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VoxDev Development Economics

VoxDev.org

Hear about the cutting edge of development economics from research to practice.

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29:26

S4 Ep23: Adaptation on the frontline of climate change

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/06/12

“There’s only so much adapting you can do with so few resources.” That’s a warningfrom Asif Saleh, the executive director of BRAC, about the impact of the climate crisis in Bangladesh. Changes in the climate are causing severe problems already for millions of the world’s poorest people. A combination of ingenuity and hard work is staving off disaster for now – but for how long?

16:33

S4 Ep22: How to policymakers interpret different...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/06/05

How does new evidence influence the beliefs of policymakers, and when do hiddenbiases of beliefs lead to bad policy decisions? There is more rigorous empirical evidence on which interventions work than ever. But that doesn’t translate into better policy unless a policymaker acts on it. Eva Vivalt and Tim Phillips offer advice to researchers on how to present their insights.

29:32

S4 Ep21: How can LMICs collect more taxes?

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/05/29

In both high- and low-income countries, taxes are the main source of governmentrevenue. They fund roads, schools, and social programmes. But the average tax-to- GDP ratio in a developing country is less than half of the ratio in the global north. Oyebola Okunogbe tells Tim Phillips about the innovative ways that many LMICs are using to collect the taxes that will finance their growth.

19:33

S4 Ep20: How equitable are taxes in LMICs?

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/05/22

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 redistribute in the same way as in a high-income country? Lucie Gadenne of Queen Mary University of London and the IFS tells Tim Phillips that one of these taxes may be less progressive, and one may be more progressive, than we expect.

23:01

S4 Ep19: Pathways to development in a less integrated...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/05/15

In a world of economic nationalism rather than integration, the export-led pathway todevelopment that transformed China, Vietnam and other countries might no longer be effective. Instead, Penny Goldberg tells Tim Phillips, policies for poverty reduction now also need to answer the question of where demand will come from, and that may require more emphasis on creating a domestic middle class.

17:32

S4 Ep18: Harnessing technology to boost African...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/05/08

Agriculture makes up a large share of employment and GDP in Africa, but crop yields remain stubbornly low. VoxDev has published Issue 2 of Agricultural Technology in Africa, which reviews what the published literature can – and cannot – explain about this stagnation. Chris Udry, one of the editors, tells Tim Phillips about the impact of this stagnation on living standards in Africa, and insights from recent research that can potentially make a difference. Read the VoxDevLit:

26:26

S4 Ep17: Increasing learning at scale in Ghana

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/05/01

How can we take what we learn in educational RCTs and apply it at scale to manyschools, maybe in many countries? Adrienne Lucas talks to Tim Phillips about the project she was part of to improve learning in Ghana, the difference between small- and large-scale trials, and the challenge of implementing policies results without perfect compliance or daily monitoring.

21:26

S4 Ep16: Electricity shortages and unemployment in...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/04/24

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 available, what is the effect of frequent power outages on employment? Justice Tei Mensah of The World Bank tells Tim Phillips about how power cuts translate to job cuts.

29:51

S4 Ep15: The global learning crisis

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/04/17

In September 2022 António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, convened the Transforming Education Summit by telling education stakeholders from around the world that education is “beset by inequalities and struggling to adjust to the needs of the 21st century”. Their task: to tackle the global learning crisis by transforming their education systems. Robert Jenkins of UNICEF talks to Tim Phillips about the progress that has been made to solve what he calls “the global learning crisis”.

30:05

S4 Ep14: How does cultural distance shape conflict?

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/04/10

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 cultural distance influences whether, and how, sexual violence is used as a weapon of war – and its role in civil conflict in Africa.

28:38

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

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/04/03

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 have obvious answers – but these questions may be more complicated for policymakers to answer than they seem. Jishnu Das tells Tim Phillips that “the demographic dividend seems to be turning into a demographic nightmare” – and what researchers and policymakers can do about it.

18:58

S4 Ep12: The psychology of poverty

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/03/20

Does being rich make us happy, or is it being richer than other people that matters? Will interventions that alleviate poverty also improve someone’s well-being? If we can improve a person’s mental health, does this have an economic effect too? Johannes Haushofer and Daniel Salicath tell Tim Phillips what we know so far about these questions, and how future research can help us understand the psychology of poverty.

15:37

S4 Ep11: Selecting political candidates in Sierra Leone

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/03/13

Who should select political candidates, the people or the party? Abou Bakarr Kamara and Niccoló Meriggi talk to Tim Phillips about an experiment in Sierra Leone that convinced two major political parties to adopt a primary system for candidate selection. Did that mean that different candidates stood in the election, and that different MPs were chosen? Photo: Carol Sahley/USAID

24:43

S4 Ep10: Universal basic income in Kenya

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/03/06

Universal basic income – UBI – has always been more an economic thought experiment than serious policy idea. It’s now being taken seriously, but any large-scale implementation would need solid empirical evidence to justify the cost. Tavneet Suri tells Tim Phillips about the surprising insights from the early stages of a decade-long test of UBI in Kenya, and what we expect to learn as the experiment progresses.

20:32

S4 Ep9: Labour market dynamics in LMICs

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/02/27

The process that economists call labour market dynamics lets workers improve their lives by switching jobs. But do our assumptions about it apply in LMICs? Because if the dynamics are different, then maybe the policies should be different as well. Kevin Donovan and Todd Schoellman tell Tim Phillips about the surprising evidence they discovered about labour market flows, and why it might lead us to rethink job creation policy in LMICs.

29:01

S4 Ep8: Humanitarian aid and the costs of inaction

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/02/21

The need for humanitarian relief is at record highs, while support from the international community is dwindling. Should we divert funding from development policies designed to deliver growth to focus on the most efficient ways to provide humanitarian assistance instead? And, if we did, what would those policies be? Arif Husain of the UN WFP tells Tim Phillips about the growing funding gap for aid, the urgent need to improve global food security, and the consequences if we choose not to act.Photo

26:02

S4 Ep7: AI, entrepreneurs, and development

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/02/14

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 entrepreneurs in Kenya. He tells Tim Phillips about which questions the mentor was asked, and which businesses profited from its AI-driven advice.

19:55

S4 Ep6: Mobile money markets and financial inclusion

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/02/07

Mobile money has created many opportunities for users. But its fees can be expensive. One solution: create competition between mobile money providers in Africa through interoperability. But if we reduce the profitability of providers, might it also reduce network coverage, and therefore financial inclusion too? Nicola Limodio tells Tim Phillips about the upside and downside of competition in Africa’s mobile money market.

17:35

S4 Ep5: Macro development: The emerging agenda

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/01/31

Recorded at CEPR Paris Symposium 2023: How can macroeconomics (and macroeconomists) contribute to what we know about development policy? The availability of better data has given fresh impetus to the use of macroeconomic models to explain the development process in LICs. Doug Gollin and Paula Bustos talk to Tim Phillips about this emerging agenda, what questions it is helping to answer, and the challenges of the next generation of research.

21:18

S4 Ep4: State capacity and the development of the US

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2024/01/24

What is the role of state capacity in economic development? Nicola Mastrorocco spent five years digitalising civil service records from a century of economic development in the US, showing how a century of bureaucracy changed the US, and what this tells us about how a state bureaucracy evolves.

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