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What’s the Latest Research in Development Economics? A Roundup from NEUDC 2021

Recommended.

Last weekend was the North East Universities Development Consortium annual conference . Researchers—mostly economists—presented nearly 200 papers on topics from agriculture to COVID to marriage to microfinance. It’s a great introduction to a wide range of current development economics research.

As a crash course for you (and for us), we’ve produced a brief takeaway from each paper. Of course, these are our takeaways, and yours may differ. If you’re interested in the topic, we encourage you to read the papers . Some of the papers present preliminary results, so you may want to take a look before—you know—redesigning your monetary policy based on our tweet-sized summary. Finally, we made a judgment call about where to place papers: for example, does a study on the impact of a health intervention on education outcomes go under health or education? So you may as well just read the whole post.

The evidence comes from all over the world, as you can see in Figure 1 below. (We’ve sorted the papers by topic below, you can also find all the papers sorted by country .) By far, the most studies come from India (35 studies!), Brazil (18), China (14), Mexico (11). Relative to the same conference last year , India holds a similar position relative to Brazil and Mexico, but China is much more represented.

In terms of research methods, the most commonly used approach was fixed effects estimation (49 studies), followed by randomized controlled trials (42), difference-in-differences (29), regression discontinuity (21), and instrumental variables (19) (Figure 2).

Figure 2. What methods do studies use?

The referenced media source is missing and needs to be re-embedded.

Source: This chart draws on a sample of 185 studies from the NEUDC 2021 conference. Some studies used more than one method.

Without further ado, here are 185 paper microsummaries! For most papers, we indicate the methodology. If you had a different takeaway from a paper, share your thoughts in the comments!

Guide to the methodological hashtags

#DID = Difference-in-differences #FE = Fixed effects #IV = Instrumental variables #LIF = Lab in the field #PSM = Propensity score matching #RCT = Randomized controlled trial #RD = Regression discontinuity

Households and human capital

Education and early childhood development.

A large-scale home visiting intervention in Bangladesh was integrated into the national nutrition program. While service providers partly substituted away from nutrition counseling and towards early childhood development counseling, both cognitive and nutritional outcomes improved. ( Bos et al. ) #FE

Scheduling the school calendar such that exams fall during harvest season inflated dropouts among rural youth by between 6.5 and 8.4 percent in Bangladesh. ( Ito and Shonchoy ) #DID

Livestock insurance for pastoral communities in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia decreased children's work and increased their schooling. ( Son ) #RCT

An after-school curriculum to strengthen teenagers' character in three countries of Central America reduced misbehavior at school. ( Dinarte, Egana-delSol, and Martinez A. ) #RCT

Poorer college applicants in China are less strategic in their college priority ranking, potentially exacerbating educational inequality. ( Wang, Wang, and Ye )

Providing students starting their senior year of high school in Argentina with information on their chances of graduating (given their current academic performance) increases timely graduation, especially for the worst performing students. ( Lopez ) #RCT

In areas of Mexico with more manufacturing jobs, conditional cash transfers had less of a positive impact on education, particularly for youth old enough to work in the factories. ( Molina and Vidiella-Martin ) #RCT

A voucher reform that increased government subsidies for disadvantaged students in Chile actually resulted in increased fees for those students at private schools. ( Cañedo-Riedel and Sánchez )

In Nepal, government expenditures on a year of primary or secondary school are roughly equal to the average increased taxes that someone with an additional year of schooling later pays (i.e., the fiscal externality). For tertiary education, the gains outweigh the costs. ( Bleakley and Gupta )

Cash grants to public school councils in rural Pakistan increased learning in both public and private schools. ( Andrabi et al. ) #RCT

Attending a high-quality public “model” school in India boosts test scores in math, science, and social science. ( Kumar ) #RD

Free after-school tutoring to primary school students in rural Bangladesh boosts test scores of their peers. Targeting tutoring to students who are more socially central leads to bigger effects. ( Islam et al.) #RCT

“Over-the-phone mentoring and homeschooling support delivered by volunteers” in Bangladesh “improved the learning outcomes of treated children by 0.75 SD and increased homeschooling involvement of treated mothers by 0.64 SD.” ( Hassan et al. ) #RCT

When men in Colombia “just miss the cutoff to enroll in their” preferred university major, they’re likely to retake the exam. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to “enroll in a less preferred major” right away. This difference can explain “about half of the gender-earnings gap among college-educated workers in Colombia.” ( Franco and Hawkins ) #RD

“An extra friend aspiring to go to college [in Brazil] increases the likelihood that the average student will also aspire to it by 11.39 percent.” ( Gagete-Miranda ) #IV

Affirmative action for undergraduate law studies in Brazil more than doubled the chance that beneficiaries went on to become certified lawyers and employed, with no apparent negative impacts on outcomes for "applicants displaced by the policy." ( Ribeiro and Estevan ) #RD

When the proportion of low-income students at a Colombian university tripled, the social networks of wealthy students changed, but only a little. ( Velasco ) #DID

State-sponsored education in 19th-century France led to most people speaking the same language, with persistent impacts on national identity and preferences for political centralization. ( Blanc and Kubo ) #RD

“Providing a free lunch to all students leads to improvements in academic achievement on average” in South Korea. ( Kim ) #DID

Automated, “interactive phone calls intended to encourage parents of first-graders in Kenya to read at home with their children” increased oral reading fluency by between 1.5-2 words per minute over 5 weeks. ( Esposito and Sautmann ) #RCT

Children in rural India attended school less when their families faced greater risk to their incomes, but the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) may offset those impacts. ( Foster and Gehrke ) #FE

The introduction of mobile broadband internet had no impact on children's test scores in Brazil. ( Bessone, Dahis, and Ho )

Individuals growing up in parts of the United States with more robots “are more likely to have a Bachelor’s degree and tend to major in subjects where the prevalence of routine-related occupations is lower.” ( Carrillo and Iglesias ) #DID

A one standard deviation (SD) increase in temperature during exams in Brazil decreases the average exam score by 0.036 SD. The higher the stakes, the smaller the effects because exam takers exert more effort. ( Melo and Suzuki ) #FE

Public schools in Chile appoint more effective principals after increasing competitiveness and transparency of their selection process. ( Muñoz and Prem ) #DID

A bicycle can transform a girl’s life: in Zambia, bicycle provision reduced average commuting time to school by 35 percent, late arrival by 66 percent, and decreased absenteeism by 27 percent. It also had positive effects on grade transition, math test scores, girls’ self-reported feelings of control over their lives and, “for those who received bicycles with a small cost to her family, higher levels of aspirations, self-image, and a desire to delay marriage and pregnancy.” ( Fiala et al. ) #RCT

In Somalia, female role models impact boys’ and girls’ attitudes on gender equality but not students’ aspirations to attend colleges. ( Kipchumba et al. ) #RCT

An experiment in boarding schools in Peru showed that similarity increases the likelihood of friendships and proximity fosters more diverse friendships. ( Gitmez and Zárate ) #FE

COVID-19 lockdowns in Bangladesh led to more chores for girls, and job loss among parents increased the likelihood of "marriage-related discussions" for daughters. ( Makino, Shonchoy, and Wahhaj )

The Ugandan COVID-19 "lockdown, one of Africa’s strictest, impacted female workers more severely than male workers by disproportionately reducing their employment rate, shifting them to economic sectors in which they are less productive, and widening the gender pay gap." ( Alfonsi, Namubiru, and Spaziani )

On a COVID-19 mutual aid platform in Indonesia, donors are more likely to give a donation when given a smaller choice set of potential beneficiaries, and they prefer to donate to self-reported breadwinners and females. ( Hilmy, Lim, and Riyanto ) #FE

Phone calls and SMS messages to parents, encouraging them to support their children while schools were closed for COVID, increased learning in Botswana. ( Angrist, Bergman, and Matsheng ) #RCT

“A sizeable one-time-only emergency cash transfer ($526 PPP) targeted at self-employed, sub-employed, and informal sector workers [in Mexico] during the COVID-19 pandemic” increased mental health and food security but did not increase individuals’ likelihood of staying home or otherwise supporting public health policies. ( Cañedo, Fabregas, and Gupta ) #RD

Rural pensions in China boosted child weight, "largely driven by grandfathers’ pension receipt on grandsons." ( Yang and Chen ) #FE

"Living in a household experiencing food insecurity is associated with lower levels of psychological well-being" in Lebanon. ( Alloush and Bloem ) #IV

A nutritional support program in Ethiopia boosted beneficiaries' emotional state and stability, although labor productivity remained unaffected. ( Park and Kim ) #LIF

Girls receiving the Child Support Grant in South Africa were less likely to be underweight and also less likely to be obese. ( Sen and Villa ) #RD

Inequality between households within the same community is an important driver of inequality in women and children’s nutritional status. Sanitation infrastructure and health facility quality in South Asia matter for nutritional outcomes—but wealthier women can travel to receive better care. ( Brown et al. ) #FE

Health (including mental health)

Among Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, providing counseling, psychological education, and play activities for children reduced depression, increased happiness, and boosted child development. ( Islam et al. ) #RCT

Exposure to arsenic-contaminated water is bad for children's health, but in India, it's especially bad for younger sisters, potentially because of pre-existing malnutrition. ( Aggarwal and Barua ) #IV

Pharmacotherapy for adults in India increases investment in their children's education. ( Angelucci and Bennett ) #RCT

Encouraging smokers in rural Bangladesh to record their tobacco expenditures led them to buy cheaper, smokeless tobacco. Showing graphic posters of the effects of tobacco reduced expenditure for more educated smokers. ( Fakir and Bharati ) #RCT

“Within a government health insurance program that entitles 46 million poor individuals to free hospital care in Rajasthan, India … females account for only 33% of hospital visits among children and 43% among the elderly…. In the presence of gender bias, increasing access to and subsidizing social services may increase levels of female utilization but fail to address gender inequalities without actions that specifically target females.” ( Dupas and Jain )

Among “maternity care workers in primary health clinics in Nigeria… both rewards and penalties increase time on task by 11 percent, overall performance by six-to-eight percent, and directly incentivized performance by twenty percent.” Performance on tasks without incentives also improved. ( Bauhoff and Kandpal ) #RCT

“The current vaccination completion rate is low in states [of India] where forced sterilization was high” in the 1970s. “Places more exposed to forced sterilization in 1976-77 have higher child mortality today.” ( Sur ) #IV

How do drug procurement processes affect price, delivery, and shipment time? Across 100+ countries, “pooling internationally is most effective for small buyers and more concentrated markets, and pooling within-country is most effective for large buyers and less concentrated markets.” ( Wang and Zahur ) #IV

Hand-hygiene ‘edutainment’ within popular dramas in Bangladesh improved handwashing and child health. ( Hussam et al. ) #RCT

Evidence from 140 countries show that “epidemic exposure in an individual’s “impressionable years” (ages 18 to 25) has a persistent negative effect on confidence in political institutions and leaders, and on the public health system.” ( Eichengreen, Saka, and Aksoy ) #FE

Fertility and family planning

Providing vouchers in rural India for women to seek subsidized family planning services, either just for themselves or for them and their friends, boosted use of modern contraceptive methods. ( Anukriti, Herrera-Almanza, and Karra ) #RCT

A comprehensive family planning package in urban Malawi ("counseling, free transport to a clinic, and financial reimbursement for family planning services" over two years) decreased stunting by about 7 percent. Cognitive development also rose. ( Maggio, Karra, and Canning ) #RCT

A family planning campaign in Burkina Faso increased contraceptive use by 5.9 percentage points and births fell by 10 percent. ( Glennerster, Murray, and Pouliquen ) #RCT

In Brazil, agricultural “technological change that eliminates female jobs also increases fertility.” ( Moorthy ) #DID

Can improved counseling increase willingness to pay for modern contraceptives? In Cameroon, discounts increased update by 50 percent while shared decision-making (i.e., better information tailored to individual needs) tripled the share of clients adopting a contraceptive at full price. ( Athey et al. ) #RCT

In Malawi, women who received targeted counseling were 15.6 percent less likely to use their stated ideal contraceptive method. With husbands present at the counselling session, women were 13.5 percent less likely to change their stated ideal method. ( Karra and Zhang ) #RCT

