new economic research topics

7 economic trends to watch in 2024

Every year has its economic challenges — some old, some new. But in an election year — where control over Congress and the White House are at stake — policies dealing with inflation, labor disruptions, the rise of artificial intelligence, and other economic issues take on added significance. Below, seven experts affiliated with the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research ( SIEPR ) offer their research-based insights into what’s in store for the U.S. economy in the year ahead.

“These economic policy questions are right in our wheelhouse at SIEPR, and we’re very fortunate to have more than 120 faculty members tackling pressing economic issues and generating research that leads to better policies. The fact that we are in an election year makes their work even more important as we strive to get rigorous, nonpartisan research and analysis into the hands of policymakers, candidates, business leaders and voters.”

— Mark Duggan, The Trione Director of SIEPR and The Wayne and Jodi Cooperman Professor of Economics

The consumer disconnect in an election year

Neale Mahoney , George P. Shultz Fellow at SIEPR and Professor of Economics, School of Humanities and Sciences:

The U.S. economy is strong by all objective measures, with low unemployment, robust GDP growth, and easing inflation. Yet consumer sentiment is decidedly weak, with measures of the economic indicator at levels last seen during the global financial crisis. Given the strong correlation between consumer sentiment and election outcomes, it’s especially important to understand why there’s a disconnect ahead of this November’s vote.

Ryan Cummings , a visiting PhD student at Stanford, and I recently dived into the data and documented two new findings. First, sentiment isn’t as bad as the numbers suggest due to partisan skew. While both Democrats and Republicans rate the economy more strongly when their party controls the White House, Republicans cheer louder and boo harder, in effect, drowning out Democratic voices and artificially depressing consumer sentiment.

Second, consumer sentiment is being dragged down by prior years’ inflation . While prices rose only 3.2 percent this year, they increased by a cumulative 18.6 percent over the last 3 years, and these prior price increases are still weighing negatively on consumers. However, we also found that the downward drag from inflation has a half-life of about a year. This means that, if  inflation continues to ease over the next 12 months, sentiment should improve as the post-pandemic inflation surge recedes. 

These are challenging times for forecasting. The rise of social media as a prominent information source — with its tendency to amplify bad news — may be fraying the link between economic fundamentals and consumer sentiment. The partisan factors we document may intensify as the November election approaches. How consumer sentiment will trend, and what we should be making of these data in the current environment, are questions that will only be fully answered in the course of time.

COVID-19’s lingering labor effects

Gopi Shah Goda , SIEPR Senior Fellow and Professor (by courtesy) of Economics, School of Humanities and Sciences:

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many sectors of the economy, including labor markets. My research with Evan Soltas estimates that excess COVID-19-related absences from work through mid-2022 resulted in approximately 500,000 fewer people participating in the labor force. Other work has shown that more working-age adults are reporting serious difficulty remembering, concentrating or making decisions, and the increases are higher among women and non-college graduates. In addition, the share of workers who are not employed and not looking for work due to disability or illness is higher than its pre-pandemic trend.

COVID has clearly had harmful effects on the U.S. workforce overall, but there’s some good news heading into 2024. Between January and October of 2023, excess COVID-19-related absences from work were approximately 15 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels. While still elevated, this represents a sharp reduction from excess absences in March 2020-December 2022, which were 61 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Going forward, the lower rate of excess absences in 2023 may suggest that the recent increase in disability rates could slow down if the two are causally related. However, the growing share of the population reporting cognitive difficulties — likely from a COVID-19 infection — suggest that programs and policies may be needed to support workers still struggling with pandemic-related illnesses.

Congress' fiscal cliff problem

John Cochrane , SIEPR Senior Fellow and the Rose-Marie and Jack Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution:

When you kick the can long enough, you run out of road. Our government’s inability to fix its finances means we’re pretty close to that point. 

The U.S. has as much federal debt now as it did at the end of WWII. The Congressional Budget Office projects debt will grow exponentially. The federal deficit is 5.8 percent of GDP, though the economy is humming. The CBO projects 3 percent of GDP primary deficits — before interest payments — forever.

