Alle afleveringen
351 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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S1 Ep44: Trade in developing economies
29 juli 2020 · 26 min
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 through neoclassical models that emphasise perfect competition. Whilst this way of thinking may suit environments in advanced economies, it does not resemble the realities on ground in developing countries. Lees meerRead “How distortions alter the impact of international trade in developing countries” by David Atkin and Amit Khandelwal here.
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S1 Ep43: Inclusive growth dividend: Reframing the role of income transfers in India
15 juli 2020 · 29 min
Many development economists have advocated unconditional cash transfers as a crucial tool for reducing poverty, especially during the present COVID-19 pandemic. In this VoxDev talk, Karthik Muralidharan discusses the effects of a small unconditional cash transfer for India’s development goals. He argues that an inclusive growth dividend, pegged at 1% of GDP and paid to all citizens, would have major positive impacts on key development indicators. And crucially, such a transfer is fiscally affordable for India, as opposed to Universal Basic Income, which requires spending of 4-10% of GDP. Lees meer
Read "An inclusive growth dividend: Reframing the role of income transfers in India’s anti-poverty strategy" by Maitreesh Ghatak and Karthik Muralidharan here.
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S1 Ep43: Does vocational educational training work? Experimental evidence from Mongolia
8 juli 2020 · 12 min
Can investments in vocational training, contrary to the existing research literature, actually improve labour market outcomes?
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S1 Ep42: Reducing rates of child marriage: Experimental evidence from Bangladesh
1 juli 2020 · 23 min
Why do we still see high rates of child marriage in settings such as Bangladesh, despite significant improvements in women’s economic empowerment?
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S1 Ep42: Poverty and depression: How improving mental health can help economic wellbeing
17 juni 2020 · 19 min
How do poor mental health and poverty interact, and how can we best ensure access to mental health services?
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S1 Ep41: Incentivising bureaucrats through performance-based postings: Experimental evidence from Pakistan
10 juni 2020 · 15 min
How can we best incentivise bureaucrats in a formal manner that avoids concerns over corruption?
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S1 Ep40: Social learning in agriculture: Experimental evidence from Malawi
3 juni 2020 · 20 min
Can policymakers speed up the adoption of modern agricultural technologies through peer-to-peer learning?
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S1 Ep39: Does household electrification supercharge economic development?
27 mei 2020 · 20 min
To what extent do the poorest rural households in sub-Saharan Africa benefit from residential electrification investments?
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S1 Ep38: Cash transfers and the wider economy: Evidence from Kenya
20 mei 2020 · 16 min
Do unconditional cash transfers increase welfare in communities as a whole, even within households that do not receive them?
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S1 Ep37: How to protect the poor in the time of COVID-19?
6 mei 2020 · 22 min
How can governments in developing countries best ensure widespread and effective social protection in light of the COVID-19 pandemic?
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S1 Ep36: Cushioning the effects of COVID-19 on the poor
29 april 2020 · 18 min
How can we best protect the most vulnerable in the developing world during the COVID-19 pandemic?
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S1 Ep35: Migration and risk sharing: Evidence from Bangladesh
15 april 2020 · 12 min
Whilst rural to urban migration can improve the allocation of labour, can it have unintended consequences on risk sharing in rural communities?
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S1 Ep35: Alcohol and self-control: Evidence from India
8 april 2020 · 23 min
Rickshaw drivers in India who randomly received sobriety incentives as part of an experiment significantly reduced their daytime drinking
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S1 Ep34: Alleviating financial strain to drive productivity: Evidence from India
1 april 2020 · 18 min
Does easing the financial stress of short-term workers by paying them earlier lead to productivity improvements?
