This week we featured research on trade, corruption, migration, R&D and more! Read a summary of this work here: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-14112025

When female labour reforms fail to align with employer incentives, they can deepen rather than reduce gender disparities in the labour market, as shown by Iran’s 2016 reform. Read today's article to learn more:

What are academic incentives and how do they relate to policy and practice? Can incentives be aligned? Check out today's article to learn about the different incentives in academia vs policy ⤵️

Brazil’s R&D subsidy programme spurred long-term growth by helping financially constrained companies adopt foreign technologies and expand into high-tariff markets through import substitution. Read today's article to learn more:

Embrapa – a large public R&D effort to create agricultural innovation suited to Brazil’s ecology – shifted research toward local needs and raised agricultural productivity by 110%, far outweighing its costs. Read today's article to learn more:

We have two great articles on Brazilian public R&D programs on @voxdev.bsky.social today!🔬🚜 From imports to imitation: How R&D subsidies drove industrial growth in Brazil➡️ voxdev.org/topic/trade/... Public R&D and Brazil’s agricultural revolution➡️ voxdev.org/topic/agricu... See full thread below🧵

In El Salvador, extreme heat lowers agricultural productivity and rural incomes, pushing farmers – especially those with strong migrant networks – to use international migration as a climate adaptation strategy. Read today's article to learn more:

Merit-based recruitment and higher pay in Chile’s public hospitals attracted better-trained managers – leading to lower mortality rates and improved healthcare performance. Read today's article to learn more:

Evidence from Afghanistan suggests that development initiatives aimed at building state legitimacy can reduce violence when insurgencies are locally driven but may misallocate resources and even fuel conflict when insurgents are not reliant on local populations for support.

When people in developing countries believe their tax systems are fair and progressive, they are more willing to pay taxes. Read today's article to learn more:

Short-term foreign currency borrowing is largely used for carry trade-like activities rather than financing productive investment, underscoring the need to focus on debt maturity and firm heterogeneity when designing policies to manage financial risk. Read today's article to learn more:

In India, expanding deposit insurance coverage improved depositor welfare by reducing risk and encouraging a shift towards safer assets. Read today's article to learn more:

What have we learned about training entrepreneurs? Issue 4 of our VoxDevLit on Training Entrepreneurs by @dmckenzie.bsky.social, Christopher Woodruff & Co-Editors is out now!➡️ voxdev.org/voxdevlit/tr... Today's podcast covers the update➡️ voxdev.org/topic/firms/...

Workers at exporting firms experience more rapid skill and productivity growth, especially when firms export to high-income destinations, thereby amplifying the overall gains from trade. Read today's article to learn more:

Evidence from Brazil suggests that the crop-specific knowledge of domestic migrant farmers, during a period of large-scale migration, was a key driver of the recent transformation of the country’s export patterns. Read today's article to learn more:

A national extension programme in Uganda raised farmers’ expectations and adoption of oilseed crops – revealing how beliefs, not just knowledge, drive agricultural transformation. Read today's article to learn more:

This week we featured research on poverty, discrimination, industrial cities and more! Read a summary of this work here: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-31102025

In Burkina Faso, input diversion from cotton to maize is widespread but ultimately lowers maize productivity, highlighting the need for broader input credit access and better resource allocation policies. Read today's article to learn more:

Over a thousand years, China’s political hierarchy reshaped regional prosperity – provincial capitals flourished through bureaucracy and market access, but these benefits faded once they lost administrative status. Read today's article to learn more:

In Ghana, a simple, low-cost intervention – helping informal workers set daily goals – significantly improved workers’ and firms’ performance, suggesting that non-binding incentives may be an effective means to foster the growth of small firms in developing contexts.

🆕 How religion shapes economic development 📢 Today on VoxDevTalks, @saralowes.bsky.social (UC San Diego), @eduardomontero.bsky.social (Harris School of Public Policy) & Benjamin Marx (Boston University) discuss how religion and economic development interact: voxdev.org/topic/instit...

