VoxDev Development Economics

Chris Woodruff has pioneered academic research into businesses, large and small, in low-income countries, He is also a non-executive Director of British International Investment (BII), a development finance institution and impact investor that partners with more than 1,500 businesses in emerging economies, with assets of £8.1 billion.  Chris talks to Tim Phillips about what he has learned from his association with BII into how research can inform policy and investment – and whether economists worry too much about external validity. Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/firms/role-evidence-development-finance-institutions

When citizens demand change and feel they are not being heard, they protest on the streets. Thanks to social media and TV coverage, we see protests every night on the news. But has the frequency or the character of protests changed? Who is protesting, and what makes them take to the streets? David Yang and Noam Yuchtman are two of the authors of a new review of the literature on protests. They tell Tim Phillips what they discovered. Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/institutions-political-economy/why-do-protests-matter-exploring-their-causes-and-lasting

In our final episode based on this year’s BREAD-IGC virtual PhD-level course on the economics of cities in low and middle-income countries, Matthew Kahn of USC and Siqi Zheng of MIT focus on sustainable urbanisation. They tell Tim Phillips about how cities can adapt in the face of climate change, both its inhabitants and its buildings. Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/migration-urbanisation/how-urban-environment-can-adapt-climate-change

If you’re applying for a job, you want to know what you’re good at, and be able to prove it to the recruiter. If doing the recruiting, you want some evidence about who the best candidates would be. In low- or middle-income countries, this information is often in short supply. How does this affect who gets a job, and the hiring process? In the latest in our collaborations with J-Pal to discuss their policy insights, Marianne Bertrand of Chicago Booth School, also Co-Chair, Labor Markets at J-Pal, and Stefano Caria of the University of Warwick, tell Tim Phillips about the impact of skills signals on employment. Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/labour-markets/helping-jobseekers-signal-their-skills-cost-effective-strategy-benefitting

There are more than 1.4 million papers about cash transfers. They inspired Ugo Gentilini, lead economist for social protection at the World Bank, to spend five years researching the surprisingly long and rich history of these cash transfers. The resulting book, called “Timely Cash: Lessons From 2,500 Years of Giving People Money”, shows that the political and ethical debates that cash transfers inspire are centuries, sometimes millennia, old. In a special episode to mark the launch of his book, Ugo explains to Tim Phillips how we can draw on history to understand the current, sometimes heated, debates about why, when, and where cash transfers should be used. Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/institutions-political-economy/history-cash-transfers

Where does electricity come from? In developing countries, the power sector uses long-term, rigid contracts called power purchase agreements (PPAs) between a private generator and government-owned utilities. These PPAs are not usually competitive, their terms – including payment guarantees by which suppliers get paid even when there is no demand – are often secret, they can last for up to 30 years, and they guarantee the use of fossil fuels far into the future. Sugandha Srivastav tells Tim Phillips about how the privatisation of electricity generation has created a way to move money “from the public coffers to vested interests”. Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/energy-environment/why-pakistan-locked-overpriced-and-environmentally-damaging-power-sector

Can better data analysis improve the way that a government functions. The Government Analytics Handbook, published by the World Bank, is both a practical how-to guide and a fascinating insight into how administrators can improve the quality of government analytics. Daniel Rogger and Christian Schuster are the editors. They talk to Tim Phillips about the challenges, the potential – and their work to create a community of analysts. Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/public-economics/how-government-analytics-can-improve-public-sector-implementation

As cities grow and spread, the uses to which land is put, and the value of that land, will also change. The challenges of urban planning, construction and renewal are complicated. But the way we address those challenges has profound impacts for the people who live, and will live, in that physical city. Vernon Henderson and Maisy Wong of University of Pennsylvania explain to Tim Phillips how cities adapt, change and grow – and how that affects the lives and prospects of the people who live in them.

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, and so it has never been more important to increase the resilience of small-scale farmers. What does research tell us are the most effective interventions and policies to do this? In the latest of our special episodes to discuss J-PAL policy insights, Tavneet Suri talks to Tim Phillips about how we can strengthen the resilience of farmers to climate change. Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/energy-environment/financing-climate-adaptation-what-works-what-doesnt-and-can-carbon-credits

If you go to the IGC web site, you will discover the BREAD-IGC virtual PhD-level course in economics. The topic for 2024 is urbanisation and the economics of cities in low and middle-income countries. Ed Glaeser and Diego Puga gave the first talk, about the dynamic city. They talk to Tim Phillips about what attracts people to cities, how those cities constantly change and adapt to the needs of those new arrivals, and the urgent need for research into how cities grow and change outside high- income countries. Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/migration-urbanisation/role-cities-economic-development

Institutions help to determine economic growth. But studying how they do this using the rigorous experimental techniques popularised in the credibility revolution is difficult. A new review highlights an exciting new wave of empirical research into the consequences of institutional change. Michael Callen and Jonathan Weigel talk to Tim Phillips about how we can do experiments about institutions. Read the full show notes here: https://voxdev.org/topic/institutions-political-economy/can-we-use-experiments-understand-institutions

A new open access textbook called Food Economics analyses the connections between agriculture and resource use, commodity trade, food businesses, and retail markets. It covers how food is produced, brought to market, and sold. But it also looks at consumption: why many have too little food, and the problems caused by malnutrition. Will Masters and Amelia Finaret, the authors, tell Tim Phillips who is it for, and what they can learn. Read the full show notes here: https://voxdev.org/topic/agriculture/what-can-we-learn-food-economics

Small businesses in LMICs provide most of the employment. But they could provide many more jobs if the best of them could unlock their potential to grow. In the latest of our series of VoxDev Talks based on J-PAL special reports, Tim Phillips talks to David Atkin about how we can do a better job of connecting firms and entrepreneurs to markets. Read the full show notes here: https://voxdev.org/topic/firms/how-connecting-firms-markets-can-promote-economic-development

More children than ever in LMICs go to school – but they still don’t learn as much as we would want, and the difference between the educational haves and the have-nots is widening. Noam Angrist joins Tim Phillips to talk about the size of the gap between education policy and practice, why it exists, why economic development alone isn’t closing it, and how we can improve policy implementation in future. Read the full show notes here: https://voxdev.org/topic/education/gap-between-education-policy-and-practice

Since 2020, governments everywhere have had to grapple with the impacts of first Covid-19 and then a series of global shocks, not least the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The challenges have been particularly acute in Africa. Christopher Adam has seen the impacts of these shocks at first hand – and has also advised some of the people who have been making policy in Africa to mitigate their effects. He talks to Tim Phillips about how global shocks constrain Africa’s policymakers and how the after-effects of this “polycrisis” will be felt in future.