The problem is not this year or next. The government has made pension and health care promises that it cannot pay for. Trillion-dollar spending on industrial policies, subsidies, transfers, and bailouts don’t help. When the next recession, crisis, war or pandemic hits, the U.S. may simply be unable to borrow.

Higher tax rates are not the answer. There aren’t enough “rich” or “corporations” to soak for this much money. We could finance our European-style benefits with European middle-income taxes, but we would get stagnant European incomes in the bargain. 

Tax revenue equals tax rate times income. Higher tax rates lead to lower long-run income, blunting revenue. The best way out is more long-term income growth.

Our mantra should be “reform” and “incentives,” not “cuts” and “austerity.” Fundamental tax reform, such as the introduction of a consumption tax, can raise substantial revenue with less economic damage. Change at the edges, such as the debate over extending the 2017 cuts, won’t address the immense problem. Reformed social program incentives can save money and help people more. Regulatory reform can speed growth. Smart immigration can bring in more taxpayers.

Year of the WFH pancake

Nicholas Bloom , SIEPR Senior Fellow and the William D. Eberle Professor of Economics, School of Humanities and Sciences:

It’s the $64,000 workplace question: Will workers continue to be allowed to work from home (WFH)? I predict the rates of WFH will, as the British say, be “flat as a pancake” this year and into 2025 before picking up again in 2026.

I’ve previously likened the WFH revolution to the Nike swoosh. From 2020 to the end of 2022, levels of WFH dropped as the pandemic-induced surge waned. In 2023 we saw rates stabilize  as attempts by employers to bring workers back into the office largely failed.

But WFH rates will start to slowly climb again. This will be driven by ever-improving technologies for remote working. We’ll see innovations around, for example, audio and visual, apps, holograms, and augmented reality. Looking back over my life, we have seen working from home go from paper-based in the 1970s and 1980s, to supported by PCs in the 1990s, with the internet in the 2000s and then cloud computing and video calls in the 2010s. 

The recent explosion in WFH has accelerated this rate of technological progress. Every hardware and software firm I talk to is targeting this massive new market of WFH employees and firms. What the future will bring is not clear, but it clearly will be better and more efficient than 2023 tech.

My message for 2024: Underneath WFH’s “pancake” year is a massive revolution. WFH is here to stay and looking to a rapidly growing future.

The need for Treasury market reforms

Darrell Duffie , SIEPR Senior Fellow and the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management and Professor of Finance, Stanford Graduate School of Business:

U.S. Treasury securities are the world’s safe-haven asset — not only because of their low default risk but also because of the depth and liquidity of the market in which they are traded. In March 2020, that safe-haven role was tested when COVID unleashed a dash for cash caused by severe selling of Treasuries. The dealers who handle essentially all investor trading of Treasuries could not adequately handle the surge of demands. Catastrophe was averted only when the Federal Reserve took unprecedented steps to restore liquidity in the market.

According to a recent Federal Reserve Bank of New York analysis that I co-authored, the crisis exposed structural weaknesses in the U.S. Treasury market that, if unaddressed, threaten its ability to remain a safe haven for global investors. The capacity of dealers to temporarily warehouse the flood of investor sales while they negotiate trades with buyers is critical. And yet, the total amount of Treasuries outstanding is growing rapidly relative to the intermediation capacity of dealers because of large and persistent U.S. fiscal deficits and the limited flexibility of dealer balance sheets. 

The resilience of the Treasury market should not be called into question just when its safe-haven role becomes critical. Significant structural improvements to the Treasury market are needed in 2024 and beyond. Policy options include broadening central clearing of Treasuries and all-to-all trade; boosting the intermediation capacity of dealers with real-time post-trade transaction reporting; improving capital regulations so they do not lower the overall capital buffers of globally systemic banks; and backstopping the Treasury market liquidity with transparent central-bank purchase programs.

