation from Chris Blattman on the theme of UN and development bank bureaucrats flying in business class.

Key bits:

As I entered the plane, though, I passed the same sight I see on every flight to and fro a developing country: a business class full of World Bank and (senior) UN peeps.

I seldom fly business myself, even on Bank and UN consultancies, mostly to conserve my project funds for research assistants and survey expenses. My incentives are just right: money I spend on me comes out of money I'd spend making my research projects just a little better. Not so the rest of the agency?

I also hold back from business for another reason: $6000 for a single ticket? When the purpose of your trip is to contribute (however little) to ending poverty, something about that price tag just doesn't seem right.

It is nice to sit in front but is it a good buy for those who pay for the UN and the banks? I sense a principal-agent problem here.