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S1 Ep33: Increasing sleep for the urban poor: Evidence from India
25 maart 2020 · 20 min
Many researchers have suggested that increased sleep at night translates into improved working outcomes, such as higher productivity. But while these researchers have often focused on settings where sleep quality is high, workers in many developing countries suffer from low sleep quality due to factors such as noise, heat, and mosquitoes. In this VoxDev talk, Gautam Rao and Frank Schilbach discuss an innovative experiment that targeted increased sleep among low-income workers in Chennai, India. Fascinatingly, they find that increased sleep at night did not have a positive effect on a range of outcomes including work, decision-making, and health. But can naps at work do the trick? Lees meer
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S1 Ep32: Taxation, civic culture and state capacity
8 januari 2020 · 28 min
Why do some countries have high rates of taxation and high compliance, while some failed states have neither?
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S1 Ep31: Mexico’s economic growth puzzle: A conversation with Santiago Levy
4 december 2019 · 20 min
Why has economic growth stuttered in Mexico despite, on the face of it, implementation of sensible economic policies by successive governments? Lees meer
Since the 1990s, Mexican governments have done a lot right economically speaking. Inflation has been brought down and the economy stabilised, while exports have also flourished. And yet Mexico has struggled to translate this into significant economic growth. In this VoxDev talk, Santiago Levy discusses his book Under-rewarded efforts: The elusive quest for prosperity in Mexico, which attempts to explain this puzzle. He illustrates that the key to this paradox is the huge productivity differences that exist among Mexican firms.
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S1 Ep30: Multinational enforcement of labour laws: Evidence from Bangladesh
23 oktober 2019 · 21 min
Some multinationals privately enforce labour standards among their suppliers in developing countries. But is this effective, and does it complement or replace other ways to improve working conditions? Laura Boudreau discusses a recent randomised controlled trial she conducted in Bangladesh to test whether multinational buyers can provide their suppliers in developing countries with incentives to improve compliance with local labour laws. Her experiment exploited a programme by the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a coalition of US multinationals, to enforce a new mandate by the Bangladeshi government requiring factories to establish worker-manager health and safety committees. The intervention by the Alliance significantly improved compliance by local suppliers with the new labour law, which in turn led to a small but statistically significant improvement in indicators of factory safety. Lees meer
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S1 Ep29: Lessons from Mexico’s poverty reduction programme
9 oktober 2019 · 34 min
In Mexico in 1996, the extreme poverty rate had climbed above 30%, prompting the government to introduce a poverty reduction programme called Progresa, which turned the conventional wisdom on poverty reduction policies on its head. In this VoxDev talk, Santiago Levy, one of the main architects of the programme that was to become Progresa, takes us back to the 1990s to discuss the creation of the project. He also explains how it managed to avoid the traps that have prevented similar programmes in other countries from being as successful. Lees meer
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S1 Ep28: Does research translate into policy? Evidence from Brazilian municipalities
2 oktober 2019 · 22 min
Social science research seeks to improve the world we live in. Yet, there is little information on how much political leaders actually value this research when making policy decisions. In this VoxDev talk, Diana Moreira of the University of California, Davis discusses an innovative experiment which took place in more than 2,000 municipalities in Brazil and sheds new light on this topic. The findings suggest that Brazilian mayors not only change their beliefs after evidence briefings, but are also more likely to introduce related policies in their municipalities. Lees meer
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S1 Ep27: The future of the World Bank: Why knowledge is power
11 september 2019 · 8 min
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 World Bank has to continuously evolve to meet its ambitious agenda of eliminating extreme poverty and achieving shared prosperity. Its strength lies in its capacity to produce knowledge and convene policy makers and practitioners. Today, its greatest challenge is transitioning from an organisation that has been traditionally focused on lending to serving as an intermediary between the private sector and governments, conveying policy advice. More systematic collaboration with academia would be useful in making this transition. Lees meer
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S1 Ep26: The changing face of development: Backlash against globalisation
25 juni 2019 · 15 min
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 the most important challenges and new evidence. In this VoxDev Talk, Penny Goldberg, World Bank Chief Economist, highlights the trend of becoming more inward looking, and the emergence of new and compelling evidence on how mobile people are when hit by economic shocks. Lees meer
Editor’s Note: This is part of our 2 year VoxDev anniversary series
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S1 Ep25: The changing face of development: The elite capture of democracy
25 juni 2019 · 21 min
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 the most important challenges and new evidence. In this VoxDev Talk, Daron Acemoglu, MIT, highlights the slide of democratic and broadly inclusive institutions. Lees meer
Editor’s Note: This is part of our 2 year VoxDev anniversary series
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S1 Ep24: The changing face of development: The gap between macroeconomic policy and research
25 juni 2019 · 12 min
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 the most important challenges and new evidence. In this VoxDev Talk, Bill Easterly, Co-Director of NYU’s Development Research Institute, discusses the backlash against globalisation, and the importance and challenge of conducting research on macroeconomic policies. Lees meer
Editor’s Note: This is part of our 2 year VoxDev anniversary series
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S1 Ep23: Ending global poverty: Why money is not enough
7 juni 2019 · 18 min
How can we combat the increasing trend that extreme poverty is not only confined to low-income countries, but also to middle-income ones?
