VoxDev Development Economics

The risk that a child will die is lower than it used to be, but in low-income countries it is still not unusual. But how persistent is this in families, and what does this tell us about the causes and consequences of child mortality? Tom Vogl talks to Tim Phillips.

In the 1960s, Brazil’s military dictatorship set out to undermine the power of local political elites by creating local political competition. New research finds that in the regions where the elites were strongest, the policies led to better governance, and more long-run growth. Claudio Ferraz and Monica Martinez-Bravo explain how this happened to Tim Phillips. Photo: Roberto Rocco TU Delft.

How does providing daycare affect infants, their parents, and even their grandparents during the seven years that follow? When Rio de Janeiro held a lottery for thousands of places, David Evans and Lycia Lima were two of a group of researchers who made the most of the opportunity to discover new evidence for the benefits of childcare, and they tell Tim Phillips what they found out.

If women want or need to work outside the home, someone needs to look after their kids. In Mexico, that person has traditionally been the grandmother. But what happens when she’s suddenly not around? Miguel Angel Talamas Marcos talks to Tim Phillips about his research that shows how important grandmothers are to female participation in the labour market.

When FDI mandates joint ventures foreign firms get market access, and their local partners get access to knowledge and technology in return. Does the policy benefit the host economy and its consumers more than other forms of FDI would have done? Jie Bai of Harvard Kennedy School talks to Tim Phillips.

Do healthcare workers in Sierra Leone work harder when they know that promotion is based on performance, rather than friendships or connections? And if they discover that promotion isn’t only unfair but has a big bump in pay, what effect does that have on productivity? Erika Deserranno tells Tim Phillips about an experiment with good news and some warnings for public sector employers.

When Indonesia’s dictatorship became a democracy in 1999, did it affect the investment in healthcare? And was that spending allocated where it was most needed, or where it would win the most votes? Allan Hsiao talks to Tim Phillips about whether, in this case, democracy was a force for good? Photo: Ikhlasul Amal.

In Madagascar, the taxes and duties collected by customs are half of the government’s tax revenue: so the potential cost of corruption is huge. Ana Fernandes and Bob Rijkers are two of a team that developed a new methodology to detect that corruption. They tell Tim Phillips what they found – and what the government did about it.

We naturally assume that maintaining highways helps developing economies to grow and people to thrive. But there’s surprisingly little hard evidence on what the return on this investment could be – until now. Alex Rothenberg tells Tim Phillips whether repairing Indonesia’s roads has been a good investment.

When governments want to raise revenue, they often look for state-owned assets to privatise. What is the effect on the people who work in these firms? David Arnold talks to Tim Phillips about the impact of privatisation in Brazil.

Millions of Sri Lankans have migrated to the Gulf region to work, but almost one in 10 makes a formal complaint to the consulate about abuse or employer malpractice. Is there a better way to protect them? Nilesh Fernando tells Tim Phillips about a successful policy to regulate the agencies that match workers and employers.

Imagine an intervention that combined funding, best practice delivered at scale, and near-universal compliance. Should this guarantee it will succeed? Not necessarily, according to a study of a program to improve quality in Indian schools. Abhijeet Singh talks to Tim Phillips.

What role do bureaucrats play in a crisis? We might think that the best bureaucracy would be made up of people who are very good at doing exactly what they are told. But research into the impact of the 1918 flu pandemic in India suggests that other factors may be important too. Guo Xu talks to Tim Phillips.

What are the consequences for workers if they are employed by a firm that is sanctioned for corruption? We’re back in Brazil: Christiane Szerman tells Tim Phillips that the quest to do the right thing is catching guilty companies – but with devastating consequences for thousands of employees.

Every year, ambient air pollution kills 3 million people, and causes respiratory problems for hundreds of millions more. Can low-paid workers avoid the harmful effects of air pollution without losing income? Bridget Hoffmann and Juan Pablo Rud talk to Tim Phillips about what data from Mexico City reveals.

When workers become unemployed, do some turn to crime instead – and does unemployment insurance make a difference? Diogo Britto and Paolo Pinotti tell Tim Phillips about how disaggregated data gives a powerful new insight on the relationship between job loss and crime.

Does who you vote for influence the chances that you are hired, fired, and promoted? Edoardo Teso tells Tim Phillips about Brazil’s politically polarised labour market.

Almost 2 billion people don’t have access to clean water, which means increased risk of disease, especially for young children. Pascaline Dupas tells Tim Phillips how an experiment in Malawi that provided access to the chemicals to treat dirty water may save lives in many other countries too.

Do policies to provide women with financial resources or financial services give them more economic independence? Less often than we would like, Mikaela Rabb tells Tim Phillips.

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.