This week's links include some positive developments in development, how to negotiate your econ job, why an SEZ was not very successful, econ meets other disciplines, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Today's links include the new VoxDevLit on organized crime, going beyond push-pull migration, the state of the econ job market, and measuring success for female entrepreneurs. blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Today's catch-up links have a behind the scenes seminar coming up on doing pre-registration and PAPs, how loans to banks helped firms in Ecuador, animal welfare economics mentoring, the need for more big firms in Africa, and much more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

My paper on designing and analyzing powerful experiments is now up online at Fiscal Studies. Here is my shareable link for free access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...

My sense is that from a Bayesian perspective this is not so bad? Essentially you require more evidence for claims that are more out of line with priors - so having a round of extra checks kick in when you get an unusual result may be justifiable? @economeager.bsky.social what do you think?

In today's blog post, what are attrition rates like in developed country field surveys? Benchmarks & lessons for development economists, especially those working with more urban/richer/more mobile populations... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Working papers get a lot of attention and journalists don't scrutinize the evidence. I do that here for the most recent cash transfers and infant mortality paper... Is the effect that big? How can spillovers be so important (and work so fast)? Do forking paths affect the findings? And more...

In a break from our blog break, @berkozler12.bsky.social does a deep-dive into a recent working paper that found large impacts of cash transfers on infant mortality - discussing the set of conditions needed for the effect, and some puzzles blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...?

This week's links are the last for a while before we take a break for a month: cash transfers and jobs, representation and relevance in development econ, garment manufacturing and poverty, and more.. blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

A description of researcher initiative that is both accurate (imo) + unflattering

For those without access, here is a gift link to the NYTimes article on the sad state of the economics job market www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/b...

My practical tips for designing, implementing, and analyzing powerful experiments. In today's blog I summarize a new paper I've written for a special issue on power calculations. A key message is that it does not make sense to talk of “the” power of an experiment. blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Weekly links include what makes a good behavioral or lab experiment measure, the effects of building new pre-schools, using non-traditional types of data, conference and WBRO calls, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Thank you @talknormal.co.uk for a great conversation on the @voxdev.bsky.social podcast together with #CarolineTheoharides on our recent @science.org article. The "brain drain" is only part of the story—skilled migration can benefit origin countries too. 🎧 voxdev.org/topic/migrat...

This week's links include more on brain drain, comparing AI and human chat on career advice for potential teachers, women leaders in India did not have long-run impacts, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Say it with me one more time: "Today in Development Impact..." blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Hey now, Don't dream it's over - we salute @berkozler12.bsky.social on his last day and the World Bank and highlight a few of his many contributions to the Development Impact blog over the last 14 years blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

This week was short on links that caught my attention, but here they are: blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

How much are people willing to pay for information about air quality? Patrick Behrer summarizes recent RCTs in India, Georgia, and Mexico and shows some willingness and behavior change, but it is limited. blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

This week's links include firms and climate change, the need to address multiple frictions at once, impacts of cash transfers on infant mortality, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

📣 Call for papers - 18th International Conference on #Migration and #Development 📅 Event held September 25-26, 2025 in Paris 🤝 With keynote's from: Paula Gobbi, @dmckenzie.bsky.social & @mushfiq-econ.bsky.social ⌛ Submit by July 15, 2025 #EconSky #Poverty #Inequality #Globalization

This series by @leightjessica.bsky.social is a nice way of finding out about lots of new work in development & it is great to see someone using these platforms to celebrate others.

For a fun different type of blog post, today Gabe Englander gives a summer reading recommendation for a book about how African musical traditions have had global impact blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

insights.som.yale.edu/insights/whe... "The countries that succeed are the ones that are able to create institutions that attract talent from wherever it happens to be born."