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S1 Ep22: Power to the people: The impact of political report cards in India
22 mei 2019 · 14 min
Abhijit Banerjee, Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics, MIT, talks to Tim Phillips about the run-up to 2011 elections in Delhi, India, where residents in a random sample of slums received newspapers containing report cards on politicians. The information was obtained under India’s disclosure laws. The cards presented information on the performance of the incumbent and the qualifications of the two main challengers. Treatment slums saw higher turnout, reduced vote buying, and a higher vote share for better performing and more qualified candidates. Voters assessed whether candidates catered to their interests and compared their performance. Social media can undermine or dilute access to credible information among voters. Lees meer
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S1 Ep21: Where are the Indian female politicians?
17 mei 2019 · 18 min
Evidence shows that when more women are elected, it changes broader development outcomes due to their differing priorities. Yet women are almost unrepresented in parliaments around the world. In this interview, Lakshmi Iyer reveals to Tim Phillips that in India the challenge is that a woman winning a Parliamentary candidacy election does not see an increase in female candidates in the following election. This is likely due to underlying gender biases in society which even female quotas are unable to mitigate. Lees meer
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S1 Ep20: Technology transfer and the rise of China
8 mei 2019 · 12 min
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 a zero sum game. Lees meer
Resistance to technology transfer has escalated as the competitive power of China has increased. That being said, China’s growth has benefited the West: It offers a huge market for goods and services, while competition has spurred innovation and stimulated investment. What’s more, trade tariffs will inhibit growth and waste resources. Focusing on domestic innovation, education, human capital accumulation, and unlocking talent is a more productive approach to winning the technology trade war.
Photo: Ivan Walsh/ Flickr
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S1 Ep19: Why studies should be conducted on a larger scale
16 oktober 2018 · 23 min
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 predictive of how they perform at a larger scale. Lees meer
Find out more at VoxDev.org
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S1 Ep19: Breaking gender-barriers: How women are becoming managers
16 oktober 2018 · 19 min
How do we get more women in senior positions? Chris Woodruff shares insights from the Bangladeshi garment industry. Lees meer
Find out more at VoxDev.org
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S1 Ep18: Evidence to practice: Time to bridge the gap
16 oktober 2018 · 2 min
VoxDev's own Editor-in-Chief, Tavneet Suri, drawing insights from her work at J-PAL and VoxDev, emphasises the importance of researchers deeply engaging with, as well effectively communicating the findings of the vast body of existing research to, policymakers. Lees meer
Find out more at VoxDev.org
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S1 Ep17: Evidence to practice: Reforming private healthcare in India
16 oktober 2018 · 2 min
Using the example of healthcare in India, Nick O’Donohoe, Chief Executive Officer, CDC, discusses how data plays a crucial role in making sure investments are put to their best use. Lees meer
Find out more at VoxDev.org
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S1 Ep16: Achieving inclusive growth in Asia
16 oktober 2018 · 17 min
Yasuyuki Sawada, ADB’s Chief Economist, provides insight into Asia’s development and overcoming the middle-income trap. Lees meer
Find out more at VoxDev.org
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S1 Ep15: Evidence to practice: Unintended consequences in the absence of data
16 oktober 2018 · 4 min
Rodger Voorhies, Executive Director of Global Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, shares a first-hand account of the importance of empirical analysis for development practitioners Lees meer
Find out more at VoxDev.org
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S1 Ep46: The political economy of donor funding: Insights from USAID
12 september 2018 · 15 min
How does USAID decide how and where to channel its efforts?