Group coaching in multi-faceted poverty alleviation programmes delivers the same results as individual coaching – at much lower cost. Read today's article to learn more:

Industrial clusters can fuel economic booms today, but can also trap cities into tomorrow's decline. Evidence from two centuries of British cities reveals the lasting costs of specialisation. Read today's article to learn more:

📢 Our new VoxDevLit on Political Polarisation is out now! Senior Editors Cesi Cruz (University of Michigan) & Horacio Larreguy (ITAM) review research on the causes and consequences of polarisation. Read & download here: https://voxdev.org/voxdevlit/political-polarisation

This week we featured research on aid, telemedicine, irrigation and more! You can read a summary of this work here: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-24102025

Political polarisation has been rising sharply in both advanced and developing democracies. At our VoxDevLit launch event on October 27, Cesi Cruz and @hlarreguy.bsky.social will summarise research on the causes and consequences of polarisation. Register➡️ cepr-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Expanding irrigation infrastructure in Senegal led to significant and sustained increases in cultivation rates and reduced sensitivity to temperature shocks. Read today's article to learn more:

When delivered by a single donor, development aid appears to curtail corruption. However, under donor fragmentation, these benefits are significantly diminished. Read today's article to learn more:

Youth camps integrating sports, rituals, and civics training built intergroup ties, reduced bias, and enhanced well-being among adolescent boys in India. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 From revolutionary to researcher: Leonard Wantchekon on African development, democracy, and the African School of Economics 📢 Today on VoxDevTalks, Leonard Wantchekon (@princeton.edu) discusses activism, scholarship, and institution-building: voxdev.org/topic/instit...

Internationally trained PhDs are often seen as a ‘brain drain’, but evidence from Colombia suggests that they act as crucial bridges – connecting local researchers to the global scientific community. Read today's article to learn more:

A three-minute video intervention in Ghana prompted mothers to talk more to infants and boosted early language – at just $0.45 per child at scale. Read today's article to learn more:

In Rwanda, telemedicine delivered higher-quality, faster, and lower-cost care for common conditions. Read today's article to learn more:

Since 2012, comprehensive sanctions on Iran have drastically eroded its middle class, undoing decades of social progress and undermining a key engine of economic stability and political moderation. Read today's article to learn more:

This week we featured research on self-employment, forced displacement, anti-corruption campaigns and more! Read a summary of this work here: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-17102025

Anti-corruption campaigns – such as Brazil’s Lava Jato – can reduce corruption but may also trigger significant unintended economic costs – disrupting credit markets while reducing employment and wage bills across both targeted and non-targeted firms. Read today's article to learn more:

Stalin’s forced deportation of educated ‘enemies of the people’ inadvertently concentrated human capital in Gulag towns, fostering inter-generational prosperity and long-term development despite the destructive intent of the repression. Read today's article to learn more:

"You have to engage with the world. You have to be open and embrace the world. Independence and autarky is not not a solution, and the experience of India shows that whenever it has been more open, its economic growth has also been good." @arvind2011.bsky.social today on VoxDevTalks:

Male internal migration in India expands women’s roles and increases their political engagement by easing day-to-day restrictions even in the absence of their financial empowerment. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 India’s economic development since independence 📢 Today on VoxDevTalks, Devesh Kapur (@johnshopkinssais.bsky.social) & @arvind2011.bsky.social (@piie.com) discuss India’s 75-year journey of development: voxdev.org/topic/instit...

Evidence from Ethiopia suggests that while part-time jobs broaden access for workers needing flexibility, they attract lower-skill applicants and reduce productivity, helping explain part-time wage penalties and gender pay gaps. Read today's article to learn more:

Research often misprices the value of the time of the self-employed at zero or equal to market wages. New evidence from Kenya suggests a practical fix: value unpaid self-employed labour at 60% of the local market wage. Read today's article to learn more:

Education has been a major driver of global growth and poverty reduction since 1980, accounting for nearly half of overall income gains – boosting productivity while reducing inequality and making public schooling a key engine of poverty reduction. Read today's article to learn more:

This week we featured research on electrification, dowry, famine, construction and more! You can read a summary of this work here: voxdev.org/topic/week-d...

Cross-country measures of investment networks reveal how the structure of capital flows across sectors shifts systematically with development. Read today's article to learn more:

The 1933 Soviet famine was not the inevitable result of poor harvests but of Stalin’s collectivisation and procurement policies, which disproportionately targeted Ukrainians and produced catastrophic, unequal mortality. Read today's article to learn more:

Electrification is often seen as the spark for development. But in much of Africa, the biggest benefits may come not from households plugging in, but from the community services that light up around them. Read today's article to learn more:

New data from India shows that parents often retain a share of dowry, which may enable sons to migrate for work, and provide a new role for dowry in modern times. Read today's article to learn more:

Political elites don’t just govern, many also own businesses. In Mozambique, public office is often converted into private business capital, highlighting how political power can be a direct route to economic influence. Read today's article to learn more:

📢 Political polarisation has been rising sharply in both advanced and developing democracies. At our VoxDevLit launch event on October 27, Cesi Cruz and @hlarreguy.bsky.social will summarise research on the causes and consequences of polarisation. Register➡️ cepr-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...