Today's @ifpri.org Applied Micro & Development speaker is Baafra Abeberese (Wellesley College) on “Court Efficiency, Contract Enforcement and Informality" w/ Ritam Chaurey 🧑‍⚖️ Find in India that inefficient courts -> weak contract enforcement -> less incentive to formalize. Great talk!

Both #misinformation and #stigma can be barriers for HIV testing and, our research finds, can be worsened inadvertently by community health programs. 😬 Check out @voxdev.bsky.social article on my research joint w/ @deanyang.bsky.social & others: voxdev.org/topic/health... #WorldAIDSDay2025

Poverty increases the risk of IPV. Cash transfers can help change that. For #IDEVAW, we’re spotlighting IFPRI’s research on leveraging cash transfers to reduce violence against women — part of our #IFPRI50Innovations series. 🔗 www.cash-ipv.org @cgiar.org @lshtm.bsky.social @unicef.org

🆕 paper & blog joint w/ @nkarachiwalla.bsky.social & @meanregressive.bsky.social! 🤝When asked to support a school meals program, many households reduced contributions as others gave more—opposite of findings from high-income labs. WP: hdl.handle.net/10568/176850 Blog: www.ifpri.org/blog/all-in-...

🆕 #Blog All in together? How communities contribute to school meals programs 🖋️ By James Allen IV, Naureen Karachiwalla, and Deboleena Rakshit. 🖱️ Read more: https://on.cgiar.org/3XKyEBg @cgiar.org#Blog

Wow, several incredible Econ Job Market Papers presented at NEUDC 2025! Here are few that stood out (in the order I saw them). Quick summaries below with websites/JMP links. 🧵👇

Has anyone been ghosted by a journal help desk? We were corresponding after I faced three technical errors during submission, but I haven't heard back in 2 weeks. It's a Taylor & Francis non-predatory journal, I'm quite surprised. Just trying to #GetYourManuscriptOut!

💡50 Years of Innovation to Support Evolving Food Systems🌱 Today, on #WorldDiabetesDay, we feature our research which introduced the notion of the double burden of malnutrition 🌱🤝📢 🔗Learn more: hdl.handle.net/10568/174305 @cgiar.org @adb.org @thelancet.com @who.int #IFPRI50 #IFPRI50Innovations

Great paper! Measuring literal spillovers... diverted floodwater from treated firms building concrete flood barriers to others nearby downhill. But these negative spillovers can be addressed by community meetings to enable collective action.

Good morning #NEUDC2025! Looking forward to learning a lot today!

Wishing everyone safe (un-cancelled) flights to #NEUDC2025! If you make it, check out Block 4, Session 19: "Information, Governance and Public Service Delivery" w/ myself, @wsandholtz.bsky.social @AditiSingh095 @saritaoreq #NEUDC

Today's @ifpri.org Applied Micro & Dev speaker is @eduardomontero.bsky.social (U Chicago) on “Fallow Lengths and the Structure of Property Rights" Communal land rights were more common where fallow needs are greater, affecting life today.👇 w/ @elerossignol.bsky.social & @saralowes.bsky.social

Just got back from fieldwork & here's what I love about working in Senegal: 🙂 Amazing people: Smart, hospitable & love to laugh. 🍛 Yummy food: Fresh seafood, chicken yassa & thiebou rice 🏝️ Moving history: Ancient African kingdoms, slavery, colonization & a vibrant modern era.

Do cash transfers (CTs) cause price inflation? 💸➡️📈 Excited to share a new Evidence Brief joint with @ugentilini.bsky.social reviewing 12 studies of CTs on price changes in LMICs that offer practical insights for researchers and policymakers. Check it out: hdl.handle.net/10568/177175

Joel Mokyr just won (half of) the 2025 Nobel in Economics! What lessons does his work hold for today’s developing economies? See my short post 👇 www.linkedin.com/posts/james-...

