In rural India, subsidising family planning services gets women to the clinic, but pairing subsidies with a ‘Bring-a-Friend’ voucher changes who accompanies them, reduces stigma, and delivers meaningful gains in contraceptive use.
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Expanding paid maternity leave in India from 12 to 26 weeks led employers to cut women's employment by up to 10% and favour men for promotions, while leaving wages unchanged.
Among women in rural Ghana, depression and anxiety reduce take-up for jobs outside the home, but have no effect on productivity or earnings when the same job is offered at home – suggesting that work environment is a key barrier to labour market participation.
A randomised evaluation of a cash and psychological intervention in Ethiopia shows that the joint intervention is needed to improve both mental health and economic outcomes, but the effectiveness of the combined intervention is attenuated by active conflict.
Central banks can lose credibility quickly when policy decisions are seen as politically driven. Evidence from Brazil shows that even a single ungrounded policy shift can unanchor inflation expectations and deteriorate inflation dynamics.
New research on China shows that entrepreneurs who start multiple firms are more productive on average – but this conceals a troubling pattern: some succeed not because of skill, but because of preferential access to finance.
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Equal land distribution in pre-industrial East Asia paradoxically drove poverty by enabling higher fertility among landowning households, creating population pressure that depressed wages.
This week we featured research on teachers, fiscal tightening, shadow banks and more!
Read a summary of this work here: voxdev.org/topic/week-development-e...
Efficient climate policy disproportionately burdens low- and middle-income countries. Modest transfers can make it fair and feasible.
New narrative evidence for sub-Saharan Africa shows that fiscal tightening has larger negative effects on output in downturns, when implemented through spending cuts, and when aid is scarce.
In India, shadow banks do not compete with traditional banks through a single mechanism – fintech lenders use superior data technology to reach underserved borrowers in unsecured markets, while non-fintech shadow banks exploit lighter regulatory constraints in secured lending.
In Mexico, children in safe areas suffer lasting academic harm when peers who fled local violence transfer to their schools – even though they were never directly exposed to that violence themselves.
🆕 The complex link between poverty and health 📢
Today on VoxDevTalks, Adriana Lleras-Muney (UCLA) discusses what drives the relationship between poverty and health, and what policymakers can do about it: voxdev.org/topic/health...
A large field experiment in Brazil finds that simply reminding parents to pay attention to school improves student outcomes about the same as sending them detailed, child-specific information.
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A zero-cost nudge – simply listing hard-to-staff schools first in an online vacancy platform – significantly increased the share of teachers applying to and being placed in under-resourced schools.
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Formal military cooperation between neighbouring states can reduce jihadist violence in border regions, as shown by causal evidence from the G5 Sahel Joint Force, which allowed armies to conduct joint operations and share intelligence across borders.
Ethnic diversity is often blamed for poor development outcomes. New evidence from colonial Peru shows that a history of economic exchange can sustain inter-ethnic cooperation and local trade in the long run.
New estimates of the social rates of return on investment in road infrastructure in emerging market and developing economies highlight substantial unrealised gains from redirecting advanced-economy savings towards public investment in developing countries.
🆕 The long shadow of British rule: India's colonial legacy 📢
Today on VoxDevTalks, Lakshmi Iyer (@ndecon.bsky.social) discusses colonial administration and land tenure systems in India: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4spq...
Low prices paid to suppliers in global supply chains can raise concerns about unequal sharing of gains from exporting. New research on India’s garment sector shows that these low prices can reflect both mutually beneficial agreements and surplus capture from exporters’ bargaining leverage.
Outsourcing the management of public hospitals in Brazil to private operators increased hospital output and productivity without harming quality or equity, expanding access and reducing mortality, with the gains depending critically on the managerial capacity of the organisations in charge.
Evidence from Ukraine finds providing civilians with clear information and organised transport was more effective than behavioural nudges in encouraging evacuation: voxdev.org/topic/instit...
In Myanmar, rising rice prices fuelled state-led violence against civilians – challenging narratives that frame such atrocities as a reaction to insurgencies: voxdev.org/topic/instit...
When fertiliser prices spike, governments must grapple with a range of trade-offs in how they respond – researchers use Rwanda as a case study: voxdev.org/topic/agricu...
Interested in understanding the economics of ongoing global conflicts, especially in developing countries? Here are 3 recent @voxdev.bsky.social articles you should check out👇
Weather forecasts in low-income countries are about 20 years behind those in high-income countries, worsening economic losses and increasing vulnerability to climate-related risks.
This week we featured research on fertiliser, inequality, AI and more!
Read a summary of this work here: voxdev.org/topic/week-development-e...
South Africa remains the most unequal country in the world despite the end of apartheid thirty years ago. Racial inequalities have declined but these gains have largely benefited a new Black elite.
While gig drivers' demographic profiles, earnings, and work experiences differ markedly across India, Indonesia, and Kenya, a common thread emerges: the flexibility to work more hours allows drivers to increase their monthly earnings, and, in some contexts, earn more.
"This recent lending boom looks very similar to the boom-bust patterns that we have seen in the past… Although you can find many features of Chinese lending that are distinct, the outcome has been very, very similar to what we have seen in the past." Sebastian Horn on VoxDevTalks today:
