VoxDev Development Economics

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...

S2 Ep8: Rural roads, agricultural extension, and productivity

23 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Ethiopia, one development program is building roads to remote villages, while another tries to make small farms more productive. Mesay Gebresilasse...

S2 Ep7: Corruption and firms in Brazil

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In May 2003 the Brazilian government launched an anti-corruption program that exposed and suspended corrupt public officials. Emanuele Colonnelli tell...

S2 Ep6: Building trust in Pakistan's court system

09 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When courts lack credibility, non-state actors may step in – and the less that we engage with state institutions, the weaker they become. How do we ...

S2 Ep5: Supporting learning out of school

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In developing countries, more than 90% of children go to primary school. How can we best support their learning? An experiment in India targeted both ...

S2 Ep4: Disaster relief in Mexico

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Mexican government attempted to reduce the effect of extreme weather on people’s lives by establishing FONDEN, a fund to finance recovery and re...

S2 Ep3: The legacy of autocracy in China

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When state repression does its job, does it make us less charitable and less likely to speak our minds afterwards – and, if so, how long does that e...

S2 Ep2: The gender pay gap in India's markets

12 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In almost every job, in high and low-income countries, women earn less than men. Solène Delecourt tells Tim Phillips about a series of experiments th...

S2 Ep1: Are there too many farms in the world?

05 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Low-income countries have many small farms, and high-income countries have far fewer large farms and much higher agricultural productivity. Tim Philli...

S1 Ep70: India's school assessments fail the reliability test

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In India, tests intended to evaluate overall student achievement, soon to be rolled out nationally, suffer from massive grade inflation - even though ...

S1 Ep69: Stay or migrate?

08 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A structural transformation means workers moving to cities for good jobs, or better living conditions for their families, maybe also having smaller fa...

S1 Ep68: Do marketers matter for entrepreneurs?

01 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Entrepreneurs in developing countries need access to finance, education, and better institutions. But do they need more marketing? Stephen J Anderson ...

S1 Ep67: The search for good jobs

24 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There are 420 million young people in Africa today, but 140 million are unemployed, and another 130 million are underemployed or in working poverty. W...

S1 Ep66: Information operations and civilian cooperation

17 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In many conflict situations, should winning hearts and minds be the priority? Information operations are an essential part of military strategy, but s...

S1 Ep65: A low-cost way to raise tax revenues in Uganda

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Policy to increase tax compliance in developing countries often focuses on enforcement, and that's difficult, unpopular, and costly. Are there other w...

S1 Ep64: Caste and occupation in India

03 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

India's caste system traditionally determined which occupation families chose. In modern India, does caste still influence someone's choice of job? Da...

S1 Ep63: Controlling Indonesia's forest fires

27 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Satellite data from Indonesia shows the damage that out-of-control illegal forest fires, set by farmers to clear their land, do to other people's prop...

S1 Ep62: Buying votes

20 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Politicians can bribe their way to an election win, but in a democracy we throw them out if they perform badly afterwards. Or maybe not: Jessica Leigh...

S1 Ep61: Incentivising Africa's businesses to pay taxes

13 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Low-income countries struggle to collect tax, hurting economic stability, raising debt levels, cutting growth, and gutting basic services. Abebe Shime...

S1 Ep60: The value of India's rural roads

06 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Big infrastructure projects are often dismissed as expensive and problematic. But Yogita Shamdasani tells Tim Phillips how a national roadbuilding pro...

S1 Ep59: Rewarding voters in Ghana

29 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Will a government target spending in places where it thinks it can pick up support in the next election, or target funding to regions that supported i...

S1 Ep58: Families as social institutions

22 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When economists talk about the "household", they usually mean a family. But Natalie Bau and Raquel Fernandez tell Tim Phillips that there are many typ...

S1 Ep57: Education technology: Ready for prime time?

20 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For half a century Mexico's rural middle-schoolers have attended "telesecundaria" schools, in which they watch their lessons on TV. It saves money and...

