This week we featured research on refugees, tax amnesty, illegal animal trade and more...
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We are hosting two interesting webinars next week.
- The Future of Foreign Aid: Radical Simplification and/or Embracing Political Economy (Monday May 12th at 2pm UK time). During this webinar, Rachel Glennerster and Stefan Dercon will discuss the future of foreign aid in an era of falling budgets. Register here.
- On Thursday May 15th, we are releasing the new VoxDevLit on Electricity. Register to join Senior Editor Robyn Meeks at the launch event here.
Tax amnesties are a popular tool used by governments to encourage individuals and firms to partially fulfil their outstanding tax obligations, yet little is known about their effectiveness. Patricia Gil, Justin Holz, John A. List, Andrew Simon, and Alejandro Zentner find that partial forgiveness policies in the Dominican Republic increased short-run revenue while having little impact on long-term tax revenue.
On Thursday, Cosimo Beverelli and Rohit Ticku outlined evidence on how illegal animal trade contributes to disease transmission, highlighting how robust border inspections can effectively curb this impact.
On Wednesday, Rodrigo Canales, Juan Francisco Santini, Marina González Magaña, and Alexis Cherem found that a police training programme in Mexico enhanced officer interactions with citizens while reducing harmful conduct, providing valuable insights for improving frontline services.
Approximately one billion people worldwide lack access to proper sanitation. How does this impede development, and what investments are necessary to bridge this gap? In this week’s episode of VoxDevTalks, Karen Macours discusses policy insights on the global sanitation crisis.
A cap on corporate loan interest rates in Bangladesh led to an increase in lending–without rationing credit to riskier borrowers–indicating banks have substantial upfront market power. Yusuke Kuroishi, Cameron LaPoint, and Yuhei Miyauchi discuss the implications for interest rate regulation in developing countries.
From 1922 to 1923, over 1.2 million Greek Orthodox migrated from Anatolia to Greece, raising its population by 20%. Stelios Michalopoulos, Elie Murard, Elias Papaioannou, and Seyhun Orcan Sakalli explore how the human capital decisions of these refugees differed from natives, and how they continue to impact the Greek economy today.
On Wednesday, Managing Editor Oliver Hanney reflected on how we have been using generative AI to manage VoxDev, across a range of functions including editing, writing, images, and ideas.
Elsewhere:
- The deadline for applying to the Association for Comparative Economic Studies (ACES)'s annual ACES Political Economy Summer School in August 2025 is this evening. This 3-day summer school will expose participants to cutting-edge research in political economy, economic history, and development economics.
- Duncan Green on LSE Blogs, What leads to Research Impact? A conversation with SOAS
- On Peter Evans's Substack - Mental pictures: What I see when someone asks me about 'Anti Corruption'.
- On VoxEU, Trade policy for developing economies by M. Ayhan Kose, Alen Mulabdic & Dana Vorisek.
- Judd Devermont writes about President Biden's Africa Strategy. What went wrong?
- Rose M. Mutiso reflects on a conversation with Ken Opalo - Why Growth, Not Aid, Should Be the New Africa Strategy.
- Ken Opalo has some straight talk on African elites’ complacency: the case of Kenya.
- On CGDEV, Can Better Test Scores Lift Kids Out of Poverty? The Case for Long-Term Tracking of Education RCTs by Jack Rossiter, Justin Sandefur and Susannah Hares.
- Erin Collinson outlines how Shuttering MCC Would Send the Wrong Signal to Nepal and Hand a Win to China.
- Anthropic is hiring an Economist for their AI Economics Research.