VoxDev Development Economics

S4 Ep21: How can LMICs collect more taxes?

29 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In both high- and low-income countries, taxes are the main source of government revenue. They fund roads, schools, and social programmes. But the aver...

S4 Ep20: How equitable are taxes in LMICs?

22 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Inequality is high in many LMICs, and progressive taxation is a policy tool that would reduce it. But would a personal income tax or a consumption tax...

S4 Ep19: Pathways to development in a less integrated world

15 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In a world of economic nationalism rather than integration, the export-led pathway to development that transformed China, Vietnam and other countries ...

S4 Ep18: Harnessing technology to boost African agriculture

08 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Agriculture makes up a large share of employment and GDP in Africa, but crop yields remain stubbornly low. VoxDev has published Issue 2 of Agricultura...

S4 Ep17: Increasing learning at scale in Ghana

01 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How can we take what we learn in educational RCTs and apply it at scale to many schools, maybe in many countries? Adrienne Lucas talks to Tim Phillips...

S4 Ep16: Electricity shortages and unemployment in Africa

24 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In high-income countries, we take a reliable electricity supply for granted. But in parts of the world where that reliable electricity supply isn’t ...

S4 Ep15: The global learning crisis

17 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In September 2022 António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, convened the Transforming Education Summit by telling education stakeholders from around th...

S4 Ep14: How does cultural distance shape conflict?

10 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What determines how a war is fought, and who chooses to fight it? Eleonora Guarnieri of the University of Exeter talks to Tim Phillips about how cultu...

S4 Ep13: Further education in low- and middle-income countries

03 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you go to college in a low- or middle-income country (LMIC), how does it help you, and what do you get from it? Two questions that would seem to ha...

S4 Ep12: The psychology of poverty

20 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Does being rich make us happy, or is it being richer than other people that matters? Will interventions that alleviate poverty also improve someone’...

S4 Ep11: Selecting political candidates in Sierra Leone

13 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Who should select political candidates, the people or the party? Abou Bakarr Kamara and Niccoló Meriggi talk to Tim Phillips about an experiment in S...

S4 Ep10: Universal basic income in Kenya

06 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Universal basic income – UBI – has always been more an economic thought experiment than serious policy idea. It’s now being taken seriously, but...

S4 Ep9: Labour market dynamics in LMICs

27 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The process that economists call labour market dynamics lets workers improve their lives by switching jobs. But do our assumptions about it apply in L...

S4 Ep8: Humanitarian aid and the costs of inaction

21 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The need for humanitarian relief is at record highs, while support from the international community is dwindling. Should we divert funding from develo...

S4 Ep7: AI, entrepreneurs, and development

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How useful is generative AI in helping entrepreneurs become more successful? Rem Koning is one of a team of researchers who created an AI mentor for e...

S4 Ep6: Mobile money markets and financial inclusion

07 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mobile money has created many opportunities for users. But its fees can be expensive. One solution: create competition between mobile money providers ...

S4 Ep5: Macro development: The emerging agenda

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Recorded at CEPR Paris Symposium 2023: How can macroeconomics (and macroeconomists) contribute to what we know about development policy?  The availa...

S4 Ep4: State capacity and the development of the US

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is the role of state capacity in economic development? Nicola Mastrorocco spent five years digitalising civil service records from a century of e...

S4 Ep3: Industrial policy for economic development

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Research shows that policymakers have consistently endorsed the use of industrial policy. And now economists are increasingly talking about – and re...

S4 Ep2: Place-based policies and development

10 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How does place-based policy work, and what can it deliver? Gordon Hanson has spent many years studying the economic importance of where people live, a...

S4 Ep1: Education markets and systems in LMICs

03 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is the fairest and most efficient way to improve not just access to education, but outcomes too? Should policymakers focus on a broader markets a...

S3 Ep45: How should economic researchers give policy advice?

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Researchers want to maximise the development impact of their advice. Stefan Dercon tells Tim Phillips, that to do this, they need to consider the loca...

S3 Ep44: How can policy respond to rising seas?

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

While the news agenda is grabbed by droughts, hurricanes and wildfires, the inexorable rise in sea level is less easy to see. But it will affect billi...

S3 Ep43: The social cost of carbon

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is the social cost of carbon? What can it tell us about the effects of, and the feasibility of policies to cope with, climate change? Michael Gre...