The beginning of the end for non-competes

Mark Lemley , SIEPR Senior Fellow; the William H. Neukom Professor of Law, Stanford Law School; Director, Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology :

The reinvigoration of antitrust enforcement will continue in 2024. The Federal Trade Commission in particular will continue to challenge mergers that it deems anticompetitive. It will also take a number of steps to open up the labor markets: It will ban or significantly restrict non-compete agreements that prevent workers from moving to competitors. It will challenge other restrictive employee agreements, from no-poach deals and arbitration secrecy clauses to overbroad nondisclosure agreements and "stay or pay" clauses.

These challenges will be met by skeptical courts trained in 40 years of Chicago School orthodoxy on the primacy of free markets. Entrenched companies that don’t like the idea of facing competition rather than agreeing to avoid it will howl. The November general election will likely determine the extent to which the pace of FTC enforcement continues beyond 2024. And if the FTC suffers setbacks in court, proponents of stricter enforcement may need to look to Congress to act.

For California, tough choices

Preeti Hehmeyer , Managing Director of California Policy Research Initiative (CAPRI) at SIEPR:

The coming year will be eventful for Californians, to say the least. Looking to the general election in November, many observers believe that the Golden State will be one of the most important battlegrounds for Congressional control. California also needs to climb out of its $31 billion budget deficit while dealing with the ongoing challenges of affordable housing, homelessness, extreme weather, and rising electricity costs. Politicians make the decisions, but CAPRI can help the state better understand the roots of its problems and choices going forward.

More News Topics

Vast government debts are riskier than they appear.

• Media Mention
• Politics and Media
• Regulation and Competition

Four tips to make the most of hybrid work

Has kamala harris risen above the vibecession.

• Money and Finance

• Privacy Policy

Home » 500+ Economics Research Topics

500+ Economics Research Topics

Economics is a vast and fascinating field that explores how individuals, businesses, and governments make decisions about the allocation of resources. As such, it provides a wealth of research opportunities for those interested in understanding and analyzing the complexities of modern society. From macroeconomic issues such as globalization and monetary policy, to microeconomic topics such as consumer behavior and market competition, there are numerous research topics that economists can investigate. In this post, we will explore some of the most interesting and relevant economics research topics that are shaping our world today.

Economics Research Topics

Economics Research Topics are as follows:

• The impact of technological change on income inequality.
• An analysis of the relationship between exchange rates and foreign direct investment.
• The effects of tax incentives on small business growth and development.
• The determinants of economic growth in developing countries.
• The impact of globalization on economic growth and development.
• An analysis of the effects of the minimum wage on employment and poverty.
• The role of central banks in managing inflation and economic stability.
• An investigation into the factors influencing consumer behavior and spending.
• An analysis of the impact of trade liberalization on economic growth.
• The effects of income inequality on social welfare and economic stability.
• The role of international trade in economic development.
• An investigation into the relationship between education and economic growth.
• An analysis of the effects of corruption on economic growth and development.
• The impact of the gig economy on employment and wages.
• An investigation into the causes and consequences of financial crises.
• The role of innovation in economic growth and development.
• An analysis of the impact of government spending on economic growth.
• The effects of globalization on the environment.
• The impact of climate change on economic growth and development.
• An investigation into the determinants of poverty and inequality.
• The role of entrepreneurship in economic growth and development.
• An analysis of the effects of monetary policy on economic growth and stability.
• The impact of immigration on labor markets and economic growth.
• An investigation into the factors influencing international trade flows.
• An analysis of the effects of foreign aid on economic development.
• The role of financial intermediaries in economic development.
• An investigation into the causes and consequences of income inequality.
• The impact of trade agreements on economic growth and development.
• An analysis of the effects of government regulation on business and economic growth.
• The role of technology transfer in economic development.
• An investigation into the effects of economic sanctions on trade and economic growth.
• The impact of population growth on economic development.
• An analysis of the effects of infrastructure investment on economic growth.
• The role of natural resources in economic development.
• An investigation into the effects of labor market policies on economic growth and employment.
• The impact of financial innovation on economic growth and stability.
• An analysis of the effects of income tax policy on economic growth and income distribution.
• The role of social capital in economic development.
• An investigation into the impact of economic policies on international trade.
• The effects of financial liberalization on economic growth and stability.
• The impact of urbanization on economic development.
• An analysis of the effects of international migration on labor markets and economic growth.
• The role of institutions in economic development.
• An investigation into the effects of exchange rate volatility on international trade.
• The impact of demographic change on economic growth and development.
• An analysis of the effects of government debt on economic growth and stability.
• The role of foreign investment in economic development.
• An investigation into the effects of labor market flexibility on economic growth and employment.
• The impact of intellectual property rights on innovation and economic growth.
• An analysis of the effects of economic inequality on social mobility and economic growth.
• The impact of COVID-19 on the global economy.
• The role of financial markets in economic growth.
• The effectiveness of monetary policy in stabilizing the economy.
• The relationship between income inequality and economic growth.
• The impact of government regulations on business activity.
• The role of technology in shaping the future of the economy.
• The effect of globalization on the labor market.
• The impact of trade policy on economic growth.
• The relationship between education and economic growth.
• The effectiveness of fiscal policy in stimulating economic growth.
• The impact of immigration on the labor market.
• The effect of tax policy on economic growth.
• The role of entrepreneurship in economic development.
• The impact of environmental regulations on economic growth.
• The effect of international capital flows on the economy.
• The relationship between innovation and economic growth.
• The impact of demographic changes on the economy.
• The role of infrastructure investment in economic growth.
• The effect of monetary policy on income inequality.
• The impact of government debt on economic growth.
• The relationship between corruption and economic growth.
• The effect of globalization on income inequality.
• The impact of education on income inequality.
• The role of social welfare programs in reducing poverty.
• The effect of minimum wage laws on the labor market.
• The impact of health care policy on economic growth.
• The relationship between energy prices and economic growth.
• The effect of government subsidies on business activity.
• The impact of exchange rate fluctuations on trade.
• The role of financial innovation in economic development.
• The effect of social media on consumer behavior.
• The impact of consumer confidence on economic growth.
• The relationship between economic growth and political stability.
• The effect of demographic changes on income inequality.
• The impact of government spending on economic growth.
• The role of labor unions in the labor market.
• The effect of natural disasters on the economy.
• The relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability.
• The effect of corporate social responsibility on business activity.
• The impact of intellectual property rights on innovation.
• The effect of cultural differences on business activity.
• The impact of financial crises on the economy.
• The relationship between economic growth and health outcomes.
• The effect of government corruption on economic growth.
• The impact of demographic changes on the labor market.
• The effect of foreign aid on economic growth.
• The impact of technological change on the labor market.
• The effect of monetary policy on income distribution.
• The impact of trade agreements on economic growth
• The effect of corruption on economic development
• The relationship between financial development and economic growth
• The impact of foreign aid on economic growth in developing countries
• The role of innovation in promoting economic growth
• The impact of globalization on income inequality
• The relationship between inflation and economic growth
• The role of natural resources in economic development
• The impact of government expenditure on economic growth
• The relationship between income distribution and economic growth
• The impact of monetary policy on economic growth
• The role of education in promoting economic growth
