mit economists abhijit banerjee and esther duflo (of the poverty action lab) do randomized control trials in poor communities and have some great insights on global development. they've just published a book (http://pooreconomics.com) that will likely be interesting to the people on this list.
there are also a series of interviews online that give you a taste of their work at http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/06/08/137041672/the-tuesday-podcast-poor-economics and http://temcnally.podomatic.com/entry/2011-04-28T10_12_36-07_00 yaw