This week's links include causal claims, $3/day is the new $1/day, in defense of ML, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Now up: the 9th in my annual series of efforts to put together data on development journals: rankings, number of papers submitted (over 12,000 last year across 12 journals), number published (937), acceptance rates, time to review, open access stats, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

This week's links include how to use behavioral science for growth and not just reminding people to do stuff, an action-oriented approach to research, behind the scenes of research, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

This week's links include what everyday life for a World Bank researcher looks like, getting grumpy with teamwork on hot days, when giving cash backfired, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Incorporating informative Bayesian priors offers the ability to learn more from experiments. @leoiacovone.bsky.social , @economeager.bsky.social & @dmckenzie.bsky.social demonstrate how to do this in the context of a Colombian exporting experiment. buff.ly/CwdGmKE

How does high-skilled emigration affect countries of origin? I summarize our recent Science paper, &draw out lessons from where we need nuance (not all high-skilled is the same, & most studies lump together), what we don't know (especially how to do better policy) blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

I’m speaking at the next Behind-the-Scenes Seminar on 27 May at 9am DC/2pm UK time. This online seminar series explores the production process of research papers, offering insights into the challenges encountered during project development & how they were overcome. forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Thanks for having me! This was a fun conversation to have. Hope folks find it helpful. Now I have something to send to anyone who asks me what it's like doing research at the WB!

This is a key insight for researchers, you can make it worthwhile to partner with you with very small things that won't cost you anything, like sharing baseline summary statistics

Six questions with Kelsey Jack: we discuss how to get utilities to share their administrative data with you, whether work on climate economics focuses too much on the individual, the laugh test with your results, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Lots of good reading this week in my weekly links: use cases of AI for development, electricity is complex, the psychology of poverty, several conferences on jobs and women, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Mismeasured weather & satellite data: Patrick Behrer summarizes new work on the performance of 9 of the most commonly used earth observation datasets. "Depending on which you use, the estimated impact of weather on agricultural outcomes varies, sometimes wildly" blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

This week's links include Lant Pritchett on how the (low) poverty line distorts development economics, the decline in sole authorship at top journals, long-run impacts of test score gains, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Interesting interview with Bill Gates about where big progress can be made in alleviating health problems in developing countries & why he will sunset his foundation www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/m...

What can people doing field experiments learn from a new guide to lab experiments? @berkozler12.bsky.social discusses in today's blog and doesn't find that much blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

On the blog today, DIME analytics introduces a new R Shiny package for high-frequency checks with survey data blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

It was great to present my work with Jacobus Cilliers and Nour Elashmawy on PDS Lasso in field experiments at BREAD this weekend. Several people requested the slides afterwards, so I have put them up on my webpage - glad people found the talk useful: drive.google.com/file/d/1NFly...

This week's links include interviews with 4 development economists, new work on triple DiD with controls, how to do inference when only a few units are treated, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Thinking about submitting your papers to @migrationjrnl.bsky.social and wondering if it's a good fit? We've just updated our 'about us' to give a clearer indication of what we tend to look for: highlights in thread, and link here (and at end of thread) academic.oup.com/migration/pa... 1/n

Great blog entry by @dmckenzie.bsky.social on the question of "How to manage governments better". If you read "Abundance" by Klein-Thompson, but want to know more about what the implications for government design are beyond "de-regulation", you will enjoy this excellent and thoughtful blog!

Goldlilocks state capacity, why we can't get good stuff done. My blog today draws together some lessons from @karthik-econ.bsky.social 's book, @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social 's Abundance, and @noamangrist.bsky.social & @economeager.bsky.social 's work on ITT vs TOT. blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

This week's links are up a day early - including @owenozier.bsky.social & co on software usage, me on the backstory podcast, funding for research on women-led businesses in LAC, several studies of unanticipated consequences of policies, and more ... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

The UCSD backstory podcast interviews me about doing applied methods work in development, whether there are private returns from producing public goods, how to select research problems, what a grad student could do in their second year summer, and more... open.spotify.com/episode/2i70...

This week's links include the long-lasting impacts of WWII industrial production in India, the economist as a designer, new research on African education, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

The research group at the Workd Bank is doing an off-cycle hire for a trade economist worldbankgroup.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

This week's links include the challenges of interviewing shopkeepers vs farmers, giving second-best policy advice, power analysis the Bayesian way, customised business services as place-based policy, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...