Episodes
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Can better data analysis improve the way that a government functions. The
Government Analytics Handbook, published by the World Bank, is both a practical
how-to guide and a fascinating insight into how administrators can improve the
quality of government analytics. Daniel Rogger and Christian Schuster are the
editors. They talk to Tim Phillips about the challenges, the potential – and their work
to create a community of analysts.
Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/public-economics/how-government-analytics-can-improve-public-sector-implementation -
As cities grow and spread, the uses to which land is put, and the value of that land,
will also change. The challenges of urban planning, construction and renewal are
complicated. But the way we address those challenges has profound impacts for the
people who live, and will live, in that physical city. Vernon Henderson and Maisy
Wong of University of Pennsylvania explain to Tim Phillips how cities adapt, change
and grow – and how that affects the lives and prospects of the people who live in
them. -
Episodes manquant?
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Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, and so it has never been
more important to increase the resilience of small-scale farmers. What does
research tell us are the most effective interventions and policies to do this? In the
latest of our special episodes to discuss J-PAL policy insights, Tavneet Suri talks to
Tim Phillips about how we can strengthen the resilience of farmers to climate
change.
Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/energy-environment/financing-climate-adaptation-what-works-what-doesnt-and-can-carbon-credits -
In the first episode of a regular collaboration between Yale's Economic Growth
Center and VoxDev, host Catherine Cheney speaks to Catherine Wolfram and
Namrata Kala of the MIT Sloan School, and Rohini Pande of Yale, about how to
finance climate adaptation. They discuss what works and what doesn't, what role
carbon markets play, and also discuss the upcoming United Nations Climate
Change Summit, COP 29.
Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/energy-environment/financing-climate-adaptation-what-works-what-doesnt-and-can-carbon-credits -
If you go to the IGC web site, you will discover the BREAD-IGC virtual PhD-level
course in economics. The topic for 2024 is urbanisation and the economics of cities
in low and middle-income countries. Ed Glaeser and Diego Puga gave the first talk,
about the dynamic city. They talk to Tim Phillips about what attracts people to cities,
how those cities constantly change and adapt to the needs of those new arrivals,
and the urgent need for research into how cities grow and change outside high-
income countries.
Read the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/migration-urbanisation/role-cities-economic-development -
Institutions help to determine economic growth. But studying how they do this using
the rigorous experimental techniques popularised in the credibility revolution is
difficult. A new review highlights an exciting new wave of empirical research into the
consequences of institutional change. Michael Callen and Jonathan Weigel talk to
Tim Phillips about how we can do experiments about institutions.
Read the full show notes here: https://voxdev.org/topic/institutions-political-economy/can-we-use-experiments-understand-institutions -
A new open access textbook called Food Economics analyses the connections
between agriculture and resource use, commodity trade, food businesses, and retail
markets. It covers how food is produced, brought to market, and sold. But it also
looks at consumption: why many have too little food, and the problems caused by
malnutrition. Will Masters and Amelia Finaret, the authors, tell Tim Phillips who is it
for, and what they can learn.
Read the full show notes here: https://voxdev.org/topic/agriculture/what-can-we-learn-food-economics -
Small businesses in LMICs provide most of the employment. But they could provide
many more jobs if the best of them could unlock their potential to grow. In the latest
of our series of VoxDev Talks based on J-PAL special reports, Tim Phillips talks to
David Atkin about how we can do a better job of connecting firms and entrepreneurs
to markets.
Read the full show notes here: https://voxdev.org/topic/firms/how-connecting-firms-markets-can-promote-economic-development -
More children than ever in LMICs go to school – but they still don’t learn as much as
we would want, and the difference between the educational haves and the have-nots
is widening. Noam Angrist joins Tim Phillips to talk about the size of the gap between
education policy and practice, why it exists, why economic development alone isn’t
closing it, and how we can improve policy implementation in future.