S1 Ep55: Learning from our urban past

17 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Cities in developing economies can still learn a lot from our urban past, Ed Glaeser tells Tim Phillips. For thousands of years ancient cities have be...

S1 Ep56: Hidden unemployment in India

15 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In rural areas, about half of people who are available for work are not in full-time employment. Most are self-employed. Are they really entrepreneurs...

S1 Ep54: Is financial literacy necessary?

13 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We often try to improve incomes and financial decision-making of working people by teaching financial literacy. But in Uganda an intervention tested w...

S1 Ep53: Slippery fish

10 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When the government in Chile attempts to limit which fish can be caught and sold to protect stocks, market traders always find a way around the restri...

S1 Ep52: Using role models in Somali schools

08 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How can Somalia's schools inspire kids to finish their education and learn about gender equality? A low-cost intervention uses role models with surpri...

S1 Ep51: The effects of crime on jobs in Mexico

06 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When drug-related violence exploded in Mexico, its effects were felt by everyone. Andrea Velásquez tells Tim Phillips how rising violence in Mexico C...

S1 Ep50: Reshaping gender attitudes in India

03 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Children decide what's normal for girls and boys early in their development. Seema Jayachandran tells Tim Phillips how a program of discussions about ...

S1 Ep49: Letting managers manage

01 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If you want to succeed as a boss, business books tell you, you have to delegate. But we know less than you think about the impact of delegation on pro...

S1 Ep48: The false promises of agricultural trials

30 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Often we hear exciting news of crop yields from experimental trials, but then the gains don't show up in the real world. Rachid Laajaj tells Tim Phill...

S1 Ep47: Public disclosure as a political incentive: Evidence from municipal elections in India

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Councilors who thought performance reports would be published before an election invested more in infrastructure, with positive impacts on re-election...

S1 Ep47: The unintended impacts of formal credit programmes on social networks: Evidence from India

17 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The introduction of financial institutions in communities may generate long-lasting externalities, including losses in informal social linkages Read “...

S1 Ep47: Learning-by-doing: Navigating financial technologies among Bangladeshi factory workers

02 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How automatic payments can help individuals save more and better protect themselves against consumer risks Read “Learning to navigate a new financia...

S1 Ep47: Is faster always better? Evidence from Mexico’s digital credit market

01 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Access to fast cash through digital credit may put consumers at risk for over-indebtedness and likelihood of default Read “Too fast, too furious? Di...

S1 Ep46: Designing more effective interventions to prevent childhood stunting: Evidence from Nigeria

27 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Bundling interventions that offer parents health information along with cash transfers might yield more sustainable changes in early-life health outco...

S1 Ep47: Designing more effective interventions to prevent childhood stunting: Evidence from Nigeria

27 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Bundling interventions that offer parents health information along with cash transfers might yield more sustainable changes in early-life health outco...

S1 Ep46: Urban-rural gaps in the developing world: Does internal migration offer opportunities?

20 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Policymakers might seek to address the frictions that prevent potentially beneficial migration to urban areas from taking place Read “Urban-Rural Ga...

S1 Ep46: Unintended consequences: How workfare programmes may fuel school dropouts in India

13 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Despite evidence of increasing household wages, anti-poverty schemes in India can have an adverse effect by lowering human capital investment Read “...

S1 Ep46: How does shame and embarrassment impact social learning? Evidence from India

06 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

People are less likely to ask questions in their communities if it exposes the limits of their knowledge. Read “Signaling, shame, and silence in soc...

S1 Ep46: Failure of frequent assessment: Evidence from India’s continuous and comprehensive evaluation programme

08 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More frequent assessment of student performance fails to deliver on improved outcomes when the administrative burden on teachers is high

S1 Ep45: Should electricity be a right? Evidence from India

25 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Nearly a billion people around the world are not connected to the electricity grid, and even more have unreliable access. In this VoxDevTalk, Robin Bu...

S1 Ep45: Technology as a tool for governance: Evidence from China

11 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Incentivising agent performance is a double-edged sword: while it can encourage agents to perform better, it might also nudge them into cheating and m...

S1 Ep45: How does funding influence sectoral and geographic spread of NGOs?