S3 Ep42: Bridging the divide between micro and macro research

06 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Macroeconomic development policies can be effective to combat poverty. But a lot of research uses smaller-scale RCTs and experiments. Can macro theory...

S3 Ep41: Global value chains and development

29 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The rapid spread of GVCs has revolutionised the manufacture and supply of … everything. We can point to trade statistics to show that. But what aspe...

S3 Ep40: Renewable energy in LMICs

21 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In developing countries, electricity is still mostly generated from fossil fuels. So how quickly can that change? And what policies are needed to spee...

S3 Ep39: The inequality of environmental damage

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We tend to discuss changes to the natural environment in big, global numbers. But the impact of those changes is felt in different ways by different p...

S3 Ep38: Pollution and regulation in LMICs

08 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Where there are no markets for clean air or drinkable water, can regulation step in? The latest lecture in the Bread-ICG lecture series on environment...

S3 Ep37: Skill versus voice in local development

01 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When the state is weak, autocratic traditional chiefs control the provision of public goods. If they don’t have the technical skills that these task...

S3 Ep36: International climate action

25 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Policies and commitments to tackle climate change emerge from global meetings and conferences. In our latest episode examining policy for environmenta...

S3 Ep35: Finance and climate resilience

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In future we’re going to have to cope with a more volatile climate, but how can we increase the resilience of the most vulnerable communities? An an...

S3 Ep34: The economics of conservation in LMICs

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the second of our episodes examining policy for environmental economics in development, Seema Jayachandran and Ben Olken talk to Tim Phillips about...

S3 Ep33: Environmental economics and policy in LMICs

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the first of a series of episodes that investigates policy for environmental economics in development, Kelsey Jack and Robin Burgess introduce the ...

S3 Ep32: Political economy and development

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The study of institutions and political power is a strand of development research that in recent years has taught us a lot about – in the name of th...

S3 Ep31: Decentralised governance in developing countries

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the last 30 years many governments have attempted to shift service delivery away from a central bureaucracy to local administrations. How well has ...

S3 Ep30: Targeting health incentives in India

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Most policies are one-size-fits-all. But in some cases, we can do better. How can we design an intervention that incentivises people to manage their d...

S3 Ep29: Air pollution and infant mortality

30 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Poor air quality is a danger to children’s health, but most of what we know about the effects are from wealthy countries or large cities. A multidis...

S3 Ep28: Putting research into practice at the Inter-American Development Bank

23 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The economies of Latin America and the Caribbean are facing some tough economic problems. What policies will improve prospects for people who live in ...

S3 Ep27: Unpacking anti-poverty programmes

16 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Multifaceted graduation programmes can permanently change the lives of desperately poor people. But which components of these programs are the most im...

S3 Ep26: Politics and participatory development in Ghana

09 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Should the community have a greater say in determining how aid is spent? Participatory development aid has the goal of making sure that governments ca...

S3 Ep25: Research into practice: DIME

02 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The challenge of creating evidence-based policy inspired Arianna Legovini of the World Bank to create an entirely new model of impact evaluation: The ...

S3 Ep24: Understanding rural-urban migration in the developing world

26 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Programs that incentivise rural workers to migrate to cities in Bangladesh for seasonal work have been successful. But why don’t more people migrate...

S3 Ep23: Globalisation and the ladder of development

19 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Thinking about development as a ladder is a useful metaphor, but is it true? Can every country climb, or does trade push some countries up the ladder,...

S3 Ep22: Duflo: Development in the 21st century

12 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the first of a series of podcasts recorded at the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum at the Paris School of Economics, Esther Duflo talks to Tim Phillips about ...

S3 Ep21: Cost-effective ways to improve global learning

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a world of limited resources, which interventions to help kids learn offer the best value for money? A new report evaluates the evidence and gives ...

S3 Ep20: Expanding higher education empowered women in Egypt

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Increasing access to education, specifically higher education, can lead to better life chances, particularly for women. But how large is the benefit, ...

S3 Ep19: The rise and fall of local elections in China

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When dictators introduce local elections, more democracy at the local level may mean less control for the rulers. For a time in rural China, elected v...

S3 Ep18: Promoting national integration in Nigeria

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When a country’s borders encompass several distinct ethnic groups, how does it create a national identity? A program in Nigeria assigns graduates to...

S3 Ep17: Do public works programs have sustained impacts?

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How effective are workfare programs at achieving their goals? Do they provide a way for participants to change their lives, or just short-term extra i...

