VoxDev Development Economics

If weak states fail to provide order and security, sometimes criminal gangs step in. Can this problem be fixed by targeting resources to the places most in need of help, and what happens when we do? Ben Lessing tells Tim Phillips about a project to do this in Colombia’s second largest city.

By 2030, half the world’s poor will be living in conflict-affected areas. Could some of the resources dedicated to helping them be spent to prevent those conflicts? Thiemo Fetzer of the University of Warwick tells Tim Phillips how providing workfare in India reduced community violence.

For small farmers the most difficult months of the years are the “hungry season” before the harvest. What would be the effect of a small loan at this time? A program in Zambia tweaked the rules of microfinance. Günther Fink and Kelsey Jack tell Tim Phillips about what happened.

In the monsoon season of 2020, 5.5 million people in Bangladesh were affected by severe floods. But the UN was able to help thousands of households by sending them cash before the floods hit. Ashley Pople and Ruth Hill tell Tim Phillips about the situations in which anticipatory transfers might work better than conventional disaster response.

When households escape poverty, how likely is it they will fall back in the future? Loki Phadera of the World Bank and Hope Michelson of the University of Illinois explain to Tim Phillips why measuring resilience can give us a new perspective on how well anti-poverty programs are working – if only we can agree how to do it.

Children in low-income countries are 12 times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than those in high-income countries. Cash transfers to households may increase money spent on the health of children – but how large are the outcomes, and should the transfers specifically target child health? Anupama Dathan talks to Tim Phillips.

Which interventions work best, and how can we tweak them to work better? How well could they work in other places, and what changes should we make? Airbel Impact Lab, part of the International Rescue Committee, designs, tests, and scales life-changing solutions for people affected by conflict and disaster. Tim Phillips talks to Jeannie Annan and Caitlin Tulloch about their work.

When there is conflict, can outsiders help by creating informal ways for communities to resolve their disputes? Chris Blattman tells Tim Phillips about the long-term impact of a project to do exactly this in Liberia.

How do we encourage small farmers to adopt new types of seeds in LICs? Government agents can help spread the word – but Kyle Emerick of Tufts University tells Tim Phillips that the dealers who sell the seeds might be an under-used resource.

People who live in extreme poverty are increasingly concentrated in fragile and conflict-affected areas. Can a "big push" from the Targeting the Ultra Poor program help? Guadalupe Bedoya and Aidan Coville of the World Bank, and Mohammad Isaqzadeh of Princeton, are part of a team that evaluated the results of an attempt to lift 1,200 households out of poverty in Afghanistan.

If poor people are caught in a poverty trap, a large one-time grant might be life changing. That's the thinking behind programs to target the ultra-poor. But is the impact of this "big push" genuinely permanent? Garima Sharma tells Tim Phillips about the impact of a program in India, 10 years on.

Extreme weather doesn't just ruin one crop: it means that the following year small farmers won't have income to invest. Better seeds and insurance against this sort of bad luck are partial solutions, but what if we combine them in one package? Paswel Marenya tells Tim Phillips about a successful multi-year trial in Tanzania and Mozambique.

Progresa was the groundbreaking and much-copied cash transfer program created by the Mexican government in 1997. Literally millions of children benefited from it. But are they still feeling that benefit? Karen Macours tells Tim Phillips about how a group of economists tracked down the first Progresa generation, and what they discovered.

Research from the Dominican Republic shows that it is more common than we assumed (and more beneficial to both parties) if workers move to another firm in the same supply chain. Cian Ruane tells Tim Phillips why this hard-to-spot effect is important for economic development.

How much do we know about what workfare programs achieve for people who take part? An analysis of one program in Côte d’Ivoire fills in some of the gaps in our knowledge, Patrick Premand tells Tim Phillips.

Entrepreneurs create most of the new jobs in Africa. But can the skills of an entrepreneur be taught, and which skills will be most useful for Africa's young businesspeople? Paul Gertler tells Tim Phillips about a groundbreaking training program in Uganda.

Economists have been arguing about whether openness to international trade creates growth for 250 years. David Atkin tells Tim Phillips about his analysis of the conditions in which increased openness improves welfare in a developing country. 

Auditing ensures public procurement is good value. Or does it? An experiment in Chile suggests the audit itself makes procurement less efficient afterwards. Dina Pomeranz opened the black box of the audit process and tells Tim Phillips what she discovered.

Turkey has received 4m refugees from Syria, a quarter of them children. How can its schools integrate so many new students, help them to make friends and to learn a new language? Sule Alan tells Tim Phillips about a program that has successfully built social cohesion in Turkey's schools.

Paraguay, like Peru and Mexico, is supporting seniors with a monthly non-contributory pension payment. What difference does this income make to the people who receive it? Quite a lot, Sebastian Galiani tells Tim Phillips.

Indonesia recently started providing vouchers instead of rice to millions of households. Elan Satriawan of National Team for Acceleration of Poverty Reduction tells Tim Phillips that this has made it possible to target aid better and is cheaper to administer too.

Malnutrition in children is a silent killer. Is it made worse by lack of knowledge or lack of income? Michael Levere tells Tim Phillips about an experiment in Nepal that investigated the best way to help mums-to-be.

In Ethiopia, one development program is building roads to remote villages, while another tries to make small farms more productive. Mesay Gebresilasse tells Tim Phillips how well the projects work individually – and how much more successful they are when implemented together.

In May 2003 the Brazilian government launched an anti-corruption program that exposed and suspended corrupt public officials. Emanuele Colonnelli tells Tim Phillips that the campaign worked – and not just in the districts that were audited.

When courts lack credibility, non-state actors may step in – and the less that we engage with state institutions, the weaker they become. How do we turn this around? Daron Acemoglu tells Tim Phillips about an experiment to inspire more trust in the state among the citizens of Punjab in Pakistan.