Households and marriage

"Participation in Oportunidades [in Mexico] increased mothers’ bargaining power by almost 24%, associated with a 20% increase in their individual welfare." ( Flores ) #DID

An increase in community violence in Mexico led to a decrease in women's decision-making power. ( Hernandez-de-Benito )

In Ethiopia, a legal reform that provides for more equal division of property between wives and husbands in the case of divorce leads to higher consumption levels, particularly where non-land assets are divided more equally than land assets. ( Kieran ) #FE

Across 28 sub-Saharan African countries over the last 30 years, "at any given time more than 10% of children ages 5-16, the majority of them girls, were living with no parent present." ( McGavock )

In India’s marriage market, women prefer men who have completed primary school, while men are not looking for highly educated women. ( Beauchamp, Calvi, and Fulford )

Mobility restrictions in colonial Mozambique led young men to marry earlier and to women of similar age. “Because smaller age disparities reduce HIV risk”, “it is nearly 50 percent lower in those regions.” ( Denton-Schneider ) #RD

In sub-Saharan Africa, the effect of droughts on child marriage is weaker where polygyny is more commonly practiced. ( Tapsoba ) #FE

In China, early marriage reduces women’s progressive gender role attitudes. ( Wu ) #IV

Does it matter whether we discover information by ourselves or hear it from our spouse? For women in India, it’s the same. Men’s beliefs respond less than half as much to information that was discovered by their wife. Husbands put less weight on their wife’s signals even when it is “perfectly shared with them.” ( Conlon et al. ) #FE

After Cambodia’s World Trade Organization (WTO) accession, men in districts facing larger tariff reductions experienced a significant decline in paid employment, whereas women increased their entry into the labor force. This increased intimate partner violence, without changes in marriage, fertility, psychological distress, or household consumption. ( Erten and Keskin ) #FE

In India, mineral deposits—when it comes with sharing of mining royalties with local groups to support investment in vulnerable populations—improve women’s outcomes: “there is reduced acceptance of physical violence and women report fewer barriers to accessing healthcare.”( Guimbeau et al. ) #IV

A female empowerment program—with psychosocial therapy and vocational skills training—in Monrovia, Liberia, reduced the share of women who experienced emotional, physical, and sexual intimate partner violence. One channel: the business training was highly effective, increasing labor supply by 37 percent. ( Sungho Park and Kumar ) #RCT

Migration and refugees

Slavery-intensive districts opposed emancipation in 19 th century Brazil. There was “more support for emancipation where immigrants provided an alternative source of labor” and “where enslaved persons could more easily escape.” ( Seyler and Silve ) #IV

A one SD decrease in soil moisture leads to a 2 percentage point drop in the probability of international migration from West Africa to Europe, equivalent to a 25 percent decrease in the number of international migrants. ( Martínez Flores, Milusheva, and Reichert ) #FE

Adolescents in the households of return migrants in Mexico have a higher probability to attend school, and a lower probability to work or to work and attend school at the same time. ( Chakraborty ) #IV

In the US, “unemployment among low-skilled natives and local welfare expenditure per capita increase in the short-run with low-skilled immigration, but those effects fade through time, while voting is shifted towards republicans in the short run, but only partially attenuate.” ( Oliveira ) #IV

Regularization of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia (with the PEP visa) led to 18 percent and 24.5 percent higher consumption and income per capita compared to other migrants. They also have access to safety nets and financial services, better labor conditions, less food insecurity and better integration in the Colombian society. ( Ibáñez et al. ) #RD

In the Tigray region of Ethiopia, interaction with a migrant significantly improves attitudes towards them. ( Bezabih et al. ) #RCT

Working and saving

Banking and credit.

"Substantial credit creation and destruction exist at all phases of the business cycle" in India. "The annual average of gross and excess credit reallocation in India is even higher than the prior work on the U.S." ( Saini )

In Brazil, privatized branches reduce their lending supply alongside branch closure that adversely impacts bank access, especially in less developed locations. ( Mariani ) #FE

Increasing access to digital loans in Nigeria improves subjective well-being but does not significantly impact other measures of welfare. ( Björkegren et al. ) #RCT

In the 2000s in India, “banks with stronger deposit franchises significantly increased exposure to sectors characterized by long-term advances and rigid rates, whereas banks with weaker franchise increased exposure to sectors with flexible interest rates. Subsequently, banks with lower sensitivity to market interest rates have higher nonperforming loans.” ( Kulkarni and Singh ) #DID

In the absence of the 1997 financial crisis, “there would have been 20 percent more [bank] branches and 9.3 percent more markets [in Thailand] with at least one branch after ten years.” Access to loans would have increased by 13.7 percentage points ( Rysman, Townsend, and Walsh ) #FE

Rural banks in Indian villages decrease informal borrowing and increase formal loans, insurance, and savings products. This reduces poverty rates and stress, and increases non-agriculture self-employment, business income, and wage income. ( Barboni, Field, and Pande )

Access to microcredit in rural China reduced informal borrowing and raised the value of autarky (i.e., economic self-reliance). “Program members relied less on informal financial networks for insuring against shocks when they anticipated having access to credit from the village banks.” ( Cai ) #RCT

Performance-contingent contracts in Kenya have positive impacts on micro-distributor profits. ( Cordaro et al. ) #RCT

After a five-hour financial literacy program in rural Uganda, small business owners were more likely to have savings in their mobile money account or formal savings, and smaller outstanding loans. ( Hamdan et al. ) #RCT

Cash transfers

Unconditional cash transfers in Indonesia led recipients to be “2 to 3 percent less likely to be employed and, among those employed, 3 to 6 percent less likely to be in formal work following receipt of the transfer.” ( Pritadrajati ) #DID

Household exposure to Uganda’s social pension program improves child nutrition and increases educational investment in kin-based societies. There is no impact on children in societies organized by social groups based on age, where intergenerational ties are weak. ( Moscona and Seck ) #DID

The New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS) in rural China “reduces labor supply, and the receipt of NRPS benefits lowers labor force participation by 9 percent.” ( Nikolov and Wang ) #RD

A cash transfer program in the Philippines reduced non-partner domestic violence (e.g., husband’s relatives), with no effect on intimate partner violence or violence outside home. Suggested mediating channels include stress reduction, increase in empowerment and bargaining power, and strengthening of social networks. ( Dervisevic, Perova, and Sahay ) #RD

Firms and microenterprises

“Spanish firms have lower productivity growth…than German firms…. financial frictions account for 11% of the aggregate productivity growth difference.” ( Sui ) #IV #FE

“Aggregate reallocation is procyclical,” which is “puzzling given the documented fact that the benefits to reallocation are countercyclical.” But “this procyclicality is entirely driven by reallocation of bundled capital.” ( Yang )

Fast-food chains in the US may intentionally target areas with higher obesity rates: "every 1% increase in obesity rate results in 3.8-4.3 additional branch openings." ( Chopra ) #PSM

Using data from India’s largest job website, growing demand for machine learning skills—a proxy for the adoption of artificial intelligence—"has a direct negative impact on the total number of vacancies posted by” firms. It also reduces wages for most jobs. ( Copestake, Pople, and Stapleton ) #FE

A three-week mini-masters of business administration (MBA) program for Ugandan high school students had positive impacts on earnings and business profits 3.5 years later, regardless of whether the training focused on hard skills or soft skills. ( Chioda et al. ) #RCT

In China, “individuals with higher college entrance exam scores … are less likely to create firms; however, when they do, their firms are more successful than those of their lower-score counterparts.” ( Bai et al. ) #FE

The improvement of the quality of legal courts in India has a disproportionately large impact on investment decisions of individuals from disadvantaged castes. ( Chakraborty et al. ) #FE

The entry of chain stores (like 7-11 or Circle-K) into Mexican neighborhoods reduced the number of neighborhood shops, but mostly from fewer newer neighborhood shops opening than usual rather than a bunch going out of business. ( Talamas Marcos ) #IV

In India, managers of firms with the same group identity (family lineage, native language, place of origin, and caste) as the board earn higher compensation. ( Aswani )

Reliability matters for firm-level trading patterns. In Rwanda, ‘good firms’—exporters, multinational companies, large firms, and suppliers to exporters and other multinational companies—are considered more reliable. Reliability matters for the supply chain and supplying a multinational company increases overall seller reliability. ( Nigam and Tan ) #FE

In the Dominican Republic, 20 percent of workers who change firms move to a buyer or supplier of their original employer. Hiring firms experience strong sales and productivity growth. ( Cardoza et al. ) #FE

In China, “historical family culture, as measured by genealogy density, is positively correlated with the share of family firms in counties.” ( Xie and Yuan ) #IV

While rural communities in India can solve internal collective action problems to improve production quality, they are not free from internal market frictions. ( Rao and Shenoy ) #DID

In Mozambique, while female telephone sales representatives working with M-Pesa, a leading mobile money provider in Sub-Saharan Africa, registered fewer clients with new SIM cards, they were more likely to convert these new mobile phone clients to M-Pesa, resulting in similar overall enrollments of new M-Pesa clients. ( Karra et al. ) #RCT

Contracts between the largest oil companies and petro-rich economies with weak institutions go through more changes later in the process (i.e., are backloaded) relative to countries with strong institutions. ( Paltseva, Toews, and Troya-Martinez ) #FE

Labor (including child labor)

A six-month wage incentive for secondary school graduates in Mexico gets youth into the labor market sooner then they'd enter otherwise (without pulling them away from education). ( Abel et al. ) #RCT

A new model to simulate the “the potential impacts of automation” finds big inequality impacts: Automation “raises 2050 wages of high-skilled American workers by 28.8 percent and lowers 2050 wages of low-skilled American workers by 22.8.” ( Benzell et al. )

Do “rickshaw-pullers from Bangladesh exert more effort in their work when they have more family dependents to support?” Yes. ( Aziz )

Most firms in Ethiopia use social networks to find new employees. Subsidizing the formalization of their search (through online and physical posting of job ads) had no effect on the total vacancies that firms created, but it did lead to more “white collar, professional positions.” ( Hensel, Tekleselassie, and Witte ) #RCT

“Offering part-time employment opportunities” in Ethiopia, compared to full-time employment, “attracts less able applicants, who exhibit lower productivity as measured by data entry speed and accuracy during an internship.” ( Kim, Kim, and Zhu ) #RCT

A women’s self-help group lending program in rural Bihar, India, reduced participation in agricultural wage labor for women from disadvantaged caste groups, while those from privileged caste groups increased their participation in self-employment. ( Surendra ) #DID

Uber is used by drivers to buffer against adverse weather shocks: a one SD increase in the intensity of an agricultural shock in Uganda increases time online by 5.1 hours in the month of the adverse weather event (a 6 percent increase over average hours). ( Michuda ) #FE

In India, a mother-in-law’s death reduces her daughter-in-law’s labor force participation by 10 percent. ( Khanna and Pandey ) #FE

In India, “job ads with a high female association use words in the job text that reflect gender stereotypes in job attributes, offer lower wages, and attract a high share of female applications.” ( Chaturvedi, Mahajan, Siddique ) #FE

After a commodity price boom in Brazil, labor was reallocated away from agriculture towards the manufacturing sector in locations more exposed to the commodities boom. ( Laskievic ) #IV

Poverty Measurement

Limitations of big data: Call Detail Records in Haiti fail as an alternative basis for either targeting or evaluation. Predicted outcomes are too noisy to differentiate between targeted cash transfer beneficiaries or to detect changes in food security. ( Barriga Cabanillas et al. ) #RD

Despite large post-disaster reconstruction programs after the 2004 tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia, the economic status of those living in heavily damaged areas did not keep up. This is partly driven by much higher inflation rates in those areas. ( Lawton et al. ) #FE

In Mexico, “combining survey and sub-area level satellite data using household-level empirical best models, while not always preferable to older census-based poverty estimates, significantly improves the accuracy and precision of survey-based estimates of monetary poverty.” ( Newhouse et al. )

What information do community members have and use for social benefits targeting? In Purworejo, Central Java, community members use longer-term wealth information to predict dynamic welfare and to target social benefits. This may be useful in identifying long-term poverty but less so to identify short-term distress. ( Trachtman, Permana, and Sahadewo ) #LIF