S3 Ep16: Public works programs in fragile economies

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Public works programs – workfare – are used in many fragile and conflict-affected countries to offer a safety net to poor and vulnerable household...

S3 Ep15: Rebel governance and development in El Salvador

03 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

El Salvador’s civil war ended a generation ago, but what is its legacy in the regions that were occupied by guerrillas? The economy can recover, but...

S3 Ep14: How childcare empowers women

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Better access to childcare may make it easier for women to get jobs outside the home, get better jobs, or make more money doing the job they have alre...

S3 Ep13: Work, women and domestic violence

19 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If we can provide better employment opportunities for women, in theory that could reduce domestic violence – but strong empirical evidence has been ...

S3 Ep12: Research into practice: evidence from healthcare

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Zulfiqar Bhutta of the Centre for Global Child Health is one of the global leaders in implementing large-scale public health programs in developing co...

S3 Ep11: Can agricultural extensions be discontinued?

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When there’s a successful agricultural extension program, how much of that success is sustained when it is discontinued? How long it takes to change...

S3 Ep10: How monitoring workers can backfire

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Managers often don’t know how much effort their workers are putting into a job. Technology offers a way to solve this problem by monitoring those wo...

S3 Ep9: Mother-father differences in spending on children

15 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Are fathers more generous to their sons than their daughters? If that investment is in the child’s education and healthcare, then gender-based diffe...

S3 Ep8: FDI inflows and domestic firms

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How does trade policy shape foreign direct investment in exporting countries, and how might this affect their structural transformation? Nina Pavcnik ...

S3 Ep7: How child mortality persists across generations

01 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The risk that a child will die is lower than it used to be, but in low-income countries it is still not unusual. But how persistent is this in familie...

S3 Ep6: Elite control and development in Brazil

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1960s, Brazil’s military dictatorship set out to undermine the power of local political elites by creating local political competition. New r...

S3 Ep5: The impact of public childcare in Brazil

15 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How does providing daycare affect infants, their parents, and even their grandparents during the seven years that follow? When Rio de Janeiro held a l...

S3 Ep4: Grandmothers and the Mexican labour market

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If women want or need to work outside the home, someone needs to look after their kids. In Mexico, that person has traditionally been the grandmother....

S3 Ep3: Did joint ventures help China’s auto business?

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When FDI mandates joint ventures foreign firms get market access, and their local partners get access to knowledge and technology in return. Does the ...

S3 Ep2: Promotion, pay, and productivity

25 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Do healthcare workers in Sierra Leone work harder when they know that promotion is based on performance, rather than friendships or connections? And i...

S3 Ep1: Democracy and infrastructure investment in Indonesia

18 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Indonesia’s dictatorship became a democracy in 1999, did it affect the investment in healthcare? And was that spending allocated where it was m...

S2 Ep42: Corruption in Customs

30 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Madagascar, the taxes and duties collected by customs are half of the government’s tax revenue: so the potential cost of corruption is huge. Ana ...

S2 Ep41: The benefits of road maintenance in Indonesia

23 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We naturally assume that maintaining highways helps developing economies to grow and people to thrive. But there’s surprisingly little hard evidence...

S2 Ep40: The impact of privatisation

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When governments want to raise revenue, they often look for state-owned assets to privatise. What is the effect on the people who work in these firms?...

S2 Ep39: Improving the welfare of migrant workers

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Millions of Sri Lankans have migrated to the Gulf region to work, but almost one in 10 makes a formal complaint to the consulate about abuse or employ...

S2 Ep38: The challenges of improving public sector management

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine an intervention that combined funding, best practice delivered at scale, and near-universal compliance. Should this guarantee it will succeed?...

S2 Ep37: Better bureaucrats in a crisis

05 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What role do bureaucrats play in a crisis? We might think that the best bureaucracy would be made up of people who are very good at doing exactly what...

S2 Ep36: How corporate debarment affects workers in Brazil

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What are the consequences for workers if they are employed by a firm that is sanctioned for corruption? We’re back in Brazil: Christiane Szerman tel...

S2 Ep35: The unequal effects of pollution

21 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Every year, ambient air pollution kills 3 million people, and causes respiratory problems for hundreds of millions more. Can low-paid workers avoid th...

S2 Ep34: Job loss and crime in Brazil

15 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When workers become unemployed, do some turn to crime instead – and does unemployment insurance make a difference? Diogo Britto and Paolo Pinotti te...

