PODCAST

VoxDev Development Economics

VoxDev.org

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

science social sciences

All Episodes

20:19

S1 Ep47: Is faster always better? Evidence from...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2021/02/01

Access to fast cash through digital credit may put consumers at risk for over-indebtedness and likelihood of default Read “Too fast, too furious? Digital credit delivery speed and repayment rates” by Alfredo Burlando, Michael A. Kuhn, and Silvia Prina here.

24:43

S1 Ep46: Designing more effective interventions to...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2021/01/27

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

24:43

S1 Ep47: Designing more effective interventions to...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2021/01/27

Bundling interventions that offer parents health information along with cash transfers might yield more sustainable changes in early-life health outcomes for children Read “The impacts of a multifaceted pre-natal intervention on human capital accumulation in early life” by Pedro Carneiro, Lucy Kraftman, Giacomo Mason, Lucie Moore, Imran Rasul and Molly Scott here.

17:51

S1 Ep46: Urban-rural gaps in the developing world:...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2021/01/20

Policymakers might seek to address the frictions that prevent potentially beneficial migration to urban areas from taking place Read “Urban-Rural Gaps in the Developing World: Does Internal Migration Offer Opportunities?” by David Lagakos here.

15:10

S1 Ep46: Unintended consequences: How workfare...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2021/01/13

Despite evidence of increasing household wages, anti-poverty schemes in India can have an adverse effect by lowering human capital investment Read “Workfare and Human Capital Investment: Evidence from India” by Manisha Shah and Bryce Millet Steinberg here.

14:20

S1 Ep46: How does shame and embarrassment impact...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2021/01/06

People are less likely to ask questions in their communities if it exposes the limits of their knowledge. Read “Signaling, shame, and silence in social learning” by Arun G. Chandrasekhar, Benjamin Golub, and He Yang here.

13:49

S1 Ep46: Failure of frequent assessment: Evidence...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/12/08

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

13:15

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

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/11/25

Nearly a billion people around the world are not connected to the electricity grid, and even more have unreliable access. In this VoxDevTalk, Robin Burgess discusses his paper with Michael Greenstone, Nicholas Ryan, and Anant Sudarshan in which the authors argue that a social norm that all people deserve access to electricity regardless of payment may actually be undermining the universal access called for in Sustainable Development Goal 7. When people feel no compulsion to pay for the electricity

13:56

S1 Ep45: Technology as a tool for governance:...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/11/11

Incentivising agent performance is a double-edged sword: while it can encourage agents to perform better, it might also nudge them into cheating and manipulating results to their benefit. In this VoxDevTalk, Guojun He discusses his work with Michael Greenstone, Ruixue Jia, and Tong Liu on this classic principal-agent problem in the context of how Chinese local governments self-report meeting air pollution-reduction targets imposed (and incentivised) by the central government. An analysis of these

14:10

S1 Ep45: How does funding influence sectoral and...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/11/04

Certain kinds of NGO-led development projects attract more funding and media attention than others. Child sponsorship or microcredit schemes, for instance, tend to be 'hotter' than rehabilitation projects. To what extent does this knowledge affect the fundraising agenda of NGOs? What causes NGOs to 'cluster' around specific causes in favour of others? And what can be done to diversify NGO (and donor) attention? In this VoxDevTalk, Thierry Verdier examines the motivations of NGO competition and its

21:42

S1 Ep45: Gender norms, rule of law, and female...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/10/28

Entrepreneurship across the world is highly male dominated. While the amount of subsistence entrepreneurship in developing countries leads to a slightly more equal gender balance, female entrepreneurs in these countries tend to choose sectors where other women are. In this VoxDevTalk, Nava Ashraf and Ed Glaeser discuss their work with Alexia Delfino investigating how gender norms and weak rule of law put female entrepreneurs at a disadvantage. Fear of expropriation by men leads them to work in less

15:03

S1 Ep45: The selection of talent: Experimental and...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/10/21