• The impact of entrepreneurship on economic development
• The relationship between taxation and economic growth
• The impact of infrastructure on economic growth
• The role of international trade in economic development
• The impact of fiscal policy on economic growth
• The relationship between financial liberalization and economic growth
• The impact of economic integration on economic growth
• The role of institutions in promoting economic development
• The impact of foreign direct investment on economic growth
• The relationship between inequality and economic growth
• The impact of social welfare programs on economic growth
• The role of technology in promoting economic growth
• The impact of political instability on economic growth
• The relationship between corruption and economic growth
• The impact of labor market policies on economic growth
• The role of human capital in promoting economic development
• The impact of health care on economic growth
• The relationship between exchange rates and economic growth
• The impact of foreign trade on income distribution
• The role of entrepreneurship in economic development
• The impact of environmental policies on economic growth
• The relationship between foreign aid and poverty reduction
• The impact of financial sector reforms on economic growth
• The role of social capital in promoting economic development
• The impact of regional integration on economic growth
• The relationship between public investment and economic growth
• The impact of monetary policy on income distribution
• The role of international migration in economic development
• The impact of labor market flexibility on economic growth
• The relationship between trade and technology transfer
• The impact of institutional quality on economic growth
• The role of financial sector development in promoting economic growth
• The impact of regional inequality on economic growth
• The relationship between education and poverty reduction
• The impact of foreign debt on economic growth
• The role of social protection in promoting economic development
• The impact of energy policies on economic growth
• The relationship between foreign trade and environmental sustainability
• The impact of international trade on income inequality.
• The relationship between public debt and economic growth.
• The effect of tax policy on international capital flows.
• The impact of government subsidies on technological innovation.
• The role of financial development in reducing poverty.
• The effect of regulation on market structure.
• The impact of globalization on financial stability.
• The relationship between financial development and income inequality.
• The effect of fiscal policy on long-term economic growth.
• The impact of financial frictions on business cycles.
• The role of international capital flows in financial crises.
• The effect of natural resource abundance on economic growth.
• The impact of fiscal decentralization on economic growth.
• The relationship between institutions and economic growth.
• The effect of financial innovation on market efficiency.
• The impact of international migration on the labor market.
• The role of corporate governance in firm performance.
• The effect of monetary policy on the housing market.
• The impact of environmental policy on the energy sector.
• The effect of competition policy on market outcomes.
• The impact of technology adoption on productivity.
• The effect of regulation on consumer welfare.
• The impact of trade policy on export performance.
• The relationship between social capital and economic growth.
• The effect of labor market institutions on the gender wage gap.
• The impact of financial liberalization on economic growth.
• The role of human capital in technological innovation.
• The effect of trade openness on innovation.
• The impact of natural disasters on economic growth.
• The relationship between inequality and economic growth.
• The effect of exchange rate volatility on international trade.
• The impact of banking regulation on financial stability.
• The role of venture capital in financing innovation.
• The effect of regional trade agreements on economic growth.
• The impact of financial development on economic growth in emerging markets.
• The relationship between government spending and economic growth.
• The effect of monetary policy on credit markets.
• The impact of innovation on firm performance.
• The role of social networks in job search and labor market outcomes.
• The effect of international capital flows on income inequality.
• The impact of natural resource dependence on political instability.
• The relationship between financial development and income mobility.
• The effect of tax competition on fiscal policy.
• The impact of labor market institutions on unemployment.
• The role of infrastructure investment in economic development.
• The effect of monetary policy on financial market volatility.
• The impact of fiscal policy on income redistribution.
• The role of digital currencies in the future of finance.
• The effects of the gig economy on labor markets.
• The impact of artificial intelligence on economic growth.
• The relationship between climate change and economic growth.
• The role of blockchain technology in supply chain management.
• The effects of automation on the labor market.
• The impact of E-commerce on traditional retail industries.
• The relationship between social media and consumer behavior.
• The role of data analytics in business decision-making.
• The effects of globalization on income inequality.
• The impact of digital platforms on the sharing economy.
• The relationship between education and economic growth in the digital age.
• The role of fintech in financial inclusion.
• The effects of trade policies on global supply chains.
• The impact of corporate social responsibility on business performance.
• The relationship between immigration and economic growth.
• The role of venture capital in stimulating innovation and economic growth.
• The effects of the circular economy on sustainable development.
• The impact of cybersecurity threats on the global economy.
• The relationship between gender inequality and economic growth.
• The role of green finance in promoting sustainable development.
• The effects of automation on income inequality.
• The impact of the sharing economy on traditional business models.
• The relationship between human capital and economic growth.
• The role of technology transfer in international trade.
• The effects of regulatory frameworks on innovation.
• The impact of government policies on the growth of start-up companies.
• The role of venture philanthropy in social entrepreneurship.
• The effects of digital disruption on the financial services industry.
• The impact of the circular economy on job creation.
• The relationship between health outcomes and economic growth.
• The role of impact investing in social and environmental sustainability.
• The effects of trade agreements on the global economy.
• The impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth.
