natural experiment

How agricultural innovation affected female labour force participation in Brazil

New technologies in Brazil increased agricultural productivity, but also reduced economic opportunities for women and increased fertility rates.

Agriculture

Vivek Moorthy

Published

18.03.25

Upgrading slums for long-run urban development in Indonesia

Slum upgrading programmes improve living conditions for low-skilled residents, but potentially at the cost of formal development and inefficient land allocation. Evidence from Indonesia reveals that these costs are largest close to the city centre, s...

Migration & Urbanisation

Mariaflavia (Nina) Harari Maisy Wong

Published

26.02.25

How a teacher hiring reform in Colombia backfired

A merit-based teacher hiring reform succeeded in recruiting teachers with better qualifications, but the replacement of more experienced teachers led to a decline in student outcomes.

Education

Matias Busso Sebastian Montaño Juan Muñoz-Morales Nolan Pope

Published

03.12.24

The wide-ranging benefits of fostering financial inclusion in Mexico

A large-scale debit card rollout to cash transfer recipients in Mexico led small retailers to adopt point-of-sale terminals and had a broad range of impacts on financial technology adoption, shopping behaviour, and retailer sales and profits.

Technology & Innovation

Sean Higgins

Published

04.09.24

A trade-off between informativeness and equality in high-stakes standardised testing

Evidence from Brazil's transition to a national college admission exam shows that higher-stakes testing widened socioeconomic test score gaps, yet also improved the exam's ability to predict students' college success.

Education

Germán Reyes Evan Riehl Ruqing Xu

Published

20.08.24

International migration kickstarted structural transformation in Malawi

Evidence from Malawi shows that temporary capital inflows from migrants can permanently reshape rural labour markets by jumpstarting a structural transformation out of agriculture.

Migration & Urbanisation

Taryn Dinkelman Grace Kumchulesi Martine Mariotti

Published

08.05.24

The impact of a gender quota on women’s education in Afghanistan

Gender gaps in access to education have persisted in low- and middle-income countries, despite all but closing in high-income countries. Affirmative action for women in public universities in Afghanistan increased the share of women admitted by 32%. ...

Education

Rafiuddin Najam

Published

15.04.24