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 against the probability of their getting the job and the eventual benefits. It is widely believed that if recruiters raise the costs of applying for a job, only the most suited and driven candidates can be expected to apply. In this VoxDevTalk, Stefano Caria shares insights from his paper with Girum Abebe and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, in which the authors

14:39

S1 Ep45: Paying outsourced labour: Evidence from...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/10/14

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 surveys usually do not capture the pay of outsourced labour, there is insufficient data on the pay differential between contract workers and full-time workers. In this VoxDevTalk, Simon Jäger of MIT discusses a new paper where he and his co-authors estimate how much firms differentiate pay premia between regular and outsourced workers. They overcome the

13:43

S1 Ep45: Incentivising behavioural change: The role...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/10/07

Incentivising people to lead healthier lives by means of monetary payments is a simple and cost-effective intervention, but are there ways to tweak that basic incentive contract to make it work particularly well for people who are impatient (those who discount future benefits for immediate gain)? In this VoxDevTalk, Rebecca Dizon-Ross discusses a randomised experiment that varied the design of payment incentives: bundling payments over time meaningfully increased effort among the impatient relative

9:46

S1 Ep45: Do social structures affect the success of...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/09/23

Relationships between groups are vital in village economies, but do these social structures affect the success of development policies? If resources are delivered by someone from the community, does the social relationship between that agent and the people who could benefit from the success of the intervention matter? In this VoxDevTalk, Oriana Bandiera discusses an experiment in Uganda that addresses these questions. Randomly selecting one of two viable candidates to deliver an agricultural

16:43

S1 Ep45: Negotiating a better future: Experimental...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/09/02

Across the developing world, many girls face difficulties in persuading their parents to enrol them in secondary education. Whilst financial incentives have often been analysed as a means to encourage female school enrollment, there has been little focus on the role of negotiation skills. In this VoxDevTalk, Kathleen McGinn discusses an innovative experiment in Zambia, which assesses the impact of negotiation skills on female educational outcomes. Fascinatingly, the researchers find that teaching

20:31

S1 Ep45: Cities in the developing world

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/08/26

By 2050, the world’s urban population is estimated to reach nearly seven billion, driven mainly by urbanisation in developing countries. Despite this growth, development economists have often chosen to focus on rural areas. In this VoxDevTalk, Ed Glaeser discusses a new paper that brings together research into urbanisation in the developing world. He argues that policymakers should not try to slow migration into cities, given the benefits of urbanisation that existing research has shown. These

22:08

S1 Ep45: Breaking down access constraints faced by...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/08/12

Across the world, women face invisible barriers that prevent them from taking up education and work. This is particularly the case in conservative societies such as in Punjab, Pakistan. In this VoxDev Talk, Asim Khwaja discusses an experiment in Punjab, Pakistan, that assessed the take-up rates of a vocational training programme for women. The researchers found that despite high interest, few women actually took up the programme. This low take-up rate was largely explained by social barriers that

18:25

S1 Ep44: Pipe dreams: Enforcing payment for water and...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/08/05

Editors’ note: This podcast was updated on 25.08.2020 How can policymakers solve the problem of non-payment of utility bills while still maintaining access to water and sanitation services? In the developing world, urban settings often struggle to provide basic needs, including water and sanitation. Often, the challenge lies in the cost of the last mile between the main infrastructure and individual households. In this VoxDev talk, Paul Gertler discusses an innovative experiment targeted at

26:18

S1 Ep44: Trade in developing economies

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2020/07/29

Why do trade barriers remain high in developing countries despite the significant potential to drive economic growth through trade? Advanced economies have mostly removed tariffs and other barriers to trade. By contrast, in many developing countries such barriers remain in spite of the huge potential to drive economic growth through trade. In this VoxDev talk, David Atkin and Amit Khandelwal discuss their new paper on trade in developing economies. They argue that we think about trade policy often

310 results

VoxDev Development Economics

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

Classic Radio Science Fiction

solgoodmedia.com

Mission to Mars

Inception Point Ai

The 365 Days of Astronomy

365DaysOfAstronomy.org

Creek Devil

william Jevning

UFO Chronicles Podcast

Nik Hunter