• The relationship between innovation and income inequality.
• The role of corporate governance in sustainable business practices.
• The effects of immigration policies on labor market outcomes.
• The impact of international capital flows on economic development.
• The relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance.
• The role of innovation clusters in regional economic development.
• The effects of digitalization on productivity.
• The impact of the sharing economy on urban development.
• The relationship between social entrepreneurship and economic growth.
• The role of government policies in promoting sustainable development.
• The effects of demographic changes on the economy.
• The impact of digitalization on economic development in developing countries.
• The relationship between consumer behavior and sustainability.
• The role of private equity in stimulating economic growth.
• The impact of government spending on economic growth
• The effects of minimum wage laws on employment and poverty rates
• The role of government subsidies in promoting renewable energy adoption
• The impact of trade liberalization on economic growth and income inequality
• The effectiveness of monetary policy in managing inflation and unemployment
• The determinants of foreign direct investment flows in emerging markets
• The role of financial markets in economic development
• The impact of globalization on the labor market
• The effects of tax policies on economic growth and income distribution
• The role of human capital in economic growth and development
• The economics of climate change and the environment
• The effects of population aging on economic growth and social welfare
• The impact of social safety net programs on poverty reduction
• The effects of corruption on economic development and political stability
• The impact of technological innovation on labor market outcomes
• The economics of healthcare policy and healthcare markets
• The determinants of entrepreneurship and small business success
• The effects of income inequality on economic growth and social welfare
• The economics of urbanization and regional development
• The role of foreign aid in promoting economic development
• The impact of fiscal policy on economic growth and government debt
• The effects of financial regulation on economic stability and growth
• The economics of education policy and school choice
• The determinants of consumer behavior and market outcomes
• The role of multinational corporations in the global economy
• The effects of immigration on labor markets and economic growth
• The impact of monetary policy on financial markets and stability
• The economics of natural resource management and conservation
• The determinants of industrial competitiveness and productivity
• The effects of trade policies on economic growth and regional integration
• The role of institutional quality in economic development
• The impact of technological change on income inequality
• The economics of innovation and intellectual property rights
• The effects of financial globalization on emerging markets
• The role of infrastructure investment in promoting economic development
• The impact of exchange rate policies on international trade and investment
• The determinants of consumer credit and debt behavior
• The effects of social media and online platforms on market competition
• The role of international organizations in global economic governance
• The impact of natural disasters on economic development and poverty
• The economics of gender inequality and discrimination
• The effects of government regulation on business behavior and market outcomes
• The role of behavioral economics in understanding market behavior
• The impact of public investment on economic growth and social welfare
• The determinants of household saving and investment behavior
• The economics of renewable energy and clean technology adoption
• The effects of economic sanctions on international trade and investment
• The role of information and communication technologies in economic development
• The impact of globalization on income distribution and poverty
• The economics of international migration and remittances.
• The effects of income inequality on economic development
• An analysis of the efficiency of market structures in different industries
• The role of technology in economic growth and development
• The impact of international trade on economic development
• An investigation into the determinants of inflation
• The effects of labor market regulations on employment and productivity
• An analysis of the relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability
• The role of institutions in economic development
• The impact of foreign aid on economic development
• The effects of taxation on economic growth
• An investigation into the factors that contribute to economic fluctuations
• The effects of globalization on income distribution
• The impact of education on economic growth and development
• The role of infrastructure in economic development
• The effects of trade liberalization on economic growth
• An analysis of the impact of exchange rates on trade and investment
• The relationship between innovation and economic growth
• The impact of government policies on the agricultural sector
• The effects of corruption on economic development
• An investigation into the effects of demographic changes on economic growth
• The impact of financial crisis on economic growth
• The effects of foreign direct investment on economic growth
• An analysis of the effects of natural resources on economic development
• The impact of healthcare on economic growth
• The effects of international migration on the economy
• The relationship between poverty and economic development
• The role of infrastructure in promoting economic growth
• An investigation into the effects of regional economic integration
• The impact of foreign trade on economic development
• The effects of government regulation on economic growth
• An analysis of the role of technology in improving economic efficiency
• The impact of population growth on economic development
• The effects of government spending on income inequality
• The role of the financial system in economic growth
• The impact of energy policies on economic development
• An investigation into the effects of intellectual property rights on economic growth
• The effects of trade on labor markets
• The role of social capital in economic development
• The effects of regional inequality on economic development
• An analysis of the impact of financial market development on economic growth
• The impact of international trade on technological progress
• The effects of financial regulation on economic growth
• The role of institutions in promoting entrepreneurship
• The impact of healthcare policies on economic growth
• An investigation into the effects of income redistribution on economic growth.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

