Extending maternity leave from 12 to 24 weeks in Chile increased mothers' formal employment for up to three years after childbirth, with no negative medium-term effects.

Mortality among infants significant increased during the first nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in India, not because infants were infected, but because the pandemic disrupted healthcare access, worsened economic conditions, and discouraged mothers from seeking hospital care.

Evidence from over 6,600 farm households in Zambia finds that droughts reduce yields of maize, beans, and groundnuts while prompting smallholders to diversify crops, adopt resilient seed varieties, and expand cultivated area.

"It is true that sparrows eat crops, but sparrows also eat crop pests, especially locusts. So historically, without chemical pesticide, sparrows were relied on as a very important source of natural pest control." Shaoda Wang on VoxDevTalks today:

🆕 The Four Pests campaign and China's Great Famine 📢 Today on VoxDevTalks, Shaoda Wang (@harrispolicy.bsky.social) discusses how China's mass sparrow eradication campaign contributed to millions of deaths during the Great Famine: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N9K...

In Colombia, municipalities subjected to the Spanish encomienda – a colonial system of forced indigenous labour – are wealthier and better governed today, in spite of the extractive institution imposed on them.

New evidence from colonial history is challenging the consensus that extractive institutions always harm long-run development, showing that outcomes depend on whether extraction left behind durable public infrastructure and state capacity. Read today's article to learn more:

Policies based on providing information rely on people engaging with it. But how can we design effective information campaigns when people are tempted to ignore them?

Rwandan industrial policy, which licensed and supported textile manufacturers to produce high-quality masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, successfully reduced mask prices, increased mask uptake, and slowed the spread of COVID-19.

Female politicians in India expand reproductive healthcare, but spousal conflict over number of sons can turn contraceptive gains into domestic violence. Read today's article to learn more:

A government-endorsed supplemental insurance scheme in China expanded coverage for hundreds of millions of people, but also crowded out private insurance purchases, suggesting that enrolment growth alone overstates the true gains in risk protection.

Using data on 513 million workers worldwide, researchers show that location plays a major role in shaping earnings – and that better allocation of workers across cities could raise incomes, especially in developing countries.

Field experiments in Lima, Peru show that correcting social misperceptions and sending SMS reminders can significantly boost recycling participation.

Evidence from Colombia's aerial glyphosate programme shows that coca eradication triggered income shocks that pulled children out of school, with lasting effects on education, child labour, early marriage, and living standards.

Cocaine moves through the same global trade networks as legal goods, with violence rising where criminal groups fight over ports and other chokepoints.

Drawing on the first comparable, country-level evidence base from Argentina, Colombia, Ghana, India, Mexico, and South Africa, the IEA documents significant variation in where and how women exit the academic economics pipeline.

🆕 Sebastian Galiani on Argentina’s 2017 tax reform 📢 Today on VoxDevTalks, Sebastian Galiani (University of Maryland) offers rare insight on what it takes to redesign a country's tax system under fiscal pressure, political constraints, and chronic economic volatility www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUFz...

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. Read today's article to learn more:

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. Read today's article to learn more:

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: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-10042026

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. Read today's article to learn more:

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. Read today's article to learn more:

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.

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: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-27032026

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:

A randomised evaluation of a lower-cost graduation-style programme in rural Ethiopia finds modest gains in savings and livestock income but no sustained improvements in consumption or food security.

🆕 The rise and fall of China’s overseas lending 📢 Today on VoxDevTalks, Sebastian Horn (Universität Hamburg) discusses the booms and busts of China's lending to developing countries: https://voxdev.org/topic/finance/rise-and-fall-chinas-overseas-lending

When fertiliser prices spike, farmers in countries dependent on fertiliser imports are hit especially hard, and governments must grapple with a range of trade-offs in how they respond.

Cold snaps increase domestic violence in the Peruvian Highlands by reducing agricultural income. Policies that improve households’ resilience to agricultural income losses can help mitigate this effect.

🆕 Rising fertiliser prices hit developing countries hard Today on VoxDev, Wyatt Brooks (ASU) & Kevin Donovan (Yale University) discuss how farmers are impacted by increasing fertiliser prices, and the trade-offs governments must consider when responding: https://ow.ly/iTOj50YxZeg

Evidence from Ukraine shows that civilians’ failure to evacuate during war is driven mainly by practical barriers rather than psychological resistance, with clear information and organised transport proving more effective than behavioural ‘nudges’ in encouraging people to leave.