VoxDev Development Economics

Mar 05 2025 247 ep. 20 mins 1.4k
VoxDev Development Economics Podcast artwork

Hear about the cutting edge of development economics from research to practice.

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S6 Ep9: Rebuilding Sudan’s digital infrastructure amidst conflict

Mar 05 2025 26 mins  
Civil war – the latest in a long series of armed conflicts – broke out in Sudan in April 2023. Today, more than half of the population needs humanitarian aid, and almost 15 million people have been displaced. The war has also devastated the digital infrastructure in Sudan, deepening the crisis. African Renaissance Ventures is a VC firm that backs entrepreneurs who use technolog

S6 Ep8: Bangladesh’s path forward: Leveraging evidence-based policy

Feb 26 2025 23 mins  
Bangladesh's development story in the 21st century is often regarded as a model of resilience and progress. But on 5 August 2024, student-led protests and public unrest caused Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s prime minister, to resign and flee to India. An interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus, took over. Six months on, Bangladesh’s political and economic future is unclear. Imra

S5 Ep3: Development dialogues: The future of evidence-based policy-making

Feb 24 2025 42 mins  
With populist politicians taking power around the world, policymakers are relying less on research and expertise, as their political narratives prioritise emotion and identity over facts. This may have long-term consequences for global development: not least in the US, where the Agency for International Development has been dismantled, with thousands of staff laid off. Critical dev

S6 Ep7: How do cash transfers impact prices?

Feb 19 2025 25 mins  
What are the price impacts of cash transfer programs? Do they raise prices as well as incomes? And what is the impact on people in the community who don’t receive the transfer? Eeshani Kandpal of the Center for Global Development is one of the researchers who has investigated this topic. She talks to Tim Phillips about the conclusions of her own research, the insights of other ec

S6 Ep6: The economics of ecosystems

Feb 12 2025 36 mins  
How does a healthy ecosystem benefit humanity? How does the normal functioning of the economy impact natural habitats and animal populations? And what are the costs and benefits of conservation? Eyal Frank of the University of Chicago works at the intersection of economics and conservation. He speaks to Tim Phillips about how economic growth often has a hidden environmental cost.

S6 Ep5: Peacemaking, peacebuilding and post-war reconstruction

Feb 05 2025 31 mins  
The Reducing Conflict and Improving Performance in the Economy (ReCIPE) programme, established in April 2024, aims to provide a better understanding of the links between conflict, economic growth, and public policies. One of its many themes is on what happens post-conflict: peacemaking, peacebuilding, and reconstruction. Salma Mousa and Lisa Hultman, theme leaders, talk to Tim Phil

S6 Ep4: What have we learned about microfinance?

Jan 30 2025 31 mins  
Published this week: the latest VoxDevLit covers microfinance. After many decades, microfinance is pervasive and popular in developing countries but is often controversial. What have we learned about what works, how it works, and who it helps – and what is there still to understand? Authors Simon Quinn, Muhammad Meki, and Jing Cai talk to Tim Phillips about the problems of evalua

S6 Ep3: How can countries develop their economies in a changed world?

Jan 22 2025 29 mins  
In 2018, “Unorthodox policies for unorthodox times” was the title of the first in a series of blogs published by the International Growth Centre. The authors argued that the environment for development had changed, and so development policies should change too. Seven years on, as delegates gather in Davos for the 2025 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, how prescient wa

S6 Ep2: Rethinking evidence in development economics

Jan 15 2025 28 mins  
Many development economists would argue that the most important innovation of the last two decades has been a commitment to use only rigorous evidence for policy, and usually what they mean is evidence generated by RCTs. But are systematic reviews of the results a useful guide to policy? And should development economics continue to be focusing so much on the programmes that flow fr

S6 Ep1: How does internet connectivity impact developing economies?

Jan 08 2025 23 mins  
For more than 30 years, optimists about technology have been telling us that the internet is transforming our economies. What is the evidence that this has happened, or is happening, in low- or middle-income countries? And if the promise has not been fulfilled, why not? Lin Tian is one of the authors of a new paper that examines the evidence so far. She talks to Tim Phillips about