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 relat...
Oct 07, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 45
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 ext...
Sep 23, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 45
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 teachin...
Sep 02, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 45
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 b...
Aug 26, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 45
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 tha...
Aug 12, 2020•22 min•Season 1Ep. 45
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 impr...
Aug 05, 2020•18 min•Season 1Ep. 44
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 oft...
Jul 29, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 44
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 afford...
Jul 15, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 43
Can investments in vocational training, contrary to the existing research literature, actually improve labour market outcomes?
Jul 08, 2020•12 min•Season 1Ep. 43
Why do we still see high rates of child marriage in settings such as Bangladesh, despite significant improvements in women’s economic empowerment?
Jul 01, 2020•23 min•Season 1Ep. 42
How do poor mental health and poverty interact, and how can we best ensure access to mental health services?
Jun 17, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 42
How can we best incentivise bureaucrats in a formal manner that avoids concerns over corruption?
Jun 10, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 41
Can policymakers speed up the adoption of modern agricultural technologies through peer-to-peer learning?
Jun 03, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 40
To what extent do the poorest rural households in sub-Saharan Africa benefit from residential electrification investments?
May 27, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 39
Do unconditional cash transfers increase welfare in communities as a whole, even within households that do not receive them?
May 20, 2020•16 min•Season 1Ep. 38
How can governments in developing countries best ensure widespread and effective social protection in light of the COVID-19 pandemic?
May 06, 2020•22 min•Season 1Ep. 37
How can we best protect the most vulnerable in the developing world during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Apr 29, 2020•18 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Whilst rural to urban migration can improve the allocation of labour, can it have unintended consequences on risk sharing in rural communities?
Apr 15, 2020•12 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Rickshaw drivers in India who randomly received sobriety incentives as part of an experiment significantly reduced their daytime drinking
Apr 08, 2020•23 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Does easing the financial stress of short-term workers by paying them earlier lead to productivity improvements?
Apr 01, 2020•18 min•Season 1Ep. 34
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. ...
Mar 25, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Why do some countries have high rates of taxation and high compliance, while some failed states have neither?
Jan 08, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Why has economic growth stuttered in Mexico despite, on the face of it, implementation of sensible economic policies by successive governments? 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 f...
Dec 04, 2019•20 min•Season 1Ep. 31
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 B...
Oct 23, 2019•21 min•Season 1Ep. 30
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...
Oct 09, 2019•34 min•Season 1Ep. 29
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 als...
Oct 02, 2019•22 min•Season 1Ep. 28
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...
Sep 11, 2019•8 min•Season 1Ep. 27
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. Editor’s Note: This is part of our 2 year VoxDev anniversary series...
Jun 25, 2019•15 min•Season 1Ep. 26
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. Editor’s Note: This is part of our 2 year VoxDev anniversary series
Jun 25, 2019•21 min•Season 1Ep. 25
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. Editor’s Note: This is part of our 2 year VoxDev anniversary series...
Jun 25, 2019•12 min•Season 1Ep. 24