You may also like

500+ Computer Science Research Topics

300+ Social Media Research Topics

300+ Mental Health Research Topics

500+ Psychology Research Paper Topics

500+ Statistics Research Topics

500+ Nursing Research Topic Ideas

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals

Economics articles from across Nature Portfolio

What counts as climate mitigation costs

Technological feasibility and project-level economic costs are only two important considerations in previous estimations of climate mitigation costs. Now a study shows how political and institutional constraints matter too.

• Gernot Wagner

Removing development incentives in risky areas reduces climate damages and yields co-benefits

Eliminating government infrastructure spending, public disaster insurance and post-disaster aid in high-risk coastal areas reduces development there and leads to lower flood damages and higher property values on nearby lands. The strategic withdrawal of development incentives could be used more broadly to reduce climate risks.

• Hannah Druckenmiller
• Yanjun (Penny) Liao

Latest Research and Reviews

A qualitative dynamic analysis of the relationship between tourism and human development

• Pablo Juan Cárdenas-García
• Juan Gabriel Brida
• Verónica Segarra

Policy spillovers from climate actions to energy poverty: international evidence

• Dayong Zhang

China’s carbon trading pilot policy, economic stability, and high-quality economic development

• Shaolong Zeng

A multinational analysis of how emotions relate to economic decisions regarding time or risk

Using a dataset spanning 74 countries, Pertl et al. show that emotions predict intertemporal and risky decision-making. These relationships are stronger in more economically developed and individualistic countries.

• Samuel M. Pertl
• Tara Srirangarajan
• Oleg Urminsky

Trade openness, economic growth and economic development nexus in South Africa: a pre- and post-BRICS analysis

• Micaela Naledi Monyela
• Charles Shaaba Saba

Unveiling the nexus: exploring the influence of terrorism on energy trade in China and the Belt and Road countries

• Wenlong Yang
• Wentian Shi
• Dongcheng Chen

News and Comment

Both downsizing and improvements to livestock systems are needed to stay within planetary boundaries

A focus on improvements to livestock production limits the scope for food systems transformation. Research, policy and industry must adopt measures to downsize livestock production and consumption to meet sustainability targets and facilitate a just transition.

• Irina Herzon
• Rachel Mazac

The rise of teamwork and career prospects in academic science

The rise in team size in academic science has generated an unintended side effect: junior scientists are less likely to secure research funding or obtain tenure and are more likely to leave academia.

• Mabel Andalón
• Catherine de Fontenay
• Kwanghui Lim

Bronze Age Europeans exhibited modern economic behaviour

The foundations of modern economic systems are rooted in the economic behaviour of contemporary humans, and ‘primitive’ societies have been assumed not to fit standard economic theory. But an analysis of metal fragments — effectively, money — shows that modern-style economic behaviour can be identified at least as far back as 3,500 years ago.

Connecting ecosystem services research and human rights to revamp the application of the precautionary principle

With ecosystem services (ES) vital for human wellbeing 1 , the protection of nature is a human rights matter. We outline how recent advances in international human rights law should inform a revamp of how precaution is applied within environmental decision-making. Critically, precautionary decision-making must evolve to make use of best-available evidence, including novel ES research approaches, to assess ‘foreseeable’ harms to all aspects of human wellbeing that are protected as human rights.

