This week we featured research on cash transfers, monetary policy, taxation and more!
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This week we released our VoxDevLit on Deforestation. In this VoxDevLit, Senior Editors Francisco Costa and Allan Hsiao systematically review recent economic research on deforestation. Download the VoxDevLit here.
In Uganda, Giulia Greco, Selim Gulesci, Pallavi Prabhakar, and Munshi Sulaiman find that digital cash transfers had contrasting effects on women’s empowerment: mobile money boosted women’s personal income and decision-making power, while jointly disclosed cash transfers reduced intimate partner violence by fostering trust and increasing shared earnings – highlighting an important trade-off between individual autonomy and household harmony.
How does monetary policy transmit through developing economies? Djeneba Dramé and Florian Léon show that firms do react to both monetary policy contraction and expansion, but not symmetrically.
Pakistan’s tax system shows that even with extensive withholding and VAT-based reporting, weak documentation and limited enforcement capacity – exacerbated by political resistance – undermine revenue collection, highlighting the need to strengthen both information and enforcement channels. Zehra Farooq reflects.
How can teaching students socio-emotional skills – such as empathy, trust, and self-control – reduce violence, improve learning, and ultimately foster more cohesive societies? Sule Alan discusses in this week’s episode of VoxDevTalks.
In Indonesia, Teevrat Garg, Caterina Gennaioli, Stefania Lovo, and Gregor Singer show that competing for development grants helped divided communities work together – and fight less.
Energy-efficient biomass cookstoves cut fuel use and, in Rwanda, do not trigger significant local rebound effects – consumption, fuel collection time, and prices remain largely unchanged for those not adopting cleaner cookstoves. Anicet Munyehirwe, Jörg Ankel-Peters, Maximiliane Sievert, Erwin Bulte, and Nathan Fiala explain.
We attended the excellent LSE Environment Week over the past few days. Check out the plenary sessions on YouTube here:
- Investing in our future: COP30 and the sustainable growth agenda with Patrick Bolton, Michael Greenstone, Sherry Rehman, José Scheinkman and Andrew Steer.
- Valuing nature in a changing climate: Rethinking natural capital with Juliano Assunção, Jim Leape, Rohini Pande and Robin Burgess.
- Climate finance and investment in low-income countries: Melinda Bohannon, Vera Songwe, Sudarno Sumarto, Chris Woodruff and Nicholas Stern.