Read the full show notes here: https://voxdev.org/topic/education/gap-between-education-policy-and-practice -
Since 2020, governments everywhere have had to grapple with the impacts of first
Covid-19 and then a series of global shocks, not least the Russian invasion of
Ukraine. The challenges have been particularly acute in Africa. Christopher Adam
has seen the impacts of these shocks at first hand – and has also advised some of
the people who have been making policy in Africa to mitigate their effects. He talks to
Tim Phillips about how global shocks constrain Africa’s policymakers and how the
after-effects of this “polycrisis” will be felt in future. -
Dev Patel of Harvard describes Bangladesh as “ground zero for the harmful effects
of climate change”. Extreme weather events, particularly floods, are already affecting
the lives of millions of people who live there and are making life more difficult for the
country’s farmers. He tells Tim Phillips how he harnessed machine learning to create
for the first time reliable global data on flooding – and also used his methods to find a
way to give Bangladesh’s beleaguered farmers better data on what crops to grow.
Check out the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/energy-environment/how-do-floods-impact-economic-development -
In a meritocracy more people can do jobs that match their skills, making them more productive. It’s not just good for them, it’s good for the economy too. So how effective are the policies that try to make countries more meritocratic? Oriana Bandiera and Ilse Lindenlaub tell Tim Phillips how much productivity countries are sacrificing because the wrong people are in the wrong jobs, which countries are most meritocratic, and how we can best help the others to catch up.
Check out the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/macroeconomics-growth/how-meritocracy-varies-across-world -
More people die from contaminated drinking water and poor sanitation than from
water-related disasters. What are the consequences if we don’t provide safe drinking
water, especially for children, and what technologies and policies can accelerate that
change? In the first of a series of VoxDev Talks based on J-PAL Policy Insights,
Pascaline Dupas of Princeton, also Scientific Director for J-PAL Africa, explains the
importance of clean water to Tim Phillips.
Check out the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/health/improving-access-and-usage-clean-water -
Pranab Bardhan of Berkeley has recently published a memoir called Charaiveti: An
Academic’s Global Journey. It takes in his childhood in India, and his academic
career in the UK, India and the US. The book takes in topics as diverse as whether
the questions Marx asked are still relevant today, what economists can learn from
anthropologists, what the Chinese government got right (and wrong), and the
dangers of offering policy prescriptions for places we have never visited. He talks to
Tim Phillips about the past, and the future, of development economics.
Check out the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/institutions-political-economy/past-present-and-future-development-economics -
We don’t know much about economic mobility in developing countries compared to
the wealthier, data-rich societies which have been the subjects of so much recent
research. What does the data tell us so far, and what is important to find out? Debraj
Ray and Garance Genicot tell Tim Phillips why measuring upward mobility in low-
and middle-income countries is both difficult and important, and what their research
is revealing about the impact of growth on that mobility. -
In May 2024 the world’s largest gathering of education and skills ministers took place
in London. Tahir Andrabi was there to meet policymakers in his capacity as a
member of the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP). GEEAP
analyses existing research in education to discover which policies are “smart buys”
for governments, and which are not. He talks to Tim Phillips to talk about how
policymakers respond when their ideas are challenged, and the potential benefits
from making better decisions about education policy. -
Conflict destroys people, communities, and entire economies. If we reduce the amount of conflict in the world, we save lives and reduce poverty. Dominic Rohner of the University of Lausanne tells Tim Phillips about his new book called The Peace Formula, which sets out a different way to prevent and resolve conflict.
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It makes sense that vocational training and apprenticeships would be an effective way to help young people find productive work in the global south. But evidence to support this reasonable assumption has been weak, and many researchers find little or no effect. Subha Mani and Neha Agarwal have reviewed the evidence, and they tell Tim Phillips that one type of training shows strong results. It’s just not the type that is often implemented.
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Mothers traditionally provide most of the care for children in early years. What role
do fathers play, what difference would it make if they did more, and how could policy
incentivise them to do exactly that? David Evans and Pamela Jakiela talk to Tim
Phillips about the benefit of involving fathers in early childhood development, but
also how adapting parenting programmes to involve fathers isn’t straightforward. -
Paul Collier has for many years challenged the conventional wisdom of development
economics, bringing our attention to the real-world impact of policies many of us take
for granted. His new book is called Left Behind. It is about how some countries or
regions in the world fall behind, and what we can do to help them recover. In this
week’s episode he talks to Tim Phillips about what causes a place to be left behind,
the difficulty in stopping that downward spiral, and what the places that have
recovered have in common. - Montre plus
