PODCAST

VoxDev Development Economics

VoxDev.org

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

science social sciences

All Episodes

14:08

S1 Ep13: Ideas for development

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

In this interview, Robin Burgess discusses three ideas to foster socioeconomic development. First, he discusses how important the quality of civil servants is to development, and his work studying the Indian civil service to identify the key motivators that lead to effective policy implementation. Second, he delves into the causes of poverty. His research in India has shown that contrary to a common school of thought, it is not inherent unproductivity but lack of opportunity that traps people in

14:16

S1 Ep12: Achieving meaningful impact through aid

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

Rachel Glennerster discusses her role at DFID, her work on promoting electoral debates in Sierra Leone, the importance of strengthening local institutions, and the challenges of measuring the success of aid programmes. She emphasises the need for aid to involve local partners and focus on addressing pressing needs, rather than being paternalistic.

19:02

S1 Ep11: Tackling food insecurity

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

We lose about 5% of global GDP due to hunger related diseases, and the situation is getting worse with the number of people living in food insecurity increasing. Yet one-third of all food produced is wasted. Arif Husain, Chief Economist at the World Food Programme, discusses a plethora of issues relating to food insecurity; ranging from the main causes - climate shocks and conflict, to the problem of food wastage, to potential policy solutions. He stresses the importance of sustained political will,

21:31

S1 Ep9: Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

The sustainable development goals have ushered in a new development paradigm. In this interview, Elliott Harris discusses the vision behind the creation of the SDGs and how it differs from that of the MDGs. He stresses the need for sustainable and green development, and engagement with the private sector, which has already begun taking sustainability seriously. He further discusses the challenges of translating goals into policy, financing the goals, measuring progress, dealing with the impact of

3:36

S1 Ep8: The effects of pay inequality

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

The idea that worker utility is affected by co-worker wages has potentially broad labour market implications. In a month-long experiment with Indian manufacturing workers, in her work with Emily Breza and Yogita Shamdasani (Breza et al. 2017) Supreet Kaur establishes the effects of pay inequality on co-workers within production units. They find that pay inequality reduces output, as well as attendance by 10%. Pay disparity also lowers co-workers' ability to cooperate. However, when workers can

3:00

S1 Ep7: What is holding firms back?

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

Chris Woodruff discusses the role management practices play in firm growth. Further, he explores different mechanisms for improving firm management in varying contexts across developing countries. This VoxDev Talk is taken from a video that first appeared on the IGC's website.

2:20

S1 Ep6: Globalisation and development

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

David Atkin explains why he thinks that globalisation has brought huge benefit to developing countries in terms of expanding their manufacturing sectors and introducing them to new technologies. Retreat from globalisation can have some skill-gain benefit, as young people may stay in education longer if there are fewer low-paid manufacturing jobs on offer to them, but this is a long-term gain and in the short-term the net effect is likely to be detrimental to developing countries. Atkin asks how

2:50

S1 Ep5: Childcare and development

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

Drawing on lessons from Colombia and India, Orazio Attanasio of UCL discusses the roles, pre-existing welfare programmes' infrastructure, and parental behaviour play in effective delivery of early childhood development interventions. Find out more at VoxDev

3:02

S1 Ep4: If she builds it, they won’t come: The gender...

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

Male-owned firms earn nearly twice as much profit as female-owned firms. This difference is driven by a variance in the quantity of garments sold, rather than prices charged or costs incurred. Using a firm census and a market research survey, Morgan Hardy and Gisella Kagy (Hardy and Kagy 2017) uncover gender segregation in demand and a gender gap in the market size to firm ratio, suggesting a demand scarcity for female-owned firms. Find out more at VoxDev Talks

3:07

S1 Ep3: Productivity and energy-saving technology

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

How can we increase output per worker in countries like India and China where it is particularly low? Anant Nyshadham discusses one way to do so: by improving the physical work environment. When garment manufacturing firms in India changed their lighting system to a more energy-efficient one, the ambient temperature on the factory floor reduced by 2.5oC. This decrease resulted in an improvement in the output per worker. Moreover, the gains in productivity are five times the energy cost savings the

3:43

S1 Ep2: Building a functional state in difficult places

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

Building state functionality is difficult, and particularly so in fragile environments marred by weak institutions and political instability. Eliana La Ferrara discusses four methods to overcome the challenges of fragile states. This VoxDev Talk is taken from a video that was previously published on the IGC's website.

4:31

S1 Ep1: Building effective and functioning cities

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

Ed Glaeser explains why cities are the best pathway to prosperity and outlines three lessons from over 30 years of economics research on urbanisation. This VoxDev Talk is taken from a video that was previously published on the IGC's website.

4:46

S1 Ep1: Harnessing FDI in Africa

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

The narrative around Africa has changed over the last decade with it now being heralded as the economic powerhouse of the future. Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have laid a solid foundation to their economic growth. However, the next decade will prove crucial in sustaining this growth. To do so, job creation and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows are crucial. John Sutton (LSE) discusses why and how African countries should attract FDI. This VoxDev Talk is taken from a video that was

2:20

S1 Ep2: The backlash against globalisation

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/09/08

John Van Reenen, Professor at MIT Department of Economics and Sloan School of Management, gives a brief explanation of the ways that the current backlash against globalisation emerging in Western countries is likely to affect developing countries, and what measures governments in these countries can take to protect their economies. On the flip side he points out that disruption of global value chains will also lead to damage for companies and consumers in the Western countries adopting an

12:48

S1 Ep1: Paving a path to financial well-being

VoxDev Development Economics ·

2018/08/27

Tavneet Suri tells Tim Phillips about the rise of digital credit in Kenya. Who receives digital loans? What the loans are used for? How do they affects the lives of Kenyan people? Read more about digital credit on VoxDev.

295 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