S4 Ep34: The past, present and future of development economics

Since 2020, governments everywhere have had to grapple with the impacts of first Covid-19 and then a series of global shocks, not least the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The challenges have been particularly acute in Africa. Christopher Adam has seen the impacts of these shocks at first hand – and has also advised some of the people who have been making policy in Africa to mitigate their effects. He talks to Tim Phillips about how global shocks constrain Africa’s policymakers and how the after-effects of this “polycrisis” will be felt in future.

Dev Patel of Harvard describes Bangladesh as “ground zero for the harmful effects of climate change”. Extreme weather events, particularly floods, are already affecting the lives of millions of people who live there and are making life more difficult for the country’s farmers. He tells Tim Phillips how he harnessed machine learning to create for the first time reliable global data on flooding – and also used his methods to find a way to give Bangladesh’s beleaguered farmers better data on what crops to grow. Check out the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/energy-environment/how-do-floods-impact-economic-development

In a meritocracy more people can do jobs that match their skills, making them more productive. It’s not just good for them, it’s good for the economy too. So how effective are the policies that try to make countries more meritocratic? Oriana Bandiera and Ilse Lindenlaub tell Tim Phillips how much productivity countries are sacrificing because the wrong people are in the wrong jobs, which countries are most meritocratic, and how we can best help the others to catch up. Check out the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/macroeconomics-growth/how-meritocracy-varies-across-world

More people die from contaminated drinking water and poor sanitation than from water-related disasters. What are the consequences if we don’t provide safe drinking water, especially for children, and what technologies and policies can accelerate that change? In the first of a series of VoxDev Talks based on J-PAL Policy Insights, Pascaline Dupas of Princeton, also Scientific Director for J-PAL Africa, explains the importance of clean water to Tim Phillips. Check out the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/health/improving-access-and-usage-clean-water

Pranab Bardhan of Berkeley has recently published a memoir called Charaiveti: An Academic’s Global Journey. It takes in his childhood in India, and his academic career in the UK, India and the US. The book takes in topics as diverse as whether the questions Marx asked are still relevant today, what economists can learn from anthropologists, what the Chinese government got right (and wrong), and the dangers of offering policy prescriptions for places we have never visited. He talks to Tim Phillips about the past, and the future, of development economics. Check out the full show notes on VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/institutions-political-economy/past-present-and-future-development-economics

We don’t know much about economic mobility in developing countries compared to the wealthier, data-rich societies which have been the subjects of so much recent research. What does the data tell us so far, and what is important to find out? Debraj Ray and Garance Genicot tell Tim Phillips why measuring upward mobility in low- and middle-income countries is both difficult and important, and what their research is revealing about the impact of growth on that mobility.

In May 2024 the world’s largest gathering of education and skills ministers took place in London. Tahir Andrabi was there to meet policymakers in his capacity as a member of the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP). GEEAP analyses existing research in education to discover which policies are “smart buys” for governments, and which are not. He talks to Tim Phillips to talk about how policymakers respond when their ideas are challenged, and the potential benefits from making better decisions about education policy.

Conflict destroys people, communities, and entire economies. If we reduce the amount of conflict in the world, we save lives and reduce poverty. Dominic Rohner of the University of Lausanne tells Tim Phillips about his new book called The Peace Formula, which sets out a different way to prevent and resolve conflict.

It makes sense that vocational training and apprenticeships would be an effective way to help young people find productive work in the global south. But evidence to support this reasonable assumption has been weak, and many researchers find little or no effect. Subha Mani and Neha Agarwal have reviewed the evidence, and they tell Tim Phillips that one type of training shows strong results. It’s just not the type that is often implemented.

Mothers traditionally provide most of the care for children in early years. What role do fathers play, what difference would it make if they did more, and how could policy incentivise them to do exactly that? David Evans and Pamela Jakiela talk to Tim Phillips about the benefit of involving fathers in early childhood development, but also how adapting parenting programmes to involve fathers isn’t straightforward.