Tavneet Suri looks at VoxDev over 2020
It is strange to be writing another column when I just wrote one. As some of you may know, I wrote a column on Thanksgiving Day to launch VoxDevLits, which are dynamic literature reviews with a broad set of editors and co-editors, inspired by the idea of a wiki.
But, a VoxDev holiday column is a tradition, and we cannot break with tradition!
I will keep this column short. The world has been a somewhat scary, intense place the last several months, but with hopeful signs for 2021, including a Covid-19 vaccine approved and hopefully around the corner (yes, even several months from now feels like around the corner).
I usually use my holiday column to talk a bit about the year we have had at VoxDev. Our big news was, of course, VoxDevLits. It has been a lot of work to bring this idea to fruition, but it was completely worth it. We got an outpouring of support from all of you, including many offers to co-edit, and loads of ideas for future Lits. Keep it all coming, we love to hear from you.
In addition to the launch of the Lits, this year has been our best year yet in terms of readership. We have had over 325,000 page views so far this year with 140,374 folks visiting the site. We hope to do more next year: lots more articles, podcasts on VoxDevTalks, videos, and VoxDevLits to come!
I thought one way to celebrate this year would be to leave you with our biggest hits of the year, or our Top 10. Here they are (in no particular order):
- Helping microenterprises grow: What works and what doesn’t
- The selection of talent: Experimental and structural evidence from Ethiopia
- Is it time to rethink poverty policy?
- Do improved cooking stoves inevitably go up in smoke? Evidence from India and Senegal
- The impact of criminalising sex work in Indonesia
- Using behavioural economics in development policy
- How to protect the poor in the time of COVID-19?
- Taxation, civic culture and state capacity
- Cushioning the effects of COVID-19 on the poor
- What’s wrong with economics?
VoxDev will be taking a break from posting new content from 18 December to 4 January. Before I sign off, my usual shout out and immense gratitude to our funders (CEPR, IGC and PEDL), our amazing board (Robin Burgess, Rema Hanna, and Chris Woodruff), our fabulous contributors, our fantastic Managing Editor (Nikita Sharma) and, of course, most importantly, all of you out there for following us, reading, listening, and watching with us. Thank you all for keeping me inspired, and focused (!) this year.
As you probably know from my columns, I am a big Douglas Adams fan. Let me leave you with this quote of his:
“Every single decision we make, every breath we draw, opens some doors and closes many others. Most of them we don't notice. Some we do.”
For 2021, I wish you all many open doors, the strength to notice every one of them, and equally, the strength to walk through some of them!
Happy holidays – I wish you and your loved ones peace, hope, and joy as 2020 finally comes to an end. See you in 2021!
Stay well,
Tavneet