VoxDev Articles
VoxDev articles feature development economics research that has been reviewed by our expert Editorial Board. All of our articles use accessible language, and focus on key takeaways and policy implications.
Most Popular Articles in 2025
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The ‘missing intercept’ problem with going from micro to macro
Many applied microeconomics papers conclude with a back-of-the-envelope calculation that scales their cross-sectional estimates to the aggregate level. These types of aggregate estimates are only valid under very strong assumptions due to the ‘missin...
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Electronic waste is a silent killer in West Africa
Evidence from Ghana and Nigeria shows that e-waste dumping is causing a health crisis, claiming the lives of newborns and infants living nearby.
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What broad lessons have we learned from 115 studies on unconditional cash transfers?
A meta-analysis of 115 studies shows that unconditional cash transfers have positive impacts on a range of key economic and social outcomes, including consumption, income, labour supply, and child health and education. Around 700 million people curre...
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Institutions, not innovation, are the barrier to Nigeria’s agricultural productivity growth
Nigeria’s agricultural productivity deficit stems from overlapping institutional failures across seed supply, credit, insurance, extension, market access, and land tenure that collectively prevent smallholder farmers from adopting or benefiting from ...
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Do protests work? Why political alignment determines economic redistribution
Evidence from Nigeria shows that protests can influence fiscal redistribution, but the manner and direction depend critically on the political relationship between disbursing governments and protesting regions.
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Why graduates prefer public sector jobs – and what it costs firms
In Côte d'Ivoire, public sector jobs attract highly skilled graduates not primarily through wages but through non-wage amenities such as job security, lower stress, and predictable working conditions. This creates a costly outside option for private ...
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How South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission reshaped racial boundaries post-apartheid
Thirty years after South Africa created its Truth and Reconciliation Commission, its legacy remains contested. New evidence shows why: the TRC helped bring Black South Africans closer together, but also deepened the divide between Black and White com...
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The role of large firms in South Korea’s growth miracle
During South Korea’s growth miracle decades, firm concentration rose sharply. The largest firms powered the rise in concentration and contributed to the growth miracle.
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Why some digital payment systems replace cash and others don’t
Instant payments can substitute for cash when adoption moves quickly beyond high-income early users. Evidence from Brazil, Costa Rica, and Mexico finds that the key is a rapid low-income gradient: systems must combine low adoption costs, dense networ...
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How Brazilian criminals adapted to a crackdown on trafficking in the Amazon
Evidence from Brazil shows that an air interdiction policy in 2004 shifted cocaine routes to rivers, increasing violence in Amazonian municipalities.
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How China became a global pharmaceutical powerhouse
A national drug reimbursement reform in China, which traded price reductions for guaranteed patient access, dramatically expanded the country’s pharmaceutical innovation, offering a rare policy model that reconciles drug affordability with R&D incent...
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How land formalisation protects widows from dispossession
A land formalisation programme in Benin significantly increased the likelihood that widows – especially those without a son – remained in their villages, offering formal institutional protection where customary norms left women most vulnerable.