Governments, institutions, and conflict

“A decrease by one percent of the US family planning aid induces a decrease by 0.101 percent from the other donors on average.” ( Ferrière ) #IV

Local labor unrest in China increases allocation of Chinese foreign aid projects to large state-owned firms in the area, and employment by these firms increases. Overall, Chinese aid has positive effects on GDP, capital formation, consumption, and employment in the aid receiving country. ( Mueller ) #FE

In areas with high malaria exposure, there are fewer Chinese aid projects and Chinese workers. ( Cervellati et al. ) #DID

Conflict and crime

In Brazil, “municipalities more exposed to illegal mining experienced extra 8 homicides per 100,000 people” (an increase of about 20 percent) after government capacity to monitor gold laundering was reduced. ( Pereira and Pucci ) #DID

Districts in Peru affected by the Mining Mita (a colonial labor-coercion institution) experience more social unrest and violent conflict today. ( Huaroto and Gallego ) #RD

In Africa, droughts in the territory of seasonally migrant populations that herd livestock lead to conflict in neighboring areas, especially in agricultural areas and during the wet season. “Effects are muted in the presence of irrigation aid projects, but not in the presence of other forms of foreign aid.” ( McGuirk and Nunn ) #FE

Post-war sex ratios (with fewer men) in Paraguay are “associated with higher out-of-wedlock births, more female-headed households, better female educational outcomes, higher female labor force participation, and more gender-equal gender norms.” ( Alix-Garcia et al. ) #FE

Reparations for survivors of human rights violations in Colombia improve their lives with positive gains in wage earnings, health, and consumption. Survivors also “invest in their children’s human capital, improving college attendance and test scores.” ( Guarin Galeano )

“Do agricultural producers forgo otherwise profitable investments due to civil conflict?” In Colombia, the answer is yes. Credit disbursement increases after a peace agreement due to changes in returns to investment. ( de Roux and Martínez ) #DID

A 2016 non-aggression pact between gangs in El Salvador led to a large reduction in violence, but increased extortion rates by 15 percent to 20 percent. Much of the increase was passed on to retailers and consumers with observed increases in prices for pharmaceutical drugs and hospital visits for chronic illnesses. ( Brown et al. ) #DID

Buildings constructed when the county officials had connections to their superiors at the prefecture level (in terms of having the same hometown) were 83 percent more likely to collapse during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake relative to the no-connection benchmark. ( Cao ) #DID

In Indonesia, performance appraisals of teachers reduce generosity (as proxied by willingness to make a donation to their own school) at the workplace and increase dishonest behavior, especially when appraisals are linked to financial sanctions. ( Ibanez et al. ) #FE

“Campaign contributions buy forbearance from enforcement of environmental regulations.” Deforestation in Colombia is significantly higher in municipalities that elect donor-funded as opposed to self-funded politicians. ( Harding et al. ) #RD

In Pakistan and India, public officials use personal funds to complement official funding for public services, and part of these funds come from bribes. ( Aman-Rana, Minaudier, and Sukhtankar )

In Brazil, audits increase the number of public employee hires, especially among municipalities in which audits uncovered higher corruption. Mayors hire additional employees as a form of patronage to compensate for audit-related electoral support loss. Additional hires do not positively affect public good and services provision. ( Gonzales ) #DID

In Mexico, partisan alignment between the municipal and federal government increased allocation of an infrastructure program, and increased misuse of federal funds only in municipalities receiving the program. ( Garfias, Lopez-Videla, and Sandholtz ) #RD

In West Bengal, India, “areas controlled by the state’s ruling party receive systematically higher welfare allocations, both in election and non-election years, and yield more votes for the ruling party in the next national election.” ( Shenoy and Zimmermann ) #RD

In India, “the state government channels disproportionate funds to politically-aligned jurisdictions in water-stressed areas and consequently gains votes in subsequent elections.” ( Mahadevan and Shenoy ) #RD

Joining a WhatsApp group organized by political parties in Tamil Nadu, India, increases political knowledge and affects political preferences towards the party affiliated by the WhatsApp group. Effects are stronger when horizontal communication between group members is enabled. ( Carney ) #RCT

During 2018 election in Russia, “video monitoring reduces reported voter turnout by 5.2 percent and votes for the incumbent (autocrat) by 8.3 percent, suggesting a decrease in fraud.” ( Faikina ) #RD

Candidates during 2012 and 2016 Brazilian municipal elections with an electoral advantage (i.e., frontrunners) are substantially more likely to receive a campaign attack than candidates with lower electoral ranking. ( Nakaguma and Souza ) #RD

Providing information about criminal cases and charges of legislative candidates in India increases votes for candidates with no criminal charges and reduces votes for candidates charged for crimes. ( George, Gupta, and Neggers ) #FE

In India, term-limited village presidents provide relatively fewer public goods to heavily populated streets (with many potential votes), and instead allocate more public goods to the streets of the landed elite. ( Brown, Genicot, and Kochhar ) #FE

In the DRC, high-ability tax collectors exert greater effort when matched with other high-ability collectors. Implementing the optimal assignment in terms of ability of tax collectors with (i) teams, and (ii) neighborhoods, would increase tax compliance by 37 percent relative to the status quo (random) assignment. But: governments would have to replace 62 percent of low-ability tax collectors or increase performance wages by 69 percent. ( Bergeron et al. ) #FE

After India switched from sales tax to a value-added tax, gross sales increase by 45 percent. ( Agrawal and Zimmermann ) #DID #FE

Water and sanitation

Incentives for caretakers to maintain community toilets in Indian slums led to improved quality of the facilities and more people paying the contributory fee, but also demanding even better operation and maintenance. ( Armand, Augsburg, and Bancalari ) #RCT

Building a bunch of latrines in India actually made the quality of river water worse, but only in states with less sewage treatment plant capacity. ( Motohashi ) #DID

A mixed team of Hindu and Muslim workers in India is less productive in high-dependency tasks, but this effect vanishes in four months. In low-dependency tasks, diversity does not affect productivity. Mixing improves out-group attitudes for Hindu workers in high-dependency tasks. ( Ghosh ) #FE

One SD increase in RecordTV, a church-affiliated TV channel in Brazil, signal strength leads to an increase of 0.9 percentage points in the share of Pentecostals. This religious adherence leads to higher fertility rates, lower female labor force participation, lower homicide rates, and more votes for Pentecostal candidates. ( Buccione and Mello ) #FE

A zoning reform in urban Brazil that increased the amount of construction allowed led to a 1.4 percent increase in housing stock and a reduction in housing prices. "College educated and higher income households gain the most from the reform." ( Anagol, Ferreira, and Rexer ) #RD

“Fuel standards and gasoline content regulations are widely adopted by policymakers to reduce urban pollution and emission.” Are consumers willing to pay for it? In China, consumers will pay 3.9 percent of the gas price for higher standards. Premium gas consumers will pay more. ( Wang, Zhou, and Zhang ) #DID #RD

Entry deregulations reforms in Guangdong, China, increased firm entry by 25 percent and firm exit by 8.7 percent. Productivity of post-reform entrants is higher likely due to easing of financial constraints and more intense market competition. ( Barwick et al. ) #DID

Reducing cost of formalizing a firm in Brazil increased the number of active formal firms by 60 percent and formal firm registration in eligible industries by 161 percent. Overall formality rate of micro entrepreneurs increased from 17 percent to 32 percent. ( De Farias and Rocha ) #FE

Agriculture and the environment

Agriculture and land.

Farmers in Malawi contribute more to a soil test of someone else's land if they perceive the land to be similar to their own. ( Berazneva et al. ) #RCT

Some measures of wheat quality are easily observed; others aren't. In Ethiopia, large markets only reward easily observed quality, but markets that have grain millers or farmer cooperatives on site reward hard-to-observe quality measures. ( Do Nascimento Miguel )

In Tanzania and Mozambique, drought-tolerant maize seeds combined with insurance mitigated the impact of midseason drought. Farmers learned from this experience and increased future investments. ( Boucher et al. ) #RCT

“The poorest districts in Africa are more likely to have better (not worse) soil quality and … land fertility is higher in districts with worse roads…. Transportation costs are the main drivers of poverty in Africa… Isolation might turn soil quality into a curse.” ( Wantchekon et al. ) #IV

"Increased access to irrigation" in India "significantly boosts agricultural land production." ( Boudot-Reddy and Butler ) #RD

Including women in agricultural extension training for growing rubber in Côte d'Ivoire dramatically boosted investment in new crops and made it possible to maintain previous productivity on older crops. ( Donald, Goldstein, and Rouanet ) #RCT

Fertilizer in Tanzania is rarely adulterated. An information campaign telling farmers that the fertilizer was high quality increased fertilizer use a lot. ( Michelson, Magomba, and Maertens ) #RCT

Cashew producers in Guinea Bissau who received text messages with up-to-date market news and advice earned 21 percent more than other farmers. ( Pereira et al. ) #RCT

Do cotton farmers in Pakistan “learn from cultivation experience about the pest resistance of their seeds”? Not so much. It turns out that “parsing out and processing information from cultivation experience alone” is difficult. ( Ahmad )

If you start the bidding at a higher level in auctions among "commercial agricultural producers in the US," final bids end up higher. (It's what behavioral economists call "anchoring.") ( Ferraro et al. ) #RCT

Inappropriateness of technology adapted as proxied by crop pests and pathogens mismatch reduces global agricultural productivity by 40 to 55 percent, and increases global disparities in the same by 10 to 15 percent ( Moscona and Sastry ) #FE

In US counties with historically heterogenous soil, community ties are weaker, implying that “social learning is an important determinant of social structure.” ( Raz ) #DID

In the long run, labor and capital being mobile, agricultural gains may not “generate structural change in the exact locations in which [agricultural gains] occur.” Agricultural productivity gains improve consumption and education, but there are no gains to nonfarm employment or consumption for landless households in India. ( Asher et al. ) #RD

In India: “1) rural land holding concentration is higher close to urban areas and decreases with distance from urban centers, 2) the increase in land concentration near urban areas is due to fewer medium sized farmers (i.e., more small and large farmers near urban areas), and 3) the distance to urban area-land holding concentration relationship depends positively on the size of the urban area.” ( Rao, Eberhard, and Bharadwaj ) #FE

In Ghana, increases in staple crop price variability led to forest loss because of increased cultivation of cocoa. ( Krah ) #FE

In Mexico and Indonesia, as average heat and precipitation rise, people's aversion to risk falls. But as variation in heat and precipitation rise, aversion to risk rises. (Higher risk aversion correlates with fewer risky behaviors like smoking or migrating.) ( Howden and Levin ) #FE

By 2080, “climate change is estimated to displace 12 percent” of the population of sub-Saharan Africa and “reduce real GDP by 4 percent.” ( Conte ) #FE

Projected increases in the frequency of droughts over the next 30 years in India “will induce landowning households to allocate 2 percent more labor to agriculture and induce landless households to reduce their agricultural labor. The net effect is a 1 percent to 2 percent reduction in agricultural labor.” ( Basu ) #FE

In China, appealing a firm’s violations of pollution standards through social media increased both regulatory oversight and firm compliance, which reduced subsequent violations by 40 percent and air and water pollution emissions by 13 percent and 4 percent, respectively. Appealing to the regulator through private channels only caused a marginal improvement in environmental outcomes. ( Buntaine et al. )

In Uganda, “higher ability managers do not avoid polluted areas, but better adapt to pollution by protecting their workers through both provision of equipment and flexibility in work schedules.” ( Bassi et al. ) #FE

Air pollution in Beijing reduces local traffic which in turn decreases restaurant revenue. ( Liu, Rahman, and Wang ) #IV

Macroeconomics

Growth and inequality.