What are the chances!?! @wsandholtz.bsky.social was selected to by my #NEUDC discussant AGAIN! Double lucky for me! Double sorry for him. :)

Drones are now pervasive in💥warfare &🎆lightshows, but what about🌾agriculture? In just the last 5 years, millions of farmers—mostly in Asia—have started using drones for farming. New Science commentary discusses the rapid early rise and possible implications of drone farming: (links below)

🖼️ Wall Art at International Food Policy Research Institute (@ifpri.org) (c. 2013) 🎨 😙🤌

📢TMRW @ 10:00 AM EDT 📌 The Economy-wide Impacts of School Meal Programs: Generating evidence on return on investment 💬 Speakers include IFPRI’s Aulo Gelli and Harold Alderman and GCNF’s Arlene Mitchell 🎫 Register to attend 👉 bit.ly/SchoolMeals- @gcnf.org @cgiar.org

"What is the most important metric to judge whether a cash transfer program is successful?" 🆕 paper asks high-level policymakers to rank 7 outcomes and their answer: food security! And... 87% (accurately) believe that CTs increase #foodsecurity. Paper: lnkd.in/emVXx72i

🩸🎗️ New long-lasting #HIV prevention (#PrEP) is coming to #Mozambique! Yay! But what will be the barriers to adherence? 😬My 2023 JDE article w/ @deanyang.bsky.social & others identifies two for HIV testing: #misinformation and #stigma: doi.org/10.1016/j.jd... www.atnews.co.za/mozambique-t...

Today's @ifpri.org Applied Micro & Development speaker is Douglas Gollin (Tufts University)! w/ @jwolfersberger.bsky.social studies impact of new roads on #deforestation in #Brazil via spatial GE model. Falling transport costs since 1995 --> 7% of total forest loss Great seminar!

Does #inequality affect what poor households consider "necessities"? Yes, a 🆕 study finds, with implications for understanding the decline in caloric consumption over time in #India. Very insightful! Paper: doi.org/10.1093/jeea... Authors: @clement-s-bellet.bsky.social @eve-colsonsihra.bsky.social

Sad news that @poverty-action.bsky.social is closing its #Mali office after 15 years but admirable that they remained long after others left. As a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali, I say to the IPA Mali staff: I ni baara! Ala ka baara numan soro i fe! poverty-action.org/mali-office-...

Colombian pink dolphins 🐬 and Malawian hippos 🦛 are other likely casualties of USAID's dismantling. That, and locals' trust that ecotourism might drive economic growth better than poaching, deforestation or conflict. Good article in @cntraveler.com.web.brid.gy: www.cntraveler.com/story/withou...

IFPRI’s @jo-swinnen.bsky.social and @pmenon1.bsky.social were featured this new episode of VoxDevTalks, where they discuss the landmark 2025 Global Food Policy Report, which reviews 50 years of progress and setbacks in global food systems. 🎧 voxdev.org/topic/health... @voxdev.bsky.social

⭕ "Development economics is economics that takes place developing countries." First definition that I was taught and, IMO, the de facto definition in economics. I love it for its inclusivity within the field but hate it for how it excludes from other fields. Others agree?

🎶 To go with the first day of fall classes, what song(s) got (or are getting) you through grad school? Mine was "Keep Moving" by Jungle: open.spotify.com/track/4rf0IV.... Just keep moving. And if you keep moving long enough, you get your PhD, and then get to keep moving some more. 🫠

🆕 paper gives hopeful evidence that rebuilding agricultural infrastructure can restore farming in post-conflict settings, evaluating large-scale #irrigation rehabilitation in #Afghanistan 2010-2016. Paper in EDCC: doi.org/10.1086/733269 Striking parallels to #Gaza...

📣 Attn PhD students: 🆓 virtual PhD-level non-credit course on #socialprotection! I did the 2022 course & found it very beneficial. Instructors are experts & many are editors at top economic journals. So their perspective is informative & helpful for generating research ideas. Highly recommend!

🚨New on our blog: #Gaza's catastrophe will have long-lasting impacts on lives and livelihoods. @cgiar.org www.ifpri.org/blog/gazas-c...

How do get the world (e.g., my children) to eat more fruits 🍎 and vegetables 🥦 (F&V)? A 🆕 scoping review of 223 studies published between 2012-2022: doi.org/10.1177/0379... My takeaway: More evidence is needed on #socialprotection impact on F&V consumption in LMICs!

Writing grant proposals all month like...