S2 Ep33: Politics at work

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Does who you vote for influence the chances that you are hired, fired, and promoted? Edoardo Teso tells Tim Phillips about Brazil’s politically pola...

S2 Ep32: Expanding access to clean water

10 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Almost 2 billion people don’t have access to clean water, which means increased risk of disease, especially for young children. Pascaline Dupas tell...

S2 Ep31: Enhancing women’s economic empowerment

03 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Do policies to provide women with financial resources or financial services give them more economic independence? Less often than we would like, Mikae...

S2 Ep30: Criminal governance in Colombia

27 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If weak states fail to provide order and security, sometimes criminal gangs step in. Can this problem be fixed by targeting resources to the places mo...

S2 Ep29: How workfare cut conflict

20 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

By 2030, half the world’s poor will be living in conflict-affected areas. Could some of the resources dedicated to helping them be spent to prevent ...

S2 Ep28: Surviving the hungry season

13 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For small farmers the most difficult months of the years are the “hungry season” before the harvest. What would be the effect of a small loan at t...

S2 Ep27: Respond or anticipate?

06 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the monsoon season of 2020, 5.5 million people in Bangladesh were affected by severe floods. But the UN was able to help thousands of households by...

S2 Ep26: Poverty and resilience

29 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When households escape poverty, how likely is it they will fall back in the future? Loki Phadera of the World Bank and Hope Michelson of the Universit...

S2 Ep25: Cash transfers and child health

22 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Children in low-income countries are 12 times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than those in high-income countries. Cash transfers to ho...

S2 Ep24: How Airbel Lab creates cost-effective impact

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Which interventions work best, and how can we tweak them to work better? How well could they work in other places, and what changes should we make? Ai...

S2 Ep23: Resolving disputes in Liberia

08 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When there is conflict, can outsiders help by creating informal ways for communities to resolve their disputes? Chris Blattman tells Tim Phillips abou...

S2 Ep22: Seed dealers can be change agents

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How do we encourage small farmers to adopt new types of seeds in LICs? Government agents can help spread the word – but Kyle Emerick of Tufts Univer...

S2 Ep21: Targeting the ultra-poor in Afghanistan

25 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

People who live in extreme poverty are increasingly concentrated in fragile and conflict-affected areas. Can a "big push" from the Targeting the Ultra...

S2 Ep20: Targeting the ultra-poor

18 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If poor people are caught in a poverty trap, a large one-time grant might be life changing. That's the thinking behind programs to target the ultra-po...

S2 Ep19: Better seeds or better insurance?

11 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Extreme weather doesn't just ruin one crop: it means that the following year small farmers won't have income to invest. Better seeds and insurance aga...

S2 Ep18: Progresa's legacy, 20 years on

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Progresa was the groundbreaking and much-copied cash transfer program created by the Mexican government in 1997. Literally millions of children benefi...

S2 Ep17: Hiring from suppliers and customers

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Research from the Dominican Republic shows that it is more common than we assumed (and more beneficial to both parties) if workers move to another fir...

S2 Ep16: Does workfare work?

20 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How much do we know about what workfare programs achieve for people who take part? An analysis of one program in Côte d’Ivoire fills in some of the...

S2 Ep15: Making entrepreneurs

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Entrepreneurs create most of the new jobs in Africa. But can the skills of an entrepreneur be taught, and which skills will be most useful for Africa'...

S2 Ep14: Does being open to trade help development?

06 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Economists have been arguing about whether openness to international trade creates growth for 250 years. David Atkin tells Tim Phillips about his anal...

S2 Ep13: Distortion by audit

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Auditing ensures public procurement is good value. Or does it? An experiment in Chile suggests the audit itself makes procurement less efficient after...

S2 Ep12: Creating social cohesion in Turkey's schools

23 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Turkey has received 4m refugees from Syria, a quarter of them children. How can its schools integrate so many new students, help them to make friends ...

S2 Ep11: Pensions and poverty in Paraguay

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Paraguay, like Peru and Mexico, is supporting seniors with a monthly non-contributory pension payment. What difference does this income make to the pe...

S2 Ep10: Food or food stamps?

09 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Indonesia recently started providing vouchers instead of rice to millions of households. Elan Satriawan of National Team for Acceleration of Poverty R...

S2 Ep9: Is information or cash the cure for malnutrition?

02 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Malnutrition in children is a silent killer. Is it made worse by lack of knowledge or lack of income? Michael Levere tells Tim Phillips about an exper...