In the early 2000s, basic internet availability led "to about two percentage points higher economic growth" in towns across sub-Saharan Africa. ( Goldbeck and Lindlacher ) #DID

The extinction of “megaherbivores” (i.e., really big plant-eating animals) brought on the Neolithic Revolution, when a society shifted from forging to agricultural. ( Kumagai ) #IV

“Towns that shortly after the conquest” of the former Kingdom of Granada by the Catholic monarchs “were granted to nobles are relatively poorer today.” ( Oto-Peralías ) #FE

In railroad towns in Brazil, a long historical time as a railroad endpoint predicts a large city size today. ( Barsanetti ) #FE #IV

In colonial Mexico, when the Spanish crown improved its ability to observe local economic production, the transition to direct rule increased in mining districts, leading to greater investments to improve fiscal legibility (“the ability of a central government to observe local economic conditions for the purposes of taxation, shapes political centralization”) over the long term. ( Garfias and Sellars ) #DID

Municipalities in Brazil that fail to receive the revenues they expected from a resource discovery “suffer significant declines in per capita investment and public goods spending after ten years. In contrast, municipalities where discoveries are realized enjoy significant growth in per capita revenues and spending.” ( Katovich ) #DID

Korea’s promotion of heavy and chemical industries in the 1970s led to significant growth among targeted industries/regions. However, their total factor productivity did not grow faster because of resource misallocation across plants. ( Kim, Lee, and Shin ) #DID

Differences between men and women in occupational and sectoral choices and in wages are largest in poor countries and converge over the development process. ( Chiplunkar and Kleineberg ) #FE

“The geographic prevalence of domesticable transport animals, but not of other domesticable animals, strongly predicts the emergence of early long-distance trade routes.” Much later, “at the onset of the industrial era, ethnic groups living in regions historically also home to domesticable transport animals were more involved in trade and had built more complex hierarchical structures.” ( Link ) #FE

“A 10 percent decline in inter-state border frictions in India leads to welfare gains ranging between 1 percent and 8 percent across districts.” ( Panigrahi ) #FE

Ratifying an international trademark agreement led to welfare gains in Africa (from Chinese exports). ( Kuroishi ) #DID

China’s accession to the WTO (and implementation of import tariff cuts) improved female labor market conditions relative to males. It changed assortative mating patterns, improved education, and reduced women’s number of children, especially among high-skilled women. ( Luo and Zou ) #FE

In Vietnam, “US tariff reductions led to a decrease in the likelihood of being self-employed or working in an informal business and increased employment in foreign owned firms.” ( Asghar and McCaig ) #FE

Economic sanctions in Iran led to an overall decline in manufacturing employment growth rate by 16.4 percentage points. Effects are driven by labor-intensive industries and those that depend on imported inputs. ( Moghaddasi Kelishomi and Nisticò )

Following China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, Chinese cities more exposed to trade liberalization sent more students to US universities. Educational exports dampened trends in regional inequality. “Recent trade wars could cost US universities about $1.6 bn in tuition revenue.” ( Khanna et al. ) #IV

After Brazil’s tariff reform in the 1990, “regions specialized in adult-specific industries had lower growth in schooling and higher increases in child labor, especially in paid works.” Results translated into persistent effects on human capital formation and a structural transformation in employment composition. ( Viaro and Nakaguma ) #FE

The order of authors on this blog was determined by a virtual coin flip . This blog post benefited from research assistance from Amina Mendez Acosta and editing by Jeremy Gaines . It also appears on the Development Impact blog .

CGD blog posts reflect the views of the authors, drawing on prior research and experience in their areas of expertise. CGD is a nonpartisan, independent organization and does not take institutional positions.

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Development Economics

• Reference work entry
• First Online: 01 January 2018
• pp 2817–2836
• Cite this reference work entry

• Debraj Ray 1 &
• Clive Bell 1  

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This article surveys the current state of development economics, a subject that studies growth, inequality, poverty and institutions in the developing world. The article is organized around a view that emphasizes the role of history in creating development traps or slow progress. This ‘non-convergence’ viewpoint stands in contrast to a more traditional view, also discussed, based on the notion of economic convergence (across individuals, regions or countries). Some specific research areas in development economics receive closer scrutiny under this overall methodological umbrella, among them political economy, credit markets, legal issues, collective action and conflict.

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Development Economics

The Development Economics Program studies the forces that contribute to economic development, particularly in less developed nations. It explores the role of decisions by households, firms, and governments, the effects of development aid policies, and the consequences of rising incomes in emerging economies.

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What’s the Latest Research in Development Economics? A Roundup from NEUDC 2023

Almedina music, david evans.

There are so many studies regarding so many aspects of development economics that it can be difficult to keep up. Last week was the North East Universities Development Consortium annual conference , often called NEUDC. Researchers presented more than 130 papers across a wide range of topics, from agriculture to education and from labor to climate; almost all of the studies are available for download . This is a great snapshot of the latest research in development economics.

Where the studies are from and what methods they use

The studies take place all over the world (Figure 1). India has more than twice as many studies (23) than the next highest country, Brazil (with 10 studies). Kenya has eight, Indonesia has six, and Bangladesh, Malawi, and Pakistan each have five. A total of 43 countries are represented (not even including regional or cross-country studies that include dozens of countries). If you examine the studies per country population, the top countries are Guinea-Bissau, Uruguay, Malawi, Chile, and Jordan. (Guinea-Bissau and Uruguay just have one study each but have smaller populations.)

Figure 1. Where are recent development economics studies focused?

Source: This map draws on a sample of more than 135 studies from the NEUDC 2023 conference. We categorized studies and excluded those that covered more than three countries (often broad global or regional analyses).

The research continues to draw on a wide range of empirical strategies—i.e., not just randomized controlled trials, or RCTs (Figure 2). RCTs are the single largest group, but there are still lots of studies using difference-in-differences, fixed effects, and regression discontinuity. 

Figure 2. What empirical methods do recent development economics papers use? 

Source: This figure draws on 124 studies for which we found it easy to ascertain and categorize the empirical strategy. Some studies used multiple methods, in which case we categorized the two main methods we found.

What we learned from 130+ NEUDC studies

We went through each study, and we provide a micro-summary below. Obviously these are just our quick takes. Many studies have more than one thing to teach us, so if our microsummary piques your interest, click the link to the study! Also, take these micro-summaries with a grain of salt: some of these studies are still preliminary (that’s indicated on the front page of the studies themselves), and we also largely take the studies’ claims at face value (we aren’t peer reviewers). Still, there’s a lot of exciting research here, teaching us more about both problems and solutions in low- and middle-income countries (and beyond). We hope you learn as much reading them as we did writing them!

Guide to the methodological hashtags: 

Households and human capital

Education and early childhood development.

• Schools in Chile with more poor students tend to have lower test scores. A program that provides extra funding to those schools benefits disadvantaged students at both low and high levels of support. The results for advantaged students in the same schools are less consistent. (Cerda) #RD
• A school voucher program in India benefits recipients, but because voucher amounts are linked to schools' tuition fees, schools have an incentive to raise their fees, which hurts non-beneficiary students. The net effect is still positive, but failing to account for the effect on non-beneficiaries would dramatically overstate the benefits. (Sahai) #DID
• A ten-hour virtual training to help teachers in India better manage emotions, set goals, and solve problems led to a greater belief that they could boost students' learning and put more effort in their teaching. (Kaur) #RCT
• Lots of families in western Kenya don't have books to read to their kids. When those storybooks were offered, the vast majority of families took them. The more expensive they were, the less likely people were to buy them; but even with a low subsidy, more than 90 percent of families bought them. But three months later, kids still didn't have stronger vocabularies. (Bonds, Hamory, and Ochieng) #RCT
• In Tanzania, 10 percent more stagnant water increases diarrhea incidence among children by 30 percent and reduces test scores by 7 percent of a standard deviation. Access to improved sanitation and water sources mitigates the effect of stagnant water on these health and learning outcomes, but this effect increases with high temperatures and population density. (Berggreen and Mattisson) #DID
• A “learning how to learn” approach in Uganda raised the pass rate in the national exam (progression from primary to secondary school) from 51 percent to 71 percent. The approach “trained teachers to teach students to learn like scientists: posing sharp questions, framing specific hypotheses, using evidence and data gathered from everyday life whenever possible.” (Ashraf, Banerjee, and Nourani) #RCT
• In Chile, “classroom peers and older high school peers significantly shape students’ choices of college majors in male-dominated fields.” (Valdebenito) #RD
• In Peru, a 20-minute interaction between engineering students and high school students increased students’ preferences towards engineering, especially among female students with high math aptitude. (Agurto et al.) #RCT
• In India, primary students taught by college students scored 0.34 SD higher in math, 0.22 SD in science, and 0.15 SD in language higher than those taught by regular teachers. (Ganimian, Mbiti, and Mishra) #RCT
• A country-wide effort to improve toilet access and other aspects of sanitation in India (the "Clean India Mission") boosted children's math—but not literacy—scores. Results are similar for boys and girls. (Karmakar and Villa) #DID #ES
• Eleven months after introducing a program in India to encourage teachers to blend their teaching with high-quality videos, student math scores got worse, teachers taught less effectively (e.g., they gave worse feedback to students and monitored student learning less), and students had worse attitudes towards science and math. (de Barros) #RCT
• In the Dominican Republic, all Major League Baseball teams run training academies for adolescent boys. Despite public perceptions that this leads youth to undervalue formal education, exposure to these academies has no measurable impact on school attendance. (Marein and Palsson) #DID
• A common policy to get more underrepresented groups into college is to rank students within high schools (so that kids from poorer high schools have a shot). But in Chile, high school students switch schools to game the system, such that the current policy had a tiny impact, which would have been more than five times as large if students weren't switching schools. (Concha-Arriagada) #FE
• With the introduction of a new bus line and a new train line in Lima (Peru), "a 17 percent reduction in commuting time to college increases enrollment rates by 6 percent," with that mostly driven by enrollment in private colleges. Boys are willing to travel 50 percent longer than girls to attend a better college. (Alba-Vivar) #DID
• Study groups in Chinese primary schools boost student achievement. The effects are biggest for kids who were previously not doing so well in school but who are in high-achieving study groups. It also boosts those kids' level of motivation. (Gao et al.) #IV
• An additional year of education for women in India led to "a 27% decrease in less severe physical domestic violence, a 9% decrease in sexual violence, and a 10% decrease in injuries due to domestic violence." This was likely due to women finding better partners, improved attitudes, and potentially a higher likelihood of reporting violence. (Bergonzoli, Bahure, and Agarwal) #RD
• Higher export prices for crops grown by women in Peru reduce "domestic violence, including severe physical violence and female homicide... The effects are stronger in districts with more unequal gender norms." (Frankenthal) #FE
• In India, short-term exposure to domestic violence doesn't seem to affect women's attitudes about violence, but over time, women who experience violence are more likely to tolerate violence—potentially as a coping mechanism. (Frezza) #RD
• Girls' clubs for adolescents in Côte d'Ivoire alone boosted some girls' mental health but not employment outcomes. Adding separate clubs for husbands and future husbands boosted employment and sexual and reproductive health outcomes. (Boulhane et al.) #RCT
• Women living in neighborhoods with low risk of harassment or assault on the streets are 8.5 percentage points more likely to participate in the labor market relative to women in higher risk neighborhoods—in Indonesia and India. (Cahill) #PSM
• A successful school-expansion program in India “increased voter prioritization of leader competence over gender, boosting the share of women among candidates and state parliamentarians and the overall capability of elected officials.” (Anukriti, Calvo, and Charavarty) #RD
• In Pakistan, providing correct information about support for women voting in society to men does not change the turnout of women, while providing the same information to women or both lowers female turnout. “This blow-back effect is caused by men discouraging women from political participation because they believe women will act according to their own (and different from men’s) preferences.” (Gulzar, Khan, and Sonnet) #FE
• An anti-poverty program in Malawi improved households’ consumption, food security, and dietary diversity outcomes, regardless of whether men or women were targeted and whether a gender transformative training was incorporated in the program. (Bedi, King, and Vaillant) #RCT
• A conditional cash transfer (CCT) program in Peru reinforced traditional gender-role attitudes among children, especially girls. Beneficiary mothers spent more time on home production, and this priority could be a channel for perpetuating traditional gender role attitudes. (Luong) #RD
• Families historically exposed to higher levels of slavery in Guadeloupe and Martinique tend to be more matrifocal, with weaker fathers after emancipation. These families also face higher child mortality, stemming from poorer family environments rather than local conditions. (Beigelman) #FE
• “On an online marriage market platform in India, ... working women are 14.5% less likely to receive interest from male suitors... Women employed in ‘masculine’ occupations are 3.2% less likely to elicit interest from suitors relative to those in ‘feminine’ occupations.” (Afridi et al.) #RCT
• Providing "mentored girls' clubs, life skills, and vocational training" to adolescent girls in northern Nigeria reduced marriage two years after the intervention by 65 percentage points! A major reason is that it boosted girls' likelihood of staying in school. (Cohen, Abubakar, and Perlman) #RCT
• A radio campaign against female genital cutting in Egypt reduced cutting by 13 percent. But those girls also saw their bride prices fall by nearly a quarter and child marriages rose. Across Africa, cutting is more common in settings with bride price. (Khalifa) #DID
• Several years after the start of a cash transfer program in Malawi, those who benefited as adolescent girls were more likely to move longer distances for marriage, and those moves happened over a longer period of time, into young women's mid-twenties. (Ibrahim) #RCT
• Parents in Pakistan prefer grooms who are relatives; they also prefer marriages where their daughters will have more freedom (e.g., to leave the house unaccompanied or to make health decisions independently). (Calvi, Farooqi, and Kandpal) #SurveyExperiment
• In Lahore (Pakistan), women are more likely to sign up for a job search platform than they are to take a job. For less-educated job seekers, jobs with explicit gender requirements are more likely to exclude women. Women with more education are more selective about jobs, but the jobs themselves are less likely to be gender-restrictive. (Gentile et al.) #RCT
• Offering women in West Bengal (India) the ability to multitask work with childcare and to work from home boosts labor market participation, especially for those from more traditional households. Flexible work also increases women's likelihood of accepting out-of-home work later. (Ho, Jalota, and Karandikar) #RCT
• Increasing the minimum wage by nearly a quarter in Morocco narrowed the gender pay gap in the formal sector by about a quarter. But it also led a small fraction of women (but not men) to leave the formal labor market. (Paul-Delvaux) #DID
• In India, horizontal communication between cisgender participants reduces discrimination against transgender people: when involved in a group discussion with two neighbors, there is no longer discrimination at all on average, even when making private choices. This effect is 1.7x larger than top-down communication that informs participants about the legal rights of transgender persons. (Webb) #RCT
• In a lab in the field experiment in Bangladesh, the “less capable women are perceived compared to men, the less they are involved in decision-making. After the information treatment (on women’s abilities), individuals with the lowest perceptions about the wife’s skills are 20 percent more likely to make allocations in her favor.” (Nani) #RCT
• Employers in Bangladesh discriminate paternalistically, i.e., they restrict women’s employment choices to protect them from what employers perceive as unsafe. Informing about safe worker transport at the end of the shift increases demand for female labor by 22 percent and female labor supply by 15 percent. (Buchmann, Meyer, and Sullivan) #RCT
• Offering female entrepreneurs in Jordan access to virtual storefronts by (1) creating and managing Facebook pages for their businesses and (2) offering them digital marketing training created in collaboration with local influencers, increased business survival and revenues. Effects are driven by women with low physical mobility due to social norms at baseline. (Alhorr) #RCT