Today, the The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) issued an "Alert" for famine risk in #Gaza. This "does not constitute a Famine classification" but says "a new IPC analysis is to be conducted without delay." So what would classify it as a #famine? See 👇

“Global demand for food commodities is expected to grow faster than popula­tion between 2020 & 2050, with a more rapid increase in LMICs compared to HICs." From Ch. 36 on 🆕 @IFPRI book on “Future of Food Systems”. Motivation for #UNFFS2025 & #FoodSystems research. Links 👇

🍽️ 🌍🌐This new book, edited by Keith Wiebe and Elisabetta Gotor, presents a collection of short chapters on the current state of knowledge about different aspects of the future of food systems: 📘 www.ifpri.org/ifpri-book/w... 📹 www.ifpri.org/event/what-d... @cgiar.org @bioversityciat.bsky.social

😷 Ugh, I have Covid, but at least no big decision to make like last time. For my first Covid, I got symptoms the night of my job offer from IFPRI! No 🍾, straight to 🛏️. Woke up with brain fog & a life-changing decision... accept or not? Thankfully I made the right decision!

Last week, @ugentilini.bsky.social visited to talk about his 🆕 book "Timely Cash: Lessons From 2,500 Years of Giving People Money". My takeaways 👇 📕🔗: academic.oup.com/book/58850 🎧🔗: open.spotify.com/show/5n20asB... 📸 w/ @jo-swinnen.bsky.social, D Gilligan & H Alderman at @ifpri.org

My first RA job in my PhD was working with the incredible @DavidLam_UMich on the demography of the labor force in #SSA. I learned that #SSA is the only major region with a growing youth and working-age population thru 2050! Paper: g2lm-lic.iza.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/glmlic_sp010.pdf

👩‍🌾 A 12-question List of Activities (LOA) module improves measurement of women’s labor with negligible cost "Exposure to the LOA module reduces the work gap between women and men by 8.2 pp... [and] increases the probability of women reporting to be employed and working.” 📑🔗👇

How do you prefer your aid: in-kind🌾, in cash💵, or digital📲? In #Sudan today, most urban respondents prefer digital, esp. among those exposed to theft/violence. Policy brief: hdl.handle.net/10568/175477 More of IFPRI-Sudan's incredible ongoing work: sudan.ifpri.info @ifpri.org @cgiar.org

🖥️ Can #AI help predict #food crises? 🌽 Early signs point to yes! 🆕 AI-informed model trained to predict the % of people in food crisis. 🔵 Sensitivity: 94% of food crises identified 🟢 Precision: 78% of cases experience food crisis within 12 months Presented @ifpri.org @cgiar.org. Links below!

Revise & Resubmit: Life goals edition #EconSky

💥 Can ag modernization spur conflict? Yes, finds 🆕 #openaccess paper in JDE. 🧑‍🌾 Following intro of GE soy seed & market reforms, #Brazil municipalities w/ more soy-producing potential (1 SD more) saw increases (54%) in land occupations. Paper link: doi.org/10.1016/j.jd...

🌞📘Summer book recommendation📖 WB Impact Blog reviews book on African music’s global cultural influence. Perfect for someone who loves music 🎹, admires the Malian blues 🎸, & likes global-spanning non-fiction🌍. Review: blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva... Book: www.zebooks.com/books/and-th...

🐟 A recent @natureportfolio.nature.com on small-scale fisheries estimates that they globally contribute: 1️⃣ 40% of fisheries’ catch 2️⃣ 2.3 billion people with key nutrients 3️⃣ 60.2 million jobs, of which 20.9 million go to women 4️⃣ 491.8 million livelihoods Link: www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

🐮How many cows do you have? 🐮 🆕 #openaccess JDE article (link 👇) finds that direct counting (vs. household reports) of livestock in #Ethiopia increased the survey's measurement of total livestock ownership by 39%! Important for targeting rural development. Paper link: doi.org/10.1016/j.jd...

How to design studies that scale up? 🤔 Michael Kremer (@devinnovationlab.bsky.social) presented this today at @ifpri.org: Among early projects at former USAID DIV, those that scaled successfully were usually: 💲 Cheaper: unit cost <$3USD 🚷 Did NOT sell to consumers 💻 Evaluated by RCT

🚦How it started vs. how it’s going 😃IFPRI’s first 40 years (1975-2015): Unprecedented progress in reducing hunger and poverty 🫣Last 10 years (2015-2025): Stagnation and reversal. Still more work to do! Live update from @ifpri.org #GFPR2025 launch. Report available now: hdl.handle.net/10568/174108

Tomorrow @ifpri.org launches the 2025 Global Food Policy Report #GFPR2025. Since 2020, each report has a central theme on a global priority. This year, it's "Food Policy: Lessons and Priorities for a Changing World" Register to attend in-person or online: bit.ly/GFPR2025