This week we featured research on bias, culture, labour policy, geoeconomics and more...
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This week we released our VoxDevLit on Organised Crime. In this VoxDevLit, Senior Editors Santiago Tobón and Maria Micaela Sviatschi review economic research on the roots and development impacts of organised crime. Watch the launch event and download the VoxDevLit here.
In India, analysis of over five million criminal cases finds no in-group bias in acquittal decisions based on shared religion, gender, or caste – contrasting with patterns documented in other countries. Elliott Ash, Sam Asher, Aditi Bhowmick, Sandeep Bhupatiraju, Daniel Chen, Tanaya Devi, Christoph Goessmann, Paul Novosad, and Bilal Siddiqi discuss.
International tensions and external wars are on the rise, with major economic implications. To study these, Eoin McGuirk and Christop Trebesch suggest bridging the divide between two fields: (i) research on conflict – the use of military weapons, and (ii) geoeconomics, which focuses on ‘economic weapons’.
In this episode of VoxDevTalks, Natalie Bau, Sarah Lowes, and Eduardo Montero discuss how culture shapes development policy – and how policy in turn reshapes culture.
Across Africa, early first-births remain the norm even as educational attainment has increased. Natalie Bau, David J. Henning, Corinne Low, and Bryce Steinberg present evidence from Zambia demonstrating that misperceptions and medical mistrust may be a key reason why.
In Brazil, labour policy aims to support the most vulnerable workers, yet actual labour practice disproportionately supports the skilled workforce in adjusting to technological change – those workers already poised to benefit from advances in digital technologies. Carlos Corseuil and Jennifer Poole explain.
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 ‘missing intercept’ problem. If you care about macro effects, combine causal micro estimates with a general equilibrium macroeconomic model instead. Benjamin Moll and Managing Editor Oliver Hanney discuss.
The evidence to policy process is a black box. In this VoxDev blog, Mattie Toma explains how the new Policymakers Lab is trying to fix that by creating a global network of public servants to generate evidence-driven insights for policymaking. Policymakers in the Lab will receive invitations to complete short online surveys on policy decision-making and evidence use. Signing up is easy and does not commit you to participating, just complete this short onboarding survey. In appreciation for your participation, you will receive early access to research results and summaries of key insights from the Lab.
Does the widespread availability of ride-hailing services in fast growing, congested cities in the developing world undermine the viability of potential investments in public mass rapid transit (MRT) systems? Maarten Bosker, Mark Roberts, Sailesh Tiwari, and Putu Sanjiwacika Wibisana present evidence from Indonesia suggesting that ride-hailing services significantly improve MRT systems’ ability to attract customers by boosting first/last-mile connectivity.
Elsewhere in development:
- On VoxEU, Omar Arias, Daisuke Fukuzawa, Duong Trung Le and Aaditya Mattoo discuss AI, robots, and jobs in developing countries.
- Also on VoxEU, Victoria Baranov, Ralph De Haas, Pauline Grosjean and Ieda Matavelli explore the economic consequences of masculinity norms.
- Jishnu Das on what is wrong with development economics.
- Ken Opalo - Electrifying African firms for growth and development.
- On the IFPRI blog, an interview with Ben Belton on the global drone revolution in agriculture.
- Gabriel Englander outlines the differences between workshops and academic conferences.
- CGD are hiring a Program Coordinator for their Artificial Intelligence Initiative.