04 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Certain kinds of NGO-led development projects attract more funding and media attention than others. Child sponsorship or microcredit schemes, for inst...

S1 Ep45: Gender norms, rule of law, and female entrepreneurship in developing countries

28 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Entrepreneurship across the world is highly male dominated. While the amount of subsistence entrepreneurship in developing countries leads to a slight...

S1 Ep45: The selection of talent: Experimental and structural evidence from Ethiopia

21 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When faced with onerous procedures to apply for a job, potential applicants can be expected to weigh the costs of applying on their time and energy ag...

S1 Ep45: Paying outsourced labour: Evidence from Argentina

14 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When workers are supplied to a company through a temp agency, they earn less than the permanent employees they end up working with. Since work place s...

S1 Ep45: Incentivising behavioural change: The role of time preferences

07 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Incentivising people to lead healthier lives by means of monetary payments is a simple and cost-effective intervention, but are there ways to tweak th...

S1 Ep45: Do social structures affect the success of development policies?

23 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Relationships between groups are vital in village economies, but do these social structures affect the success of development policies? If resources a...

S1 Ep45: Negotiating a better future: Experimental evidence from Zambia

02 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Across the developing world, many girls face difficulties in persuading their parents to enrol them in secondary education. Whilst financial incentive...

S1 Ep45: Cities in the developing world

26 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

By 2050, the world’s urban population is estimated to reach nearly seven billion, driven mainly by urbanisation in developing countries. Despite thi...

S1 Ep45: Breaking down access constraints faced by women: Experimental evidence from Pakistan

12 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Across the world, women face invisible barriers that prevent them from taking up education and work. This is particularly the case in conservative soc...

S1 Ep44: Pipe dreams: Enforcing payment for water and sanitation services in Kenya

05 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Editors’ note: This podcast was updated on 25.08.2020  How can policymakers solve the problem of non-payment of utility bills while still maintain...

S1 Ep44: Trade in developing economies

29 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Why do trade barriers remain high in developing countries despite the significant potential to drive economic growth through trade? Advanced economies...

S1 Ep43: Inclusive growth dividend: Reframing the role of income transfers in India

15 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Many development economists have advocated unconditional cash transfers as a crucial tool for reducing poverty, especially during the present COVID-19...

S1 Ep43: Does vocational educational training work? Experimental evidence from Mongolia

08 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Can investments in vocational training, contrary to the existing research literature, actually improve labour market outcomes?

S1 Ep42: Reducing rates of child marriage: Experimental evidence from Bangladesh

01 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Why do we still see high rates of child marriage in settings such as Bangladesh, despite significant improvements in women’s economic empowerment?

S1 Ep42: Poverty and depression: How improving mental health can help economic wellbeing

17 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do poor mental health and poverty interact, and how can we best ensure access to mental health services?

S1 Ep41: Incentivising bureaucrats through performance-based postings: Experimental evidence from Pakistan

10 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How can we best incentivise bureaucrats in a formal manner that avoids concerns over corruption?

S1 Ep40: Social learning in agriculture: Experimental evidence from Malawi

03 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Can policymakers speed up the adoption of modern agricultural technologies through peer-to-peer learning?

S1 Ep39: Does household electrification supercharge economic development?

27 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

To what extent do the poorest rural households in sub-Saharan Africa benefit from residential electrification investments?

S1 Ep38: Cash transfers and the wider economy: Evidence from Kenya

20 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Do unconditional cash transfers increase welfare in communities as a whole, even within households that do not receive them?

S1 Ep37: How to protect the poor in the time of COVID-19?

06 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How can governments in developing countries best ensure widespread and effective social protection in light of the COVID-19 pandemic?

S1 Ep36: Cushioning the effects of COVID-19 on the poor

29 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How can we best protect the most vulnerable in the developing world during the COVID-19 pandemic?

S1 Ep35: Migration and risk sharing: Evidence from Bangladesh

15 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Whilst rural to urban migration can improve the allocation of labour, can it have unintended consequences on risk sharing in rural communities?