Health (including mental health)

• Sharing information about either "the prevalence of mental health issues and the efficacy of treatment" or "the mental health struggles of a Nepali celebrity and how he benefited from treatment" boosted people's stated willingness to seek mental health treatment and to pay for counseling. The effects were biggest for those with "less severe symptoms of depression and anxiety." (Lacey et al.) #RCT
• Sometimes people are uncertain about how risky a behavior is. In Malawi, people with greater uncertainty about how risky regular unprotected sex with an HIV-infected partner update their beliefs more drastically in response to new information. (Kerwin and Pandey) #RCT
• Groups of friends among Syrian refugees in Jordan are good at identifying who needs mental health support. Sometimes friends don't want to share info about mental health services because of stigma, but if you nudge the sharers to disclose that they're being financially compensated for sharing the info, they're more likely to share it. (Smith) #RCT
• Home visits inviting adults in Kenya to get vaccinated against COVID increased vaccine doses by ten percent, especially among women and people with less education or income. Announcing the home visit ahead of time (so people could either making a point of being home for the appointment or being out to avoid it) further boosted vaccinations. (Carney et al.) #RCT
• Providing frontline health workers in Guinea-Bissau "with evidence of their program’s effectiveness in improving local health indicators" significantly boosted the effort of health workers, even six months later. (Fracchia) #RCT
• A "mother and child health and family planning program in Bangladesh" boosted height in adulthood for those who participated as children (as well as education among the men). In the next generation, daughters of beneficiaries tend to be taller and have better cognitive development. (Barham et al.) #DID
• Introducing “a competitive selection system for recruiting CEOs in public hospitals in Chile reduced hospital mortality by 8%”, driven by hospitals in which the new CEOs had managerial qualifications. “These CEOs improved operating room efficiency and reduced staff turnover.” (Otero and Muñoz) #DID
• In Rajasthan (India), posting of a mid-level health care provider increased the monthly patient load by 68 percent. The number of patients diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes at treatment facilities increased as well. After one year, elderly deaths declined by 12 percent. (Agte and Soni) #DID

Migration and refugees

• Mexican regions experiencing larger inflows of Mexican low-skilled deportees have higher rates of firm creation, firm survival, and revenue. (Osuna-Gomez and Medina-Cortina) #FE
• In Vietnam, the Ho Khau reform, which reduced migration barriers, had more impact on reducing spatial inequality than place-based incentives. (Huynh) #DID
• In Uganda, “landslides increase long-term displacement and migration, and affected households have substantially worse economic and mental health outcomes years afterward.” (Baseler and Hennig) #FE #DID
• In the Philippines, typhoons increase international migration from affected municipalities, and incentivize migrants to leave for lower paying overseas jobs. (Murathanoglu) #FE
• Municipalities from which more Moroccan soldiers were deployed to France before independence were more likely to send emigrants to France after independence. But this wasn’t true with those sent to Algeria. (Salem and Seck) #FE

Safety nets (including cash transfers and peer support)

• How do you  target disaster aid to households? In post-2015 earthquake Nepal, the “property damage criterion excludes many liquidity-constrained households that have high demand for aid, and it includes wealthy, well-insured households that have low demand.” Dividing aid equally among all affected households has larger welfare gains. (Gordon, Hashida, and Fenichel) #RD
• In Mumbai (India), residents who received a subsidy that could only be used for rice or wheat spent less on packaged snacks. The effect was bigger in households with children. (Aouad, Ramdas, and Sungu) #RCT
• With access to safety nets, middle-income households in Colombia are more likely to borrow from formal lenders, and in the long run, they substitute away from predatory loans toward formal loans when experiencing severe shocks. (Álvarez et al.) #RD
• An unconditional grant to poor kids in South Africa reduced the likelihood that girls would be underweight or obese, but it boosted the likelihood that they'd be overweight. There were no substantive effects for boys on average. (Chakraborty and Villa) #RD
• Peer groups in Nepal where most people know each other don't necessarily choose a peer monitor in lab games. But groups where few people are immediately connected do. (Iacobelli and Singh) #RCT #DID
• Using data from six low- and middle-income countries, a proxy means test (PMT)—i.e., using a short list of household characteristics to decide if a household is poor—fails to accurately predict eligibility for social protection programs: “the accuracy of the PMT prediction algorithm decreases steadily over time, by roughly 1.7 percentage points per year,” even though the PMT model is updated only every 5-8 years. (Aiken, Ohlenburg, and Blumenstock)

Working and saving

Banking and credit.

• Encouraging commercial banks in India to increase lending to minority borrowers in “minority concentration” districts in India increased minorities’ access to bank credit. (Khan and Ritadhi) #RD
• In Kenya and Pakistan, equity-like contracts stimulate more profitable investments. Risk preferences play an important but nuanced role: loss-averse individuals prefer equity; however, individuals exhibiting non-linear probability weighting prefer debt. (Meki) #RCT
• In Ghana, individual incentives increased adoption of a new technology; adding endorsement by a trusted peer doubles the impact of the individual subsidy. (Riley, Shonchoy, and Darko Osei) #RCT
• Lots of people in urban India don't have access to credit for when there's a financial crunch or to professionals for mental health problems. Many would like to talk to the people they know, but—from a survey—68 percent underestimate others' willingness to engage on these topics. Helping people realize that boosts sign-ups for potential savings groups or for a potential program to get trained to be a volunteer to listen to other people's anxieties. (Jain and Khandelwal) #RCT

Firms and microenterprises

• Fifteen years after the Indian Ocean tsunami, Indonesian business owners exposed to the tsunami had lower levels of capital and profits than those not exposed. These effects were biggest in rural areas. (Lombardo, Frankenberg, and Thomas) #FE
• Providing firms in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) with more information about candidates with college degrees led firms to hire faster, but they often hired candidates without college degrees and downgraded their expectations about college graduate productivity. (Wu and Wang) #RCT
• For US firms, entering the whaling industry entails lots of sunk costs such that firms are slow to enter but also slow to leave the market. (Yun)
• In Kenya, “informality is particularly prevalent in downstream economic activities and smaller regional markets.” (Wiedemann et al.) #DID #SC
• Vendors in the Kolkata (India) vegetable market subsidized to sell additional produce earned over 60 percent higher profits, after excluding the value of the subsidy. And yet, “after the subsidy ended vendors largely stopped selling the additional produce” which may reflect “social or private preferences”. (Banerjee et al.) #RCT
• In Tanzania, rural firms smooth both negative and positive input price shocks more than urban firms. Urban firms pass nearly 95 percent of input price increases to customers, while rural firms pass only 55 percent of input price increases. (Rudder) #FE
• Some firms in Sri Lanka have much higher returns to inputs than others, and new econometric tools to test how much putting inputs into the wrong firms affects growth suggest that output could quadruple with better allocation of resources. (Hughes and Majerotvitz) #RCT
• When steam power started replacing water power in the United States, water-powered mills shut down rather than transforming to steam mills, suggesting that shifting technologies is costly. (Hornbeck et al.) #FE
• In Malawi, a survey of shopkeepers shows that they have widely varying strengths across different dimensions of productivity (like attracting customers, managing a storefront, and maintaining inventory across many products). So a one-size-fits-all management training intervention may have disappointing results. (Huntington, de la Parra, and Shenoy)  

Labor (including child labor)

• In Uganda, an experiment with job referrals reveals that gender discrimination exists in both directions (favoring the majority gender in a given sector) but that it's worse in male-dominated sectors. But when men can make referrals anonymously, they discriminate less. (Alfonsi and Ferreira) #RCT
• A subsidy to help people find jobs in Ethiopia seems to have smaller effects when more people participate (i.e., general equilibrium effects). The net impact on people's wellbeing still seems to be positive. (Van Vuren) #RCT
• If the unemployment rate is 1 percent higher at the time a person first starts looking for a job in Indonesia, that person is likely to have worse long-term economic prospects: 21 percent lower income and 7 percent lower likelihood of being employed. These effects are smaller than those in high-income settings. (Marshan) #FE
• When farmers in Burundi train their workers, they don't capture all the benefits, since the workers often take those skills and work for others. A contract that keeps workers with the same employer boosts employers' willingness to train massively (by 50 percentage points). (Cefala et al.) #RCT
• A comprehensive training and mentoring program targeted to youth at risk in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) boosts employment among men but it also—surprisingly—boosts fertility and subsequently welfare receipts among women. (Barros et al.) #RCT
• How much a person is willing to work may in part just be driven by getting used to working. In Chennai (India), providing casual workers with incentives to work over a couple of months boosted how much they worked during that time (by 23 percent), and those same workers worked 16 percent in the following two months, after incentives were removed. (Cefala et al.) #RCT

Governments, institutions, and conflict

Conflict and crime.

