This week we featured research on evidence-based policy, slums, fintech, climate and more...
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We've had a busy week at VoxDev! We started off the week with our latest episode of Development Dialogues, in which Rory Stewart, Stefan Dercon, and Trudi Makhaya discussed the challenges of evidence-based policy in an era where populism and narratives often outweigh facts. The conversation centred around how to ensure facts and evidence still matter in policymaking and international development, especially as political landscapes become increasingly divided.
This week we released Issue 2 of our VoxDevLit on International Trade. In this issue, David Atkin and Amit Khandelwal, along with an amazing group of co-editors, update their living literature review with the latest evidence on international trade, focusing on weak institutions, market failures, and firm-specific distortions, and what it means for policy.
Slum upgrading programmes improve living conditions for low-skilled residents, but potentially at the cost of formal development and inefficient land allocation. On Wednesday, Mariaflavia (Nina) Harari and Maisy Wong presented evidence from Indonesia that reveals that these costs are largest close to the city centre, suggesting that slum upgrading efforts be targeted in less-developed regions of the city.
The US, China, and the EU are shaping the future of climate policy, but could their efforts hurt trade opportunities for developing countries? How should policymakers balance the green benefits of climate policy against the economic risks for those in low- and middle-income countries? Enrique Aldaz-Carroll, Euijin Jung, Maryla Maliszewska, and Iryna Sikora explore these question in today’s article.
Bangladesh’s political landscape changed dramatically in August 2024, when student-led protests and public unrest led to the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. An interim government has since taken over, ushering in a period of uncertainty about the country’s future. In this week’s episode of VoxDevTalks, Imran Matin, Executive Director of the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, explores the factors leading to the upheaval, the current state of governance, and necessary steps to ensure a stable transition.
Policymakers have argued that remittance comparison websites can facilitate consumer search, and, consequently, boost financial inclusion by reducing remittance prices; however, little is known about how low-income migrants with relatively little trust in digital methods interact with fintech. In Central America, Eduardo Nakasone, Máximo Torero, and Angelino Viceisza find that comparison websites are not a one-size-fits-all solution.
Post-harvest loans can stop farmers selling low and buying high. On Tuesday, Sanghamitra Warrier Mukherjee, Lauren Falcao Bergquist, Marshall Burke, and Edward Miguel demonstrated how integrated financial solutions can enable grain storage, channel returns into forward-looking investments, and smooth seasonal prices, yielding benefits for the broader community.
Elsewhere in development economics:
- "Understand that, however solid it might be, scientific evidence doesn’t make policy; cross-pressured people do" Ken Opalo's latest post on what will become of international development is a must read. Ken also wrote on why ending aid dependency is an opportunity for African countries.
- Justice Tei Mensah had a great article on World Bank Blogs - Can Africa create jobs without infrastructure?
- On Evidence Action - 7 global health solutions we're testing in 2025.
- From IPA - Innovation from Within: Government Labs for Strengthening Public Policy
- By Yuen Yuen Ang - Doing development in the polycrisis
- Oliver Harman spoke to the OPEC Fund on why we should embrace urbanisation.
- Old but gold by Jason Kerwin - The moral imperative for honesty in development economics.
There were some great podcasts and videos released this week:
- On the FT's Economics Show, three great episodes: Alice Evans spoke about why birth rates are falling across the world; Richard Baldwin discussed the future of global trade, and Minouche Shafik on the future of aid and development.
- On Trade Talks with Chad Bown, Chris Casey and Amit Khandelwal: What if Trump halts duty-free packages from China? Chad Bown also released the new Trump trade war timeline 2.0.
- Dean Karlan spoke to NPR about why he resigned as Chief Economist of USAID.
- Fatema Z. Sumar outlined how cutting foreign aid hurt will hurt the US.
- A new econimate video - Organized Crime and Economic Growth
The Harvard Center for International Development (CID) is hosting a series of important discussions on the future of US foreign aid and the global impact of recent US policy changes.
Finally, a few interesting links from elsewhere:
- A new generation of AIs: Claude 3.7 and Grok 3 - Ethan Mollick
- Statecraft is a super interesting Substack "we interview top political appointees, civil servants, and policy entrepreneurs about how they achieved a specific policy goal."
- And a new report on RES - Improving the Publication Process in Economics