S1 Ep35: Alcohol and self-control: Evidence from India

08 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Rickshaw drivers in India who randomly received sobriety incentives as part of an experiment significantly reduced their daytime drinking

S1 Ep34: Alleviating financial strain to drive productivity: Evidence from India

01 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Does easing the financial stress of short-term workers by paying them earlier lead to productivity improvements?

S1 Ep33: Increasing sleep for the urban poor: Evidence from India

25 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

 Many researchers have suggested that increased sleep at night translates into improved working outcomes, such as higher productivity. But while thes...

S1 Ep32: Taxation, civic culture and state capacity

08 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Why do some countries have high rates of taxation and high compliance, while some failed states have neither?

S1 Ep31: Mexico’s economic growth puzzle: A conversation with Santiago Levy

04 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Why has economic growth stuttered in Mexico despite, on the face of it, implementation of sensible economic policies by successive governments? Sin...

S1 Ep30: Multinational enforcement of labour laws: Evidence from Bangladesh

23 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Some multinationals privately enforce labour standards among their suppliers in developing countries. But is this effective, and does it complement or...

S1 Ep29: Lessons from Mexico’s poverty reduction programme

09 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In Mexico in 1996, the extreme poverty rate had climbed above 30%, prompting the government to introduce a poverty reduction programme called Progresa...

S1 Ep28: Does research translate into policy? Evidence from Brazilian municipalities

02 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Social science research seeks to improve the world we live in. Yet, there is little information on how much political leaders actually value this rese...

S1 Ep27: The future of the World Bank: Why knowledge is power

11 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Penny Goldberg is the World Bank’s Chief Economist. This means she manages the research department and is in charge of the research agenda. The Worl...

S1 Ep26: The changing face of development: Backlash against globalisation

25 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On our two year anniversary we asked a few experts to reflect over the last two years of development economics and discuss what they think have been t...

S1 Ep25: The changing face of development: The elite capture of democracy

25 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On our two year anniversary we asked a few experts to reflect over the last two years of development economics and discuss what they think have been t...

S1 Ep24: The changing face of development: The gap between macroeconomic policy and research

25 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On our two year anniversary we asked a few experts to reflect over the last two years of development economics and discuss what they think have been t...

S1 Ep23: Ending global poverty: Why money is not enough

07 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

How can we combat the increasing trend that extreme poverty is not only confined to low-income countries, but also to middle-income ones?  

S1 Ep22: Power to the people: The impact of political report cards in India

22 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Abhijit Banerjee, Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics, MIT, talks to Tim Phillips about the run-up to 2011 elections in Delhi, India,...

S1 Ep21: Where are the Indian female politicians?

17 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Evidence shows that when more women are elected, it changes broader development outcomes due to their differing priorities. Yet women are almost unrep...

S1 Ep20: Technology transfer and the rise of China

08 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Who wins and losses in the technology trade war? John van Reenen (MIT) explains to Tim Phillips why technology transfer in a globalised world isn’t ...

S1 Ep19: Why studies should be conducted on a larger scale

16 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Karthik Muralidharan and Paul Niehaus of University of California, San Diego, argue that when we test things at a small scale, they might not be predi...

S1 Ep19: Breaking gender-barriers: How women are becoming managers

16 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

How do we get more women in senior positions? Chris Woodruff shares insights from the Bangladeshi garment industry. Find out more at VoxDev.org

S1 Ep18: Evidence to practice: Time to bridge the gap

16 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

VoxDev's own Editor-in-Chief, Tavneet Suri, drawing insights from her work at J-PAL and VoxDev, emphasises the importance of researchers deeply engagi...

S1 Ep17: Evidence to practice: Reforming private healthcare in India

16 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Using the example of healthcare in India, Nick O’Donohoe, Chief Executive Officer, CDC, discusses how data plays a crucial role in making sure inves...

S1 Ep16: Achieving inclusive growth in Asia

16 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Yasuyuki Sawada, ADB’s Chief Economist, provides insight into Asia’s development and overcoming the middle-income trap. Find out more at VoxDev....