CSAE Research Podcasts

Can we measure whether countries are on track to halve poverty incidence between 2015 and 2030? This research proposes a framework for modelling projections of multidimensional poverty. It uses recently published repeated observations of multidimensional poverty, based on time-consistent indicators, for 75 countries.

Researchers discuss using field experiments with ongoing cases to analyse sources of dysfunction in Mexico's largest labour court. 

Can student progression test scores improve as a result of a custom-designed school leadership training programme? This episode discusses a custom-made training program for school leaders in Malawi's primary schools. Speakers Salman Asim, World Bank; Ravinder Casley Gera, World Bank; Donna Harris, University of Oxford; Grace Milner, Ministry of Education (Malawi).

What is the role of international trade in economic development? Using a rich micro-level dataset from Turkey on a wide range of firms, researchers discuss strong assortative matching of skills in the firms' production networks. What is the role of international trade in economic development? Researchers discuss evidence of strong skill matching in Turkish firms' production networks.

Researchers discuss the business and price effects of a cash transfer programme delivered to 400,000 refugees in Kenya each month in the form of digital money for buying food at licensed shops. There is mounting empirical evidence around the positive and persistent effects of cash-based assistance on direct recipients but there is limited research on the indirect effects of cash-based assistance o...

Researchers examine how an established social assistance system - not originally designed to support informal workers - can be re-purposed to provide emergency relief to support workers and their household in South Africa. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a particular challenge to countries with high levels of labour market informality. Informal workers and their households were especially vulnerab...

Winner of the Frisch Medal 2024, this project examines the impact of a one-time cash transfers to over 10,500 poor households across villages in rural Kenya, on the individual households but also the community at large. How large economic stimuli generate individual and aggregate responses is a central question in economics but has not been studied experimentally. Working with the NGO GiveDirectly...

How can different kinds of policy help refugees and other displaced populations find work? This project focuses on three interventions designed to improve formal employment outcomes for Syrian refugees and local jobseekers in Jordan.

The CSAE's Kate Orkin has won the ESRC award for Outstanding Public Policy Impact 2023. Stefan Dercon talks to Kate about the work behind the cash grant programme in South Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic that reached an extra 26.2 million people. Stefan Dercon is the CSAE Director and Professor of Economic Policy, University of Oxford, and Kate Orkin is the Associate Professor of Economics and...

Online job adverts show that the demand for AI related skills has grown rapidly in countries around the world since 2015. This project examines the demand for AI skills in India's service sector, using a new dataset of online job adverts.

Billions of dollars are spent annually on humanitarian support to households in crisis. Researchers discuss a large-scale evaluation that tests the impact of anticipatory cash transfers in response to floods in Bangladesh. Humanitarian workers carry out incredible lifesaving work every day on the front line of crisis response to assist those in the greatest need. Yet repeatedly, despite the fact t...

Education systems need to withstand shocks that routinely close schools. Researchers discuss results from randomised trials evaluating the provision of education in emergency settings across 5 countries. Shocks such as weather, natural disasters, disease, and conflict frequently disrupt schooling. Education systems need to build resilience and be able to continue to provide education during these...

Dr Greg Walton and Dr Kate Orkin discuss 'wise interventions', and how social science can use this psychologically approach to understand the major problems in social life - poverty, social exclusion, child abuse, and discrimination. One of the key goals of social science is to understand and address the major problems in social life –poverty, social exclusion, child abuse, and discrimination. Dif...

How do we change a corrupt norm? This project looks to address this question through a policy intervention, working with the Ghana Police Service, to try to change the behaviour of the traffic police through an innovative ethics training programme. One of the important factors that drive successful organisation is the behaviour of the people within that organisation. In many places, corruption has...

Can Africa learn from the Chinese urbanisation project? In the next 30 years, African cities need to make zoom for roughly 500 million more citizens, roughly tripling the current urban population. This offers great opportunities for growth and prosperity, but also significant challenges for public policy. China is the only other place in the world to have experienced a similar urbanisation challen...

A discussion about some of the first experimental evidence on distance education during the covid-19 pandemic in Botswana. The conversation goes under the hood of the randomised control trials to discuss some critical implementation lessons and research insights that don’t always make it into the final academic paper, and what is next on the horizon. The Botswana paper is available here (School’s...

Standard microcredit contracts seem to have modest if any effects on the performance of small firms and no effects on household consumption. Could we construct a better design product to improve on the standard contract? Researchers discuss their project in Pakistan which explores if alternative contracts do better, and what the effects of offering larger financial products are. You can also find...