• Holly J. Niner
• Elisa Morgera
• Siân E. Rees

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

• Browse All Articles
• Newsletter Sign-Up

Economics →

• 29 Aug 2024
• Research & Ideas

Shoot for the Stars: What to Know About the Space Economy

Outer space has come a long way since the 1960s. Matthew Weinzierl explains the current state of the space economy, highlighting the various opportunities for businesses hidden among the stars.

• 22 Aug 2024

Reading the Financial Crisis Warning Signs: Credit Markets and the 'Red-Zone'

While fears about slowing economic growth have roiled stock markets in recent weeks, credit markets remain stable and bullish, and a recession hasn't materialized as some analysts predicted. Robin Greenwood discusses the market conditions that are buoying the economy—and risk signals to watch.

• 05 Aug 2024

Watching for the Next Economic Downturn? Follow Corporate Debt

Rising household debt alone isn't enough to predict looming economic crises. Research by Victoria Ivashina examines the role of corporate debt in fiscal crashes since 1940.

• 23 Jul 2024

Forgiving Medical Debt Won't Make Everyone Happier

Medical debt not only hurts credit access, it can also harm one's mental health. But a study by Raymond Kluender finds that forgiving people's bills—even $170 million of debt—doesn't necessarily reduce stress, financial or otherwise.

• In Practice

The New Rules of Trade with China: Navigating Tariffs, Turmoil, and Opportunities

Trade tensions between the US and China have continued well beyond the Trump Administration's tariffs. Harvard Business School faculty offer insights for leaders managing the complexities of doing business with the world's second-largest economy.

• 18 Jun 2024

Central Banks Missed Inflation Red Flags. This Pricing Model Could Help.

The steep inflation that plagued the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic took many economists by surprise. But research by Alberto Cavallo suggests that a different method of tracking prices—a real-time model—could predict future surges better.

• 28 May 2024

Job Search Advice for a Tough Market: Think Broadly and Stay Flexible

Some employers have pared staff and reduced hiring amid mixed economic signals. What does it mean for job seekers? Paul Gompers, Letian Zhang, and David Fubini offer advice for overcoming search challenges to score that all-important offer.

• 21 May 2024

What the Rise of Far-Right Politics Says About the Economy in an Election Year

With voters taking to the polls in dozens of countries this year, could election outcomes lean conservative? Paula Rettl says a lack of social mobility and a sense of economic insecurity are some of the factors fueling far-right movements around the world.

• 11 Apr 2024

Why Progress on Immigration Might Soften Labor Pains

Long-term labor shortages continue to stoke debates about immigration policy in the United States. We asked Harvard Business School faculty members to discuss what's at stake for companies facing talent needs, and the potential scenarios on the horizon.

• 01 Apr 2024

Navigating the Mood of Customers Weary of Price Hikes

Price increases might be tempering after historic surges, but companies continue to wrestle with pinched consumers. Alexander MacKay, Chiara Farronato, and Emily Williams make sense of the economic whiplash of inflation and offer insights for business leaders trying to find equilibrium.

• 29 Jan 2024

Do Disasters Rally Support for Climate Action? It's Complicated.

Reactions to devastating wildfires in the Amazon show the contrasting realities for people living in areas vulnerable to climate change. Research by Paula Rettl illustrates the political ramifications that arise as people weigh the economic tradeoffs of natural disasters.

• 10 Jan 2024

Technology and COVID Upended Tipping Norms. Will Consumers Keep Paying?

When COVID pushed service-based businesses to the brink, tipping became a way for customers to show their appreciation. Now that the pandemic is over, new technologies have enabled companies to maintain and expand the use of digital payment nudges, says Jill Avery.

• 17 Aug 2023

‘Not a Bunch of Weirdos’: Why Mainstream Investors Buy Crypto

Bitcoin might seem like the preferred tender of conspiracy theorists and criminals, but everyday investors are increasingly embracing crypto. A study of 59 