• Which connections do people value most in times of crisis? During social unrest in Haiti, daily contacts decrease but total talk time remains constant. Checking in on close friends, family, and others remains a priority. (Putman and Lybbert) #DID
• Historical genocide violence of the Cambodian population impacts today’s household wealth and village-level poverty rates, driven by lower human capital, limited structural transformation, and restricted public goods provision. (Mehrotra) #IV
• In Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), installing peacemaker units of police officers reduced crime rates, which boosted available credit, which in turn further reduced crime. (Tomkowski, Monteiro, and Caluz) #DID
• Sanctioning public acts of repression, such as beating or arrests of protesters, can encourage a regime to prevent protest through less-public means, such as obstruction or harassment of organizers (based on data from 150 countries). (Andirin et al.) #FE
• The political leaning of Brazilian players during the 2022 World Cup affected fans’ reactions depending on their political alignment. Celebrations after goals scored by a player were more intense among politically congruent fans. (Ajzenman, Ferman and Sant'Anna) #RCT
• In southern Ethiopia, areas with more droughts also have more violent conflict. But when herders get and use insurance to protect against drought, it reduces conflict significantly (between 17 and 50 percent). (Sakketa, Maggio, and McPeak) #RCT
• A law in Brazil requiring firms with more than a hundred workers to reserve at least two percent of their job openings for people with disabilities increased employment of people with disabilities. When firms got fined for not meeting the quota, nearby firms—even those not covered by the law—also boosted their disability employment. (Berlinski and Gagete-Miranda) #DID
• In Uruguay, introducing individual retirement accounts as a complement to the traditional defined benefit pension led more people to work into their fifties. It also may have reduced tax evasion. In early old age, people had similar income levels across the two systems, but when people had the chance to go back to the defined benefit system, many did. (Lauletta and Bérgolo) #RD
• If the government doesn't enforce people sticking to contracts, how do they work? Gamblers on horse races in Pakistan provide a window, since such betting is illegal and so the government doesn't enforce the contracts. "Even in the absence of legal enforcement authority, personal relationships, and violence, more than 70% of gamblers fulfill their contractual obligations." (Mehmood and Chen) #RCT
• South African municipalities with higher historical exposure to post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commissions on media have lower levels of violence today. (Gautier, Horta-Saenz, and Russo) #FE
• Losing a sibling during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide leads to more schooling and more siblings born after the genocide. (Gautier) #IV

Regulation, tax, and government

• In Indonesia, “electoral defeats of the incumbent village head increase turnover in the village bureaucracy and reduce nepotism.” (Bazzi et al.) #RD
• In India, after a bureaucrat is transferred to an important ministry with the power to make influential policies, the annual growth rate of the value of the bureaucrat’s assets is 10 percent higher, and it’s 4.4 percent higher for the number of their assets. (Chaudhury and Yuan) #DID
• In China, “over 65% scoring auctions in public procurement show evidence of scoring rule manipulation.” (Chen) #FE
• In Brazil, “high-ability students in (anti-corruption) audited municipalities are less likely to choose majors tailored toward public sector careers, such as business administration and law.” (Xun) #DID
• In rural Bangladesh, the introduction of Village Courts more than doubled the share of disputes resolved in state-sanctioned courts, but the informal dispute resolution mechanism “shalish” remains most used. (Mattsson and Mobarak) #RCT
• A comparative welfare analysis of 40 policies implemented in low- and middle-income countries since 1997 shows that the marginal value is low. (Morris)  
• Successful democratizations lead to substantial redistribution: the size of the public sector grows, income inequality falls, and the labor share of income rises, according to data from 90 countries. (Miller) #DID
• In India, “local democracy aligns spending more closely with citizen preferences, but these gains accrue more to men, upper castes, and other advantaged social groups.” (Arora et al.) #FE #DID
• In Brazil, “when a young politician is in office, there is a reduction in deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions without significant effects on local GDP.” (Dahis, de las Heras, Saavedra)   #RD #DID
• Appointing “a new city party secretary (PS), who serves as the leader of the local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organization, is associated with a significant increase in the revealed comparative advantage in industries where the PS’s previous work location exhibited better performance.” (Lin et al.) #FE
• Electoral turnovers improve country performance. “Electing new leaders leads to more policy change, it improves governance, and it reduces perceived corruption,” based on data from over 4,000 national elections since 1945. (Marx, Pons, and Rollet) #RD
• In Senegal, bureaucrats with full discretion for building the lists of potential property tax payers tend to undervalue properties, and they do so even more for higher-value properties, resulting in a regressive tax profile. “In contrast, a rule-based system where bureaucrats record property characteristics (not values) that an algorithm then uses to compute values, significantly reduces this tax gap.” (Knebelmann, Pouliquen, and Sarr) #RCT
• In Uzbekistan, mandating the use of online electronic fiscal devices, which provide regulators with real-time information on business transactions, increases company revenue reports to tax authorities by 13 percent. Adding a direct communication channel with citizens and financial rewards to act as enforcement agents increases firms’ reported revenues by an additional 34 percent. (Kobilov) #DID 
• Research projects developed in partnership with policymakers are 17 to 20 percentage points more likely to result in observed policy change. (Bonargent)
• Do religions codify ecological principles? In Benin, a 1 SD increase in African Traditional Religions adherence has a 0.4 SD positive impact on forest cover change. (Deopa and Rinaldo) #IV
• When Israel reduced child allowances to large families in 2003, Jewish families substituted by enrolling their young boys in ultra-Orthodox religious schools. In the long-term, fewer boys enrolled in high schools, without affecting families’ fertility or labor supply decisions. The reform led to a 13 percent decline in completed fertility among Arab families. (Gershoni et al.) #RD
• In Brazil, exposure to a church-affiliated TV channel increases fertility rates, lowers female labor force participation, lowers schooling for young women in the next generation, and leads to more votes for Pentecostal candidates. (Mello and Buccione) #DID
• In Brazil, the removal of progressive Catholic leaders halted the land invasion movement, a conflict in which poor and landless peasants invaded large landholdings to force land redistribution. (Martinez-Bravo, Solá, and Tuñón) #FE
• Hate or fear? In the ongoing conflict between Christians and Muslims in Jos (Nigeria), fear explains 76 percent, and hate 24 percent of the non-cooperative behavior. (Ortiz) #RCT 
• Climate change leads to welfare losses of 4.8 percent of GDP across 271 regions in sub-Saharan Africa, with country-level losses as high as 43.8 percent of GDP. “Lowering trade costs can offset these losses by connecting deficit regions to surplus regions and the world market.” (Porteous)
• In South Korea, under a better bureaucrat, exports increased by 40 percent. "In subsequent appointments, exports increase in products with greater bureaucrat experience." (Barteska and Lee) #FE
• Giving information on tariff costs and local prices to traders (via a cell phone platform) at the Kenya-Uganda border increases switching across markets and routes, leading to large increases in traders’ profits and significant formalization of trade. (Wiseman) #RCT

Agriculture, infrastructure, and the environment

Agriculture and land.

• In India, redistribution of land ownership led to an overall increase in durable asset ownership, nonfarm employment and years of schooling, including among lower-caste descendants of households that did not receive land. (Batra) #RD
• Households’ agricultural production in Côte d’Ivoire improves during the agricultural season overlapping with oxen delivery, and increases in land holdings and input use in the subsequent season. (Brudevold-Newman, Donald, and Rouanet) #RCT
• In Kenya, an information campaign (training farmers to identify hybrid maize seeds that are quality-verified) improved farmers' purchasing decisions and led to gains in maize yields. While improved information caused sellers to exit the market, there are no effects on prices or quality among stayers. (Hsu and Wambugu) #RCT
• Increasing agricultural technologies cannot rely on market prices as a mechanism for targeting high-return farmers. In Bangladesh, when farmers receive a new wheat seed variety for free, they adopt it as much as farmers that chose to buy it at a subsidized price. (Mahmoud) #RCT
• Improving the allocation of inputs (like land, labor, and credit) across farms in Thailand could boost productivity by more than a third. But improving allocation of multiple inputs is more productive than focusing entirely on improving allocation of just one input. (Silver)  
• A government program to subsidize the price of fertilizer encouraged farmers to specialize based on their comparative advantage: some boosted their agricultural yields; others left agriculture. (Diop) #DID
• Social networks are key to people adopting new agricultural technology. But in Malawi (and a theoretical model predicts similar results elsewhere), using people with lots of connections to get farmers to adopt new seeds works best when lots of farmers in the network have similar farms (so that the seeds are similarly likely to work). (Chakraborty) #FE

Climate and pollution

• Increasing water prices led to a decline in water use of richer households in Cape Town (South Africa). However, richer households substituted municipal water with privately drilled groundwater. (Cole et al.)
• In Mozambique, “providing information on flood risk [such as physical damage and disease outbreaks] increased the implementation of suggested mitigation strategies.” (Leefers) #RCT
• In the Philippines, large-scale tree planting reduced regional poverty and increased economic activity. (Pagel and Sileci) #DID
• In Vietnam, rising temperatures lead more workers to move from agriculture into other industries, both in the short run and the long run. (Pham) #FE
• Reducing localized emissions from vehicles within India’s 10 largest cities leads to a 3 times larger GDP gain than a policy controlling agricultural fires. “Further accounting for labor reallocation leads to a 6 times larger GDP gain.” (Tiwari)
• In Colombia, “extreme temperature events increase the frequency of land sales and decrease the average farm size within municipalities.” (Arteaha et al.) #FE
• In India, industrial water pollution does not seem to affect crop yields. Farmers respond to industrial water pollution by switching irrigation sources from surface water to (costly) groundwater and expanding irrigation. (Hagerty and Tiwari) #RD
• To address sea level rise, the Indonesian government proposed a sea wall. Moral hazard generates severe lock-in and limits migration inland, even over the long run. (Hsiao) #RD
• The 2009 tightening of environmental standards in the US shifted used lead-acid battery recycling, an industry that emits large amounts of lead pollution, to Mexico. Lead pollution exposure reduced students’ text scores by 0.05-0.09 standard deviations. (Litzow et al.) #DID
• The Green Municipalities Program in the Brazilian Amazon (PMV) increased secondary forest cover (in places that have been previously deforested) by 9 percent. (Shinde et al.) #DID
• In Nairobi (Kenya), improved stove ownership reduced high-frequency particulate matter (PM) exposure from 122 µg/m3 to 49 µg/m3, with a 0.24 SD reduction in self-reported respiratory health symptoms. (Berkouwer and Dean) #RCT
• The beef cattle sector drives deforestation worldwide. In the Brazilian Amazon, large intermediaries drive down prices for farmer and cattle supply, but the deforestation frontier is largely competitive and thus emissions remain unaffected. (Barrozo) #IV

Infrastructure and transport

• Chinese infrastructure projects significantly increased nighttime light in the African recipient regions, and the effects persist over time. World Bank projects, however, did not exhibit significant impacts on nighttime light. World Bank and Chinese infrastructure projects both positively influence women’s education attainment and health. (Chai and Tang)  
• Motortaxi drivers in Uganda admire other drivers who speed. Drivers are more likely to want financial incentives to limit speeding if those incentives are visible, so they can use them to justify their reduced speed to other drivers. (Raisaro) #RCT
• In Mexico, urban localities that spent an additional month downwind from a 0.1 degree × 0.1 degree grid cell that has adopted conservation agriculture experience a 1.3 percent reduction in the number of infant deaths. (Ferguson and Govaerts) #ES #DID
• Discontinuous incentives around the range thresholds of Chinese driving-range-based subsidies made low-end electric vehicle manufacturers’ invest in reducing the production costs of driving ranges by 30 percentage points. (Zhang) #FE
• “Commuters in Jakarta (Indonesia) are 2-4 times more sensitive to wait time compared to time on the bus, and inattentive to long routes.” (Kreindler et al.) #DID
• “Winning random lotteries for the ownership of condominium houses in Ethiopia leads to significant gains in educational attainment: educational enrollment increases by 4.5-11%, secondary school completion rates by 10.5% and post-secondary attendance rates by 16%.” (Agness and Getahun) #IV

The order of authors on this blog was determined by a virtual coin flip. This blog post benefited from research assistance by Amina Mendez Acosta and editing by Jeremy Gaines . A version of this post will also appear on the CGD Blog.

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Take a look at the latest research from MIT Economics faculty, including published work and newly-released working papers.

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The simple macroeconomics of ai, incentive-compatible unemployment reinsurance for the euro area.

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Our faculty-led initiatives showcase just some of the department's vast endeavors to further our understanding of the world through the lens of economics.  Our current initiatives are listed below.

Foundations of Human Behavior Initiative

The Foundations of Human Behavior Initiative (FHB) supports research that produces transformative insights about the psychological, social, economic, political, and biological mechanisms that influence human behavior.   

