Afleveringen
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Dev Patel of Harvard describes Bangladesh as âground zero for the harmful effects
of climate changeâ. 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
countryâs farmers. He tells Tim Phillips how he harnessed machine learning to create
for the first time reliable global data on flooding â and also used his methods to find a
way to give Bangladeshâs 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. Itâs not just good for them, itâs 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 -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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More people die from contaminated drinking water and poor sanitation than from
water-related disasters. What are the consequences if we donât 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
Academicâs 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 donât 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 worldâs 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 âsmart buysâ
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. Itâs 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 isnât 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
weekâs 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. -
If women in developing countries want to work, what keeps them out of the labour
force? Is it the other tasks they have to do, or the expectations of the people around
them? Two new papers experiment with the effect of offering flexible working to
women in India, Lisa Ho talks to Tim Phillips about what the results might mean for
the millions of women in India and beyond who would like to work, but donât. -
If you want to do good, and do not have unlimited funds, how do you choose? Which
places, people, and situations are most deserving? Do you invest in economic
benefits or lives saved? Open Philanthropy in an organisation that aims to rigorously
optimise the impact of every dollar it spends. Emily Oehlsen tells Tim Phillips about
its successes so far, and how it still sometimes gets it wrong. -
Many of us can recall when we first discovered there were more than a billion people
in the world who lived on âa dollar a dayâ. This extreme poverty line been effective at
raising awareness of the goals of development. But, if we want to eradicate poverty
rather than describe it, is it a useful tool â and what could improve on it? Charles
Kenny discusses how the line is drawn, and how it could be improved, with Tim
Phillips. -
In developing countries, we know comparatively little about how well the elderly cope
with problems like depression and loneliness. There are few policies to support
sufferers, partly because of this lack of data. Maddie McKelway and Garima Sharma
tell Tim Phillips about some of the surprising revelations of a new cross-country
study and suggest ways in which policy can improve the mental health of seniors. -
âThereâs only so much adapting you can do with so few resources.â Thatâs a warning
from Asif Saleh, the executive director of BRAC, about the impact of the climate
crisis in Bangladesh. Changes in the climate are causing severe problems already
for millions of the worldâs poorest people. A combination of ingenuity and hard work
is staving off disaster for now â but for how long? -
How does new evidence influence the beliefs of policymakers, and when do hidden
biases of beliefs lead to bad policy decisions? There is more rigorous empirical
evidence on which interventions work than ever. But that doesnât translate into better
policy unless a policymaker acts on it. Eva Vivalt and Tim Phillips offer advice to
researchers on how to present their insights. -
In both high- and low-income countries, taxes are the main source of government
revenue. They fund roads, schools, and social programmes. But the average tax-to-
GDP ratio in a developing country is less than half of the ratio in the global north.
Oyebola Okunogbe tells Tim Phillips about the innovative ways that many LMICs are
using to collect the taxes that will finance their growth. -
Inequality is high in many LMICs, and progressive taxation is a policy tool that would reduce it. But would a personal income tax or a consumption tax redistribute in the same way as in a high-income country? Lucie Gadenne of Queen Mary University of London and the IFS tells Tim Phillips that one of these taxes may be less progressive, and one may be more progressive, than we expect.
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In a world of economic nationalism rather than integration, the export-led pathway to
development that transformed China, Vietnam and other countries might no longer
be effective. Instead, Penny Goldberg tells Tim Phillips, policies for poverty reduction
now also need to answer the question of where demand will come from, and that
may require more emphasis on creating a domestic middle class. -
Agriculture makes up a large share of employment and GDP in Africa, but crop yields remain stubbornly low. VoxDev has published Issue 2 of Agricultural Technology in Africa, which reviews what the published literature can â and cannot â explain about this stagnation. Chris Udry, one of the editors, tells Tim Phillips about the impact of this stagnation on living standards in Africa, and insights from recent research that can potentially make a difference.
Read the VoxDevLit: https://voxdev.org/voxdevlit/agricultural-technology-africa - Laat meer zien