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S1 Ep14: Is aid effective?
8 september 2018 · 26 min
Development aid by its very nature is provided in messy environments, is often very political and has inherent negative incentives. In such situations, often exacerbated by limited data and imminent deadlines, can we improve how we provide aid? In this interview, Stefan Dercon, discusses the various aspects of aid effectives; the importance of cost-benefit analyses, feedback loops, prioritising the engines of inclusive growth, theories of change, and planning for humanitarian aid. Lees meer
Find out more at VoxDev
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S1 Ep13: Ideas for development
8 september 2018 · 14 min
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 poverty. Finally, he discusses the idea of electricity being a public good rather than an entitlement, and how this is panning out in Bihar, India. Lees meer
Find out more at VoxDev
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S1 Ep12: Achieving meaningful impact through aid
8 september 2018 · 14 min
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. Lees meer
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S1 Ep11: Tackling food insecurity
8 september 2018 · 19 min
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, multi-stakeholder coordination, women’s empowerment, child nutrition and rural-urban connectivity. Finally, he discusses the politics of humanitarian aid and the difficult trade-off decisions that need to be made in its allocation. Lees meer
Find out more at VoxDev
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S1 Ep9: Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals
8 september 2018 · 22 min
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 rising nationalism, and moving away from the traditional top-down approach, as well as progress made thus far. Lees meer
Find out more at VoxDev
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S1 Ep8: The effects of pay inequality
8 september 2018 · 4 min
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 clearly observe productivity differences, pay inequality has no discernible effect on output, attendance, or group cohesion. Lees meer
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S1 Ep7: What is holding firms back?
8 september 2018 · 3 min
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. Lees meer
This VoxDev Talk is taken from a video that first appeared on the IGC's website.
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S1 Ep6: Globalisation and development
8 september 2018 · 2 min
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 countries can mitigate the effects and take opportunities to broaden the skills base of their workers. Lees meer
Find out more at VoxDev
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S1 Ep5: Childcare and development
8 september 2018 · 3 min
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. Lees meer
Find out more at VoxDev
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S1 Ep4: If she builds it, they won’t come: The gender profit gap
8 september 2018 · 3 min
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. Lees meer
Find out more at VoxDev Talks
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S1 Ep3: Productivity and energy-saving technology
8 september 2018 · 3 min
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 firm is getting from the efficient lighting. Lees meer
The research in this VoxDev Talk was conducted thanks to funding from the PEDL programme. To know more about the project, please click here.
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S1 Ep2: Building a functional state in difficult places
8 september 2018 · 4 min
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. Lees meer
This VoxDev Talk is taken from a video that was previously published on the IGC's website.
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S1 Ep1: Building effective and functioning cities
8 september 2018 · 5 min
Ed Glaeser explains why cities are the best pathway to prosperity and outlines three lessons from over 30 years of economics research on urbanisation. Lees meer
This VoxDev Talk is taken from a video that was previously published on the IGC's website.
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S1 Ep1: Harnessing FDI in Africa
8 september 2018 · 5 min
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. Lees meer
This VoxDev Talk is taken from a video that was first published by the IGCand is based on an IGC Growth Brief.
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S1 Ep2: The backlash against globalisation
8 september 2018 · 2 min
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 anti-globalisation stance. Lees meer
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