This week we featured research on carbon offsets, Special Economic Zones, remote work and more...
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Research featured on VoxDev has used a range of new and innovative sources of data. In this week's blog, I have highlighted some specific examples of novel data sources that have yielded interesting policy insights.
Sebastian Jävervall and Roza Khoban discuss an underrated benefit of trade liberalisation. They show how tariff cuts reduced Indian firms’ reliance on political connections, lowering politically driven misallocation and addressing a common source of inefficiency.
Agricultural modernisation in Brazil has driven economic growth but also intensified land inequality and redistributive conflict. Stefano Falcone and Michele Rosenberg find that, as capital-intensive farming expands, it displaces rural communities and fuels organised land occupations, highlighting the need for policies that balance productivity with social equity.
Carbon offset programmes aim to lower emissions by allowing high-income countries to meet part of their reduction targets by financing projects in low- and middle-income countries. Qiaoyi Chen, Nicholas Ryan, and Daniel Xu provide evidence from China—one of the world’s largest suppliers of these projects—suggests that non-additional offsets (i.e. those that would have happened anyway) can in fact exacerbate environmental damages.
Holger Görg and Alina Mulyukova demonstrate that firm productivity rises in privately run Indian Special Economic Zones but stagnates in public ones, suggesting that political interference fuels rent-seeking behaviour.
In this week’s episode of VoxDevTalks, Silvia Castro and Kristina Czura discuss their research on menstrual health in Bangladesh. They explore the intersection of economics, social norms, and gender inequality, with a specific focus on how stigma and limited access to hygienic menstrual products affect women’s education, health, and workforce participation.
Huayu Xu, Guangbo Huang, Chong Liu, Tianyang Xi, and Wei You establish that China’s South-North Water Diversion Project delivered substantial agricultural and economic gains to water-receiving regions, with limited costs to source areas—highlighting the promise of large-scale, long-distance transfers in tackling water scarcity.
In Ghana, Emma Riley, Abu Shonchoy, and Robert Darko Osei find that peer-led endorsement doubled mobile banking uptake and increased formal savings among women.
In Turkey, Cevat Giray Aksoy, Nicholas Bloom, Steven Davis, Victoria Marino, and Cem Özguzel reveal that a permanent shift to fully remote work boosts recruitment and productivity without harming service quality using detailed data from a major call centre. Not only did this increase the share of female and small-town workers, but productivity rose as home environments cut noise and sped up conversations. Employees who began with in-person training had higher long-term output and lower attrition, underscoring the value of face-to-face onboarding.
Elsewhere in development:
- Saloni Dattani outlines how the Demographic and Health Surveys brought crucial data for more than 90 countries on Our World in Data.
- On Substack, Abdilahi Ali discusses Somalia's recurrent spending dilemma and explores where all of the money goes.
- Also on Substack, Pranab Bardhan, Emeritus Professor at Berkeley, has a new substack that's focused on political economy, including in India and China.
- Carolyn Chisadza writes on Project Syndicate about the importance of including women in conflict-resolution and peace-building processes.
- On Harvard CID, Joannes Yimbesalu and Mark Esposito outline how AI is building bridges in development.
- Tom Aston discusses the relatively thin evidence base on the policy impact of evidence and public protest.
And some job opportunities:
- The International Health Economics Association (IHEA) is hiring an executive director.
- Medecins Sans Frontieres are hiring a Global Health Analysis and Policy Specialist and a Global Health Strategic Advocacy and Campaign Specialist.