German Administrative Data Project

The Research Data Center (FDZ) of the German Federal Employment Agency (BA) in the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) facilitates access to micro data on the labor market for non-commercial empirical research.

The Lab for Economic Applications and Policy (LEAP) facilitates research related to government policy, with the aim of injecting scientific evidence into policy debates

Opportunity Insights

Opportunity Insights identifies barriers to economic opportunity and develop scalable solutions that will empower people throughout the United States to rise out of poverty and achieve better life outcomes.

The Weiss Fund

The Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics is funded by the CRI Foundation and aims to sponsor research that will positively affect the lives of poor people in poor countries. 

Faculty Feature

Professor Robin Lee and his co-author, Professor Kate Ho, have just been announced as the winners of the 2020 Frisch Medal of the Econometric Society for their paper “Insurer Competition in Health Care Markets”. 

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Elisa Rubbo is awarded the Padma Desai Prize in Economics and Jonathan Roth wins the David A. Well's Prize.

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Development economics

Development economics is a branch of economics that deals with economic aspects of the development process in low-income countries.

Our research in development economics revolves around a variety of topics, e.g. aid and development, education and learning, health, political economy and institutions, poverty, and the performance of firms and farms.

Much of our research builds on insights and perspectives from other fields in economics including behavioral economics, experimental economics, and applied microeconomics. Our research is funded by a wide range of sources including the Swedish Research Council, Sida, the World Bank, and Torsten Söderbergs Foundation.

Studying Development Economics

Gothenburg is an excellent place to study development economics. We offer courses in development economics at the bachelor level and Master level, and many of our students are specializing in development economics for their bachelor and Master theses.

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Researchers in the development economics group take part in national and international research organizations and networks, such as Association of Swedish Development Economists (ASWEDE), Environment for Development (EfD), European Development Research Network (EUDN) and African Economic Research Consortium (AERC).

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A selection of externally funded research projects within the field of development economics.

“School impacts of violent religious extremism” (Vetenskapsrådet/Swedish research council)

Participants: Annika Lindskog (principal investigator), Ann-Sofie Isaksson, Heather Congdon-Fors, Mohammad Sepahvand. Date: 2022-2024

“Digital development and educational outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa: A recipe for inclusive development or deepening divides?” (Vetenskapsrådet/Swedish research council)

Participants: Pelle Ahlerup , Ann-Sofie Isaksson and Dick Durevall. Date: 2022-2024

"Patient behaviour: Investigating new determinants and exploring effects on maternal and neonatal health in Kenya”. (Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship in Humanities and Social Science)

Participants: Roxanne Kovacs

“Climate change and the prospects for economic growth: How extreme weather events affect regime stability.” (Vetenskapsrådet)

Participants: Pelle Ahlerup , Sverker Jagers, Martin Sjöstedt (PI), Aksel Sundström.

"The Effect of COVID-19 on Farmers in India." (Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development, FORMAS)

Participants: Joe Vecci, Victoria Baranov (Melbourne), Prakashan Chellattan Veettil (IRRI) and Yashodha (IWMI). Date: 2021 

​​"Understanding the Impacts of Covid-19 on Domestic Violence in Brazil" (Sexual Violence Research Initiative, Research Award)

Participants: Joe Vecci, Prof. José Raimundo Carvalho (UFC), Prof. Sonia Bhalotra, Conceição de Maria, Prof. Diego de Maria, Prof. Antonio Rodrigues Ferreira, Prof. Victor Hugo Oliveira. Date: 2021

“Economic Behavior in History” (Västsvenska stiftelsen)

Participants: Peter Martinsson and Ola Olsson. Date: 2021

“Women's health and welfare - inequality of opportunity, norms and possibilities for change” (Ragnar Söderbergs Stiftelse)

Participants: Annika Lindskog (principal investigator), Heather Congdon-Fors and Ann-Sofie Isaksson. Date: 2019-2022

“Aid in the SDG-era: Understanding aid effectiveness using a disaggregated approach“ (Vetenskapsrådet)

Participants: Dick Durevall (principal investigator), Ann-Sofie Isaksson, Joe Vecci. Date: 2018-

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Applied Microeconomics

Applied microeconomics at Chicago uses price theory and other theoretical economic tools and empirical analysis to explain real world problems, including the effects of different public policies. This tradition at Chicago dates back to Jacob Viner and Frank Knight, and continued with Nobel Prize winners Milton Friedman, George Stigler, Theodore Schultz, Ronald Coase, Gary Becker, James Heckman, and Robert Fogel.

Chicago research in applied microeconomics has made important contributions to understanding problems in industrial organization, informational economics, human capital and other aspects of labor economics, agricultural economics and economic development, law and economics, including the Coase theorem, the economics of slavery, choice under uncertainty, and many other important issues.

Current research is analyzing environmental and energy economics, returns to education, crime, use of illegal drugs, the value of life, and investments in health, marriage and divorce, including the effects on labor markets, demand for insurance, the structure of industries, and many other topics. Much of this research is built around workshops that have heavy student and faculty participation. These workshops, as well as the whole program, treat economics as a powerful analytical tool for understanding real world economies. Students at Chicago learn the power and scope of economic analysis, and this understanding is clearly manifested in the nature and quality of their dissertations.

Faculty working in Applied Microeconomics:

Stéphane Bonhomme David Galenson James J. Heckman Ali Hortaçsu Greg Kaplan Steven Levitt Kevin Murphy Evan Rose

Development Economics

Faculty Working in Development Economics:

Anne Karing Michael Kremer

Econometrics

Chicago has a rich tradition in empirical research guided by economics and statistical theory. Henry Schultz, a founder of the Econometric Society, did pioneering work on the theory and measurement of consumer demand in the 1920’s and 30’s. Paul Douglas developed the Cobb-Douglas production function to explain features of US data while working at Chicago in the 20’s through the 40’s. The Cowles Commission was active at Chicago in the 40’s and 50’s and developed pioneering methodology for the study of causality and simultaneity that is the foundation of modern econometrics. Trygve Haavelmo’s Nobel-Prize winning work on the probability approach in econometrics united modern statistics with econometrics. Klein’s work on business cycles, and Marschak’s work on stochastic choice and on policy evaluation were also done here under the auspices of the Cowles Commission. This tradition has been continued by later scholars like Zvi Griliches, Marc Nerlove, and Arnold Zellner.

More recently Lars Hansen and James Heckman have continued this tradition of uniting economics, empirical analysis and statistics in studying economic problems. Hansen’s pioneering work on the formulation and estimation of dynamic rational expectations models, on the measurement of risk aversion and intertemporal substitution, and on the econometrics of asset pricing have broken new ground. He developed GMM, the most-used estimation method in modern econometrics. Heckman has developed new methods in microeconometrics to control for selection and measure heterogeneity in micro and macro models. His work is widely used in the econometric evaluation of social programs, in measuring inequality, and in the study of the economics of the life cycle. At Chicago, econometrics is not an abstract game. Our research is guided by the application of theory to the interpretation of evidence. Chicago economists address real problems and develop the tools needed to address them.

Faculty working in Econometrics:

Stéphane Bonhomme Lars Peter Hansen Jim Heckman Kirill Ponomarev Azeem Shaikh Max Tabord-Meehan Alex Torgovitsky

Economic Theory

Economic theory at the University of Chicago encompasses a large number of areas, including game theory, auction and mechanism design, economics of information and uncertainty, and general equilibrium theory, including dynamical models of growth and equilibrium. In each of these important areas, faculty in the department have made leading contributions. The department is committed to the view that economic theory is central to all of economics, and that the best theoretical work should both respond to and inform current work on applied problems. In the Chicago tradition, economic theory is serious business.

Faculty working in Economic Theory:

Ben Brooks Roger B. Myerson Doron Ravid Philip J. Reny Joseph Root Nancy Stokey

Environmental/Energy

Finding ways to supply the reliable, affordable energy needed to foster economic growth while averting climate change and damages to our health and environment is one of the most important challenges the world faces. The University’s environmental and energy research tackles this global energy challenge through three main research themes: energy markets (including renewable energy, fossil fuels, electric power, transportation, and energy efficiency); the environment (including air pollution, environmental health and conservation economics); and climate change (including climate economics, climate law and policy and climate science). In collaboration with the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), this research combines the insights of Chicago economists with policy analysts from the Harris School of Public Policy, business experts from the Booth School of Business, legal scholars and practitioners from the Law School, and engineers and scientists from throughout the University to uncover the true costs of the world’s energy choices.

Faculty Working in Environmental/Energy: Michael Greenstone Esteban Rossi-Hansberg

Experimental/Behavioral Economics

Experimental and behavioral economics at the University of Chicago extends the scope of economic research to study people's behavior in real world settings. Employing rigorous experimental methods allows researchers to identify causal effects, providing a robust foundation for understanding the mechanisms behind human behavior and offering actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners. Behavioral economics provides valuable insights into understanding humans’ actual behavior, in contrast to predictions grounded in the assumption that people behave rationally. University of Chicago scholars have been instrumental in making significant contributions to this interdisciplinary field. Their research has real-world impact, with applications spanning political economy, education, philanthropy, environment, development, labor markets, finance, and more. 

Faculty Working in Experimental/Behavioral Economics:

Leonardo Bursztyn John List

Faculty Working in IO:

Ali Hortaçsu

Labor Economics

Labor economics at the University of Chicago involves the study of models of the allocation of labor to different employments as well as the distributions of wages and earnings that accompany these allocations.  Courses explore how discrimination may impact these allocations as well as racial and gender differences in the distributions of earnings and wages. Courses in the labor sequence not only develop these models but also explore the econometric methods used to evaluate them.  The courses stress the importance of human capital models that explore how investments in the productive capacities of children, youth, and adults impact distributions of productivity and earnings.  The courses also stress the idea that labor markets are assignment mechanisms that match workers who possess different skills to employers who have heterogeneous demands for different skills. Finally, students will learn how agency theory informs personnel policies, and how firms address the problems of hidden action and hidden information among their workers.

Faculty Working in Labor Economics:

Christina Brown Manasi Deshpande Thibaut Lamadon Magne Mogstad Derek A. Neal Evan Rose

Macro/Finance

Macroeconomic research at Chicago is involved with the traditional subjects of business cycles, unemployment, inflation, and the design of monetary and fiscal policies. It has also come to include the study of economic growth and development, aspects of international trade theory, financial economics, the analysis of social insurance programs, and the study of the political determinants of macroeconomic policies.

A rigorous three-course sequence in the first year, along with a complementary course in time-series econometrics, provides basic technical background and a survey of substantive research in the area. Advanced courses, depending on the research interests of faculty and students, examine issues on current research frontiers, and suggest thesis topics. Interested students and faculty discuss new research at the Money and Banking Workshop, founded by Milton Friedman in the 1950s, at the Macro/International Workshop in the Graduate School of Business, and at more specialized bag lunches and reading groups.

Faculty working in Macroeconomics:

Ufuk Akcigit Fernando Alvarez Mikhail Golosov Lars Peter Hansen Greg Kaplan Esteban Rossi-Hansberg Robert Shimer Nancy Stokey Harald Uhlig

Public Economics

Public economics at the University of Chicago combines new developments in the theory of optimal taxation and regulation with empirical research employing frontier methods and novel data sources. Following the long tradition of the University of Chicago, the theory of public economics responds to and informs applied work, and applied work in public economics is motivated by theory while also speaking to public policy problems. 

Faculty Working in Public Economics:

Manasi Deshpande Mikhail Golosov Michael Greenstone Magne Mogstad Casey Mulligan Evan Rose

Trade/Spatial Economics

The trade and spatial economics field at the University of Chicago encompasses the study of the distribution of economic activity in space and the various ways in which individuals and firms interact across locations. As such, it includes the study of trade flows across and within countries, migration and the spatial sorting of individuals, the location decision of firms and their plants and their strategy to serve customers and source inputs across countries and regions, the structure of cities and the resulting commuting flows and agglomeration and congestion forces. The field also studies the aggregate and dynamic growth implications of the spatial distribution of economic activity and the resulting flows and interactions across space. Faculty in the department have made core contributions in all these areas. 

