In recent decades, Malaysia achieved rapid inclusive growth, yet focus group discussions with Malaysian citizens across the country have reported stagnating living standards and rising dissatisfaction. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 Can contact between groups reduce prejudice? 📢 Today on VoxDevTalks, Matt Lowe (Vancouver School of Economics) highlights the need for more rigorous evidence on interventions that reduce prejudice: https://voxdev.org/topic/institutions-political-economy/can-contact-between-groups-reduce-prejudice

Eradicating malaria could deliver much larger economic gains in sub-Saharan Africa than previously believed. The new generation of malaria vaccines provides a highly cost-effective way to realise these benefits. Read today's article to learn more:

After adjusting for labour input differences, the apparent agricultural productivity gap in India is largely a formal-informal sector divide. Differences in education and labour hours fully explain the productivity gap between informal sector and agriculture.

Upgrading Karachi’s electricity network from bare low-voltage wires to aerial bundled cables significantly reduced theft and feeder losses, leading to improved revenue recovery and fewer power outages. Read today's article to learn more:

When official statistics are unavailable or unreliable, researchers can use a range of forensic methods to extract credible economic information, with North Korea illustrating both the possibilities and limits of studying economic ‘black holes’. Read today's article to learn more:

This week we featured research on China's solar industry, collectivisation's long shadow, food prices and more! Read a summary of this work here: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-06032026

In China, cities that adopted solar policies saw a 64% increase in patenting alongside sharp rises in revenues, production capacity, exports and firm numbers. These effects grew over time and persisted long after subsidies were introduced. Read today's article to learn more:

Negotiation training improves the ability of Liberian communities to strike beneficial deals around forest and land management by strengthening leaders’ ability to identify mutually beneficial, higher-value agreements. Read today's article to learn more:

China’s solar subsidies triggered innovation and learning-by-doing that dramatically lowered global solar costs while generating domestic economic gains large enough to outweigh the subsidy costs, showing that green industrial policy can boost growth and help fight climate change.

Evidence from Vietnam shows that institutional barriers not only misallocate resources but also discourage farmers from investing in productivity improvements, compounding the losses from misallocation. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 Transport policy for economic development 📢 Today on VoxDevTalks, Adam Storeygard (@tufts.edu @tuftseconomics.bsky.social) discusses transport policy in developing countries: voxdev.org/topic/infras...

Rising crop prices usually quiet conflict, as labourers choose farming over fighting. In Myanmar, rising rice prices instead fuelled state-led violence against civilians. These findings challenge narratives that frame such atrocities as a reaction to insurgencies. Read today's article to learn more

A religious television broadcast strengthened Hindu identity in 1980s India, catalysing lasting electoral shifts, conflict, and institutional change. Read today's article to learn more:

This week we featured research on jobs in Vietnam, pre-colonial Africa, Colombia coffee, Myanmar's mining ban and more! Read a summary of this work here: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-27022026

China’s bureaucratic promotion system unintentionally incentivises local leaders to restrict trade and underinvest in cross-jurisdictional infrastructure with provincial peers, fragmenting the world’s largest domestic markets and undermining long-term growth. Read today's article to learn more:

Adding home visits to a social safety net programme providing cash transfers and parenting information led to sustained improvements in child development, health behaviours, and education outcomes in Burkina Faso, whereas cash alone produced fewer lasting effects. Read today's article to learn more

Bilateral trade agreements create opportunities beyond signatories. The US-Vietnam trade agreement led to large, persistent increases in formal manufacturing employment in Vietnam through the entry and expansion of multinationals from East Asia. Read today's article to learn more:

🚨 VoxDev is now on TikTok! Follow for interesting and informative video explainers on development economics: www.tiktok.com/@voxdev0?is_...

Under standard conditions in the Colombian coffee sector, the benefits of producing better coffee are not passed on to farmers, weakening their incentives to invest in higher-quality production. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 Reducing air pollution: Can markets succeed where regulation fails? 📢 Today on VoxDevTalks, Michael Greenstone (@harrispolicy.bsky.social) discusses the potential of emissions trading systems in developing countries, highlighting evidence from Gujrat, India. Link below ⤵️

Theories from research in anthropology, history and African studies, combined with new data on independent political communities in pre-colonial Africa, provide an alternate view of the continent’s history. Read today's article to learn more:

Myanmar’s 2016 mining moratorium substantially reduced violent conflict by cutting off armed groups’ access to resource rents and pushing workers into alternative livelihoods. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 Carbon offsets are broken. Economists know how to fix them. In this episode of Economics Unpacked, Rohini Pande (@yaleegc.bsky.social) and Daniel Xu (Duke University) the theory and real-world evidence behind carbon offset markets. Watch below ⤵️

Women’s participation in skills training Pakistan is constrained primarily by social and safety barriers, rather than preferences or the ability to monetise skills. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 How skilled migration from Asia reshaped the US economy 📢 Today on VoxDevTalks, @econgaurav.bsky.social (@gpsucsd.bsky.social) discusses the rise of high-skilled migration from Asia to the US. 🔗 Link below ⤵️

📢 Our new VoxDevLit on Industrial Development is out now! Senior Editors Francesco Amodio & Markus Poschke summarise everything you need to know about industrialisation. Read & download here: voxdev.org/voxdevlit/in...

A new method analysing open-ended qualitative interviews with large samples, applied to interviews with Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi hosts on parent’s aspirations for children, reveals dimensions of aspiration that standard surveys systematically miss. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 Special Economic Zones: Why they succeed in some countries – and fail in others In this episode of Economics Unpacked, Tevin Tafese (@giga-hamburg.de) and Alex Rothenberg (@maxwellsu.bsky.social) discuss the economy-wide impacts of Special Economic Zones in Vietnam and Indonesia. Link below ⤵️

Indonesia’s non-tariff import measures – particularly inspections, import approvals, and port restrictions – significantly weakened exporters’ ability to adjust to China’s yuan depreciation by constraining their access to cheaper intermediate inputs. Read today's article to learn more:

Can free school meals change lives? In Colombia, Fabio Sánchez shows that the expansion of a nationwide school meal programme lowered dropout rates, raised graduation and university attendance, and delivered some of the largest long-term returns ever found for a social policy.

🆕 Integrating refugees: What policies work best? Today on VoxDevTalks, Dany Bahar (@watsonschoolbrown.bsky.social) & Giovanni Peri (@ucdavis.bsky.social) discuss the long-term gains of early, well-sequenced policies for both refugees and host economies. 🔗 Link below ⤵️

Digital cash transfers can be delivered even in active conflict settings like Sudan and can significantly protect vulnerable households – especially in the most insecure areas – from worsening food insecurity, though their impacts vary by context and household characteristics. Read today's article:

In Brazil, legalising outsourcing of security to specialised firms reduced hiring frictions, boosting formal jobs for young men, but came at a large and lasting cost to older guards in previously well-paid jobs. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 Excited to announce our free online lecture series on Industrial Development To mark the release of our new VoxDevLit next week, with Senior Editors Francesco Amodio & Markus Poschke, we have organised a series of lectures on the key topics related to industrialisation. Link to register below ⤵️

Mines pollute their surroundings, including water flows. In Africa, new evidence shows that plants and crops are less healthy downstream of mining sites, with the largest impacts in fertile, densely vegetated areas and regions dominated by gold mining. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 Free school meals: The world’s biggest social programme In this episode of Economics Unpacked, Biniam Bedasso (@cgdev.org) and Fabio Sánchez (Universidad de los Andes) discuss the long-term impacts of school feeding programmes. 🔗 Link below ⤵️

This week we featured research on AI, gender, electrification, mobile money and more! Read a summary of this work here: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-06022026

Can public works lift the urban poor? Simon Franklin’s research on Ethiopia’s city-based public works shows big spillovers – higher private-sector wages, better living conditions – but also why these programmes aren’t a cure-all for unemployment or long-term poverty.

Electricity clearly improves people’s quality of life. But in Rwanda, even one decade after communities were connected, rural electrification had limited effects on incomes, employment, and broader economic development. Read today's article to learn more:

While policy measures including higher prices and usage restrictions saved Cape Town from running out of water, they reduced demand more among wealthy households who were able to substitute away from municipal water. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 Gender inequality in labour markets: Why growth and education are not enough 📢 Today on VoxDevTalks w/ Barbara Petrongolo (@oxfordecondept.bsky.social) & @ashwinideshpande.bsky.social (Ashoka University @lseinequalities.bsky.social). Link below ⤵️

Mobile money taxes raise transaction costs and reduce usage, creating sizable efficiency losses – the burden falls disproportionately on unbanked and rural users. Read today's article to learn more:

How can public works reduce poverty beyond short-term jobs? Manisha Shah (@natureatcal.bsky.social) studies India’s massive rural employment programme, showing how infrastructure, wages and even satellite night-time lights reveal economy-wide effects – and why context really matters. Link below⤵️

In Bangladesh’s garment sector, firms often under-promote women because of biased beliefs and distorted learning about women’s managerial ability. However, temporary, low-risk trials can correct these beliefs and lead to sustained increases in female supervisors. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 Do public works programmes work? In this episode of Economics Unpacked, Manisha Shah (UC Berkeley) and Simon Franklin (QMUL) discuss NREGA in India, and PSNP in Ethiopia. 🔗 Link below ⤵️

Using surnames, we show that colonial-era hierarchies continue to shape access to Colombia’s best schools and elite social networks, limiting intergenerational mobility through both education and marriage. Read today's article to learn more: