Senegal enters 2026 with a soaring public debt and very limited degrees of freedom. So, what should the government do? Read today's article to learn more:

Children are ubiquitous in African cities but largely absent from development economics research. Here’s what we know about children’s schooling once they’ve moved to the city.

This week we featured research on aid, debt crises, 'bad' oil and more! Read a summary of this work here: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-23012026

Radio programmes targeted at women in post-war Japan increased women’s political participation and accelerated fertility decline, but had limited impact on labour market outcomes where structural barriers persisted. Read today's article to learn more:

Import competition from China can increase productivity among Indian firms not by lowering costs, but by encouraging innovation through quality upgrading. Read today's article to learn more:

Reducing oil use is vital, but which barrels we extract matters too: shifting production towards low-carbon deposits could have avoided around 10 billion tonnes of CO2e emissions since 1992. Read today's article to learn more:

“We have to distinguish between school and education: school is a means, education is an outcome” Lant Pritchett today on VoxDevTalks:

New evidence from Africa shows that aid reduces conflict when projects are well managed, but increases violence when management and monitoring are weak. Read today's article to learn more:

This week we featured research on migration, climate vulnerability, high-speed rail and more! Read a summary of this work here: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-16012026

📢 Our new VoxDevLit on International Migration is out now! Senior Editor Dean Yang & Co-Editors Catia Batista, Gaurav Khanna, David McKenzie, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak & Caroline Theoharides review research on international migration. Read & download here: https://ow.ly/qXx950XWAar

Internal migration in Indonesia raises wages and improves access to formal employment for the workers left behind, particularly lower-educated workers, by easing labour supply pressures and reallocating jobs across the formal and informal sector.

High-speed rail expansion in China boosted agricultural productivity, enabling labour and land to be reallocated from agriculture without reducing agricultural output. Read today's article to learn more:

Although most Mexicans remained in their communities during the drug war, the associated violence generated large welfare losses that are mostly invisible in standard migration statistics. Read today's article to learn more:

Amateur football clubs in Latin America show no overall discrimination against immigrants, but treatment varies sharply by origin, with players from lower-ranked football countries facing fewer positive responses. Read today's article to learn more:

This week we featured research on trapped workers, better managers, building roads and more! Read a summary of this work here: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-09012026

Evidence from Pakistan shows that while digital marketplaces may reduce discrimination in prices, women continue to face higher non-economic costs that may constrain their participation in patriarchal settings. Read today's article to learn more:

In rural India, roads and electricity complement each other, with their joint provision delivering far greater gains in dry-season agricultural productivity, assets, and consumption than either investment alone. Read today's article to learn more:

Sustained, classroom-based media literacy improved the ability of teenagers in rural India to resist misinformation. The effects are large, lasting – and even spill over to parents. Read today's article to learn more:

Climate change is likely to keep more labour in agriculture in the very regions where agricultural productivity suffers most, exacerbating the ‘food problem’ just as economies would benefit most from diversifying away from agriculture. Read today's article to learn more:

📢 International migration is one of the most powerful tools available for poverty reduction and economic development. At our VoxDevLit launch event on January 14, Dean Yang will summarise evidence on international migration. Register➡️ https://ow.ly/y5n150XRWT9

This week we featured research on Indian farms, Chinese universities, Brazilian inequality and more! Read a summary of this work here: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-19122025

Evidence from Ecuador reveals that central transfers to subnational governments can meaningfully stimulate local economic activity – operating primarily through higher municipal spending on wages, procurement, and small-scale investment. Read today's article to learn more:

The new Global Gender Distortions Index (GGDI) quantifies the impact of gender gaps in the labour market, shedding light on how much higher economic activity would be if women had the same opportunities as men. Read today's article to learn more:

In India, easing the barriers to renting land could boost agricultural productivity by encouraging the most productive farmers to expand. Read today's article to learn more:

Minimum wage policy can positively affect living standards for workers thought beyond the reach of labour law, with limited reallocation effects towards the informal sector. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 A proposal for a unified global carbon market 📢 Today on VoxDevTalks, Robin Burgess (@theigc.bsky.social) & Rohini Pande (@yaleegc.bsky.social) discuss the credibility and scale needed to drive global decarbonisation: voxdev.org/topic/energy...

Spread across 1.27 billion hectares, tropical forests hold around one-third of all historical human emissions. But we are still losing over 10 million hectares each year, undermining one of the planet’s most powerful natural carbon regulators. Read today's article to learn more:

Inequality pushes poor households to sacrifice nutrition for ‘little luxuries’, reshaping basic needs and worsening malnutrition. Read today's article to learn more:

This week we featured research on debt, inequality, conflict, government and more! Read a summary of this work here: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-21112025

A new open-access dataset covering more than 50,000 loans and securities issued by 54 African countries reveals that African governments now raise more than half of their financing at home, reversing decades of dependence on external lenders. Read today's article to learn more:

In China, granting firms the right to trade internationally boosted productivity, with gains growing over time and shared with workers through higher wages. Read today's article to learn more:

Training women in assertive communication in India enabled them to more effectively persuade their husbands to support their participation in the workforce – leading to substantial and sustained increases in women’s job uptake and earnings at low cost. Read today's article to learn more:

🆕 The origins of government 📢 Today on VoxDevTalks, Leander Heldring (@kelloggschoolnu.bsky.social) discusses how effective statehood does not follow a single linear path – but instead depends on how societies mobilise and provide public goods: voxdev.org/topic/instit...

In India, conflict boosts electoral support for incumbents only when leaders and media make it politically salient, turning soldier deaths into narratives of national strength. Read today's article to learn more:

Aggregate data can mask micro-level adjustments in the wake of terrorist activities. Administrative data from Pakistan reveals how a major terrorist attack distorted export patterns across firms, products, and regions. Read today's article to learn more:

📢 Revolutions in computing have led to the rapid development and deployment of a new set of programmes to support student learning. At our VoxDevLit launch event on December 4, @singhabhi.bsky.social will summarise evidence on education technology. Register➡️ cepr-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Although machine learning models using mobile phone data can make poverty targeting faster and more cost-effective, traditional survey-based methods remain more accurate. Read today's article to learn more:

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/...