A second-year Ph.D. sequence in the field provides training in all these topics. Faculty in the economics department, complemented by faculty at Chicago Booth School of Business, run a student workshop, the “Trade and Spatial Afternoons” seminar series, and they co-organize talks in the field at other seminars around Chicago. The International Economics and Economic Geography initiative at the Becker-Friedman Institute provides research support and organizes several yearly conferences on these topics. 

Faculty Working in Trade/Spatial Economics:

Felix Tintelnot Esteban Rossi-Hansberg

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Among the world poor, nearly 70% are rural, and agriculture and natural resources play an important role in their livelihoods. As a consequence, there is much demand for the contributions of economists and agricultural economists in helping to devise and implement solutions. We prepare students to address these issues through research, teaching, project development, and policy advice.

The determinants of economic growthThe field covers a wide range of problems. Indeed, the breadth of concerns and their inter-relatedness is one of its characteristics compared to other domains of economic analysis.

• The definition of country-specific development strategies in the context of globalization
• The role of agriculture in economic development
• Technological and institutional innovations
• The political economy of policy-making
• Poverty and inequality
• Health and education
• Household livelihood strategies
• Community development and local forms of governance
• Environmental sustainability and conservation
• Cultural norms and institutions
• Issues specific to gender and ethnicity.

To achieve its goals, the field pursues a variety of approaches. Rigorous economic modeling and use of advanced econometric techniques are essential to ensure the highest quality in research. For this reason, much of the teaching is oriented at providing students with these skills. In-depth knowledge of selected areas, inter-disciplinary work, and fieldwork are also needed to address the specificity of particular situations.

The development field is fully integrated with the Economics Department, with courses and seminars jointly offered by the two departments. By nature, it calls upon a wide range of disciplines for which students can take full advantage of the tremendous wealth of expertise available at U.C. Berkeley, one of the most cosmopolitan campus in the nation. International and Area Studies and the numerous Area Centers on the Berkeley campus offer unique resources that complement what the academic departments offer to students in the field.

Reflecting the policy importance of the subject, the faculty is dedicated not only to academic pursuits, but also to policy and program advice to foreign governments, development agencies, non-governmental organizations. Similarly, some students prepare to pursue academic careers, while others prefer to work closer to policy makers and projects managers, finding employment in international development agencies and in the private and non-profit sectors.

Francis Annan

Alain de Janvry

Thibault Fally

Marco Gonzalez-Navarro

Solomon Hsiang

Ethan A. Ligon

Jeremy Magruder

Aprajit Mahajan

Edward Andrew Miguel

David Roland-Holst

Elisabeth Sadoulet

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What Is Development Economics?

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Development Economics Definition and Types Explained

Investopedia / Sydney Saporito

Development economics is a branch of economics  that focuses on improving fiscal, economic, and social conditions in developing countries . Development economics considers factors such as health, education, working conditions, domestic and international policies, and market conditions with a focus on improving conditions in the world's poorest countries.

The field also examines both macroeconomic and microeconomic factors relating to the structure of developing economies and domestic and international economic growth .

Key Takeaways

• Development economics is a branch of economics whose goal is to better the fiscal, economic, and social conditions of developing countries.
• Areas that development economics focuses on include health, education, working conditions, and market conditions.
• Development economics seeks to understand and shape macro and microeconomic policies in order to lift poor countries out of poverty.
• The application of development economics is complex and varied as the cultural, social, and economic frameworks of every nation is different.
• Four common theories of development economics include mercantilism, nationalism, the linear stages of growth model, and structural-change theory.

Understanding Development Economics

Development economics studies the transformation of emerging nations into more prosperous nations. Strategies for transforming a developing economy tend to be unique because the social and political backgrounds of countries can vary dramatically. Not only that, but the cultural and economic frameworks of every nation is different also, such as women's rights and child labor laws.

Students of economics, and professional economists, create theories and methods that guide practitioners in determining practices and policies that can be used and implemented at the domestic and international policy level.

Some aspects of development economics include determining to what extent rapid population growth helps or hinders development, the structural transformation of economies, and the role of education and healthcare in development.

They also include international trade, globalization , sustainable development, the effects of epidemics, such as HIV, and the impact of catastrophes on economic and human development.

Prominent development economists include Jeffrey Sachs, Hernando de Soto Polar, and Nobel Laureates Simon Kuznets, Amartya Sen , and Joseph Stiglitz.

Types of Development Economics

Mercantilism.

Mercantilism is thought to be one of the earliest forms of development economics that created practices to promote the success of a nation. It was a dominant economic theory practiced in Europe from the 16th to the 18th centuries. The theory promoted augmenting state power by lowering exposure to rival national powers.

Like political absolutism and absolute monarchies, mercantilism promoted government regulation by prohibiting colonies from transacting with other nations.

Mercantilism monopolized markets with staple ports and banned gold and silver exports. It believed the higher the supply of gold and silver, the more wealthy it would be. In general, it sought a trade surplus (exports greater than imports), did not allow the use of foreign ships for trade, and it optimized the use of domestic resources.

Economic Nationalism

Economic nationalism reflects policies that focus on domestic control of capital formation , the economy, and labor, using tariffs or other barriers. It restricts the movement of capital, goods, and labor.

Economic nationalists do not generally agree with the benefits of globalization and unlimited free trade . They focus on a policy that is isolationist so that the industries within a nation are able to grow without the threat of competition from established companies in other countries.

The economy of the early United States is a prime example of economic nationalism. As a new nation, it sought to develop itself without relying so much on outside influences. It enacted measures, such as high tariffs, so its own industries would grow unimpeded.

Linear Stages of Growth Model

The linear stages of growth model was used to revitalize the European economy after World War II.

This model states that economic growth can only stem from industrialization . The model also agrees that local institutions and social attitudes can restrict growth if these factors influence people's savings rates and investments.

The linear stages of growth model portrays an appropriately designed addition of capital partnered with public intervention. This injection of capital and restrictions from the public sector leads to economic development and industrialization.

Structural-Change Theory

The structural-change theory focuses on changing the overall economic structure of a nation, which aims to shift society from being a primarily agrarian one to a primarily industrial one.

For example, Russia before the communist revolution was an agrarian society. When the communists overthrew the royal family and took power, they rapidly industrialized the nation, allowing it to eventually become a superpower.

What Is Development Economics Used for?

Development economics is the study of how emerging nations become more financially stable. It can be used as a tool for students and economists working to develop policies that can be used in creating domestic and international policy.

What Is the Goal of Development Economics?

Ultimately, the study of development economics is meant to help better the financial, economic and social circumstances in developing countries through the enactment of certain structures and policies.

What Are the 4 Main Topics in Development Economics?

The topics, or types of development economics include mercantilism, economic nationalism, linear stages of growth model, and structural-change theory.

Development economics examines things like the structure of domestic and international economies in order to improve conditions in developing countries. There are many theories of development economics. While mercantilism, nationalism, linear stages of growth, and structural-change theory are four of the most common, this field of study continues to develop and change.

International Monetary Fund. " People in Economics ."

The Nobel Prize. " All Prizes in Economic Sciences ."

World Scientific. " Mercantilism in Perspective: A Historic Review ."

Pryke, Sam. "Economic Nationalism: Theory, History and Prospects," Global Policy , Vol. 3, No. 1, 2012, Pages 281-291.

U.S. Senate. " Classic Senate Speeches ."

Sean Gallagher. "Banking Performance and Socio Economic Development," Pages 260-261. ED-Tech Press, 2019.

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. " From ‘Structural Change’ to ‘Transformative Change’: Rationale and Implications ."

Library of Congress. " Revelations from the Russian Archives ."

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April 24, 2024

Recognizing the critical need for broadband to bridge the digital divide

Roberto Gallardo, Purdue vice president for engagement, says the digital divide poses a serious and significant challenge in the 21st century for the country. (Purdue University photo)

Purdue economic development expert explains how the technology is key to unlocking opportunity

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — For urban and rural communities, the digital divide is more than just the lack of access to high-speed internet — it’s a disconnect from economic and social ties as well as opportunities in a fast-changing society. 

Roberto Gallardo, Purdue University’s vice president for engagement, has spent the past decade analyzing local and regional community economic development, including the use of technology. He notes that the U.S. government’s plans to invest $42.5 billion in the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program will help narrow this divide by ensuring a growing number of Americans can connect to fast internet, regardless of their location or socioeconomic status.

“The federal program recognizes that in today’s interconnected world, high-speed internet access is not a luxury; it’s a necessity,” said Gallardo, who was named in October 2023 to lead the newly formed Purdue Broadband Team . “It is an essential component to workforce training and regional development, helping rural communities to thrive.”

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Purdue Center for Regional Development leads effort for Indiana’s Digital Equity Plan
• Purdue launches broadband team, effort to increase high-speed internet access, adoption and use throughout Indiana
• Purdue, IU to collaborate on analysis of Indiana’s $500 million economic development efforts  

Gallardo, who also serves as director of the Purdue Center for Regional Development, has garnered the attention of top federal officials for his regional economic development expertise. The Federal Reserve Board in January announced Gallardo was selected to join its Community Advisory Council for a three-year term. The Federal Reserve plays a crucial role in managing the U.S. economy and financial system, aiming to promote stability, growth and prosperity. 

“As a member of the CAC, I’ll be able to provide ground-level perspective, advice and recommendations to the Fed on relevant policy matters and emerging issues, such as broadband and rural economic development,” said Gallardo, who serves in a similar capacity for the regional Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago.

In 2016 Gallardo developed the Digital Divide Index, a dataset that provides a reliable way to measure the gap between the haves and have-nots of digital access and use. Gallardo said the tool is intended to serve policymakers as a pragmatic resource.

The index scores include both broadband availability/adoption and socioeconomic characteristics.

Gallardo said the Digital Divide Index has been requested more than 150 times since 2020 by government entities, nonprofits and institutions of higher education to help with planning as well as research.

Gallardo said the digital barrier goes beyond the lack of infrastructure. It also means communities, especially in rural areas, are disconnected from economic and social ties and opportunities in the 21st century.

“Those constraints can limit any community’s ability to overcome economic struggles. The disconnect is an underpinning to persistent poverty,” Gallardo said. “As a leading research university and land-grant institution, Purdue is well positioned to find more effective and equitable solutions for the ever-increasing digital society and economy.”  

Research bandwidth

During Gallardo’s tenure at the helm, the Purdue Center for Regional Development has taken on multiple economic development projects for state and federal governments. Three current projects have a combined value in terms of more than $3 billion in potential maximum grants awarded. The PCRD’s job is to document the impact of these programs and tell stories from these government grant programs.

One such program is the state of Indiana’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative.

The PCRD and the Indiana University Public Policy Institute are collaborating on a four-year project to examine the economic and community impact of the first round of the $500 million READI grant program.

NSF Engines  

At the federal level, the PCRD was awarded a one-year contract from the National Science Foundation to establish the framework and process to evaluate the impact of the NSF Regional Innovation Engines competition. The NSF Engines grant program is intended to stimulate innovation-driven economic growth in selected U.S. regions, with special attention to underperforming or disadvantaged regions. The 10 recipients have the potential to receive up to $160 million over the next decade.

Build Back Better

In addition to the NSF Engines project, the PCRD is part of a team evaluating the impact of the Biden administration’s $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge, which aims to boost economic recovery from the pandemic and rebuild American communities, including those grappling with decades of disinvestment. The program is administered through the Economic Development Administration, an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Broadband’s role in a pandemic-changed world

Gallardo said after the COVID-19 pandemic struck, online activities — from e-learning to remote working — became crucial. Without adequate and reliable connectivity, Americans quickly learned the value and necessity of high-speed, reliable internet. 

But even before the global health crisis, Gallardo said there was not only a digital divide, but also a lack of understanding of the value and necessity of broadband.

“There was a disconnect, a lack of awareness. But when COVID hit, it changed everything. It literally accelerated 10 years’ worth of awareness work, at the minimum,” Gallardo said.

The Purdue Broadband Team is part of Purdue President Mung Chiang’s “ABCD” plan to better serve the state through four initiatives: Airport for the Greater Lafayette region, Broadband for rural counties, a Hard-Tech Corridor for central Indiana and Purdue@DC, which brings unique capabilities to the nation’s capital.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives .

Writer/Media contact: Wes Mills,  [email protected]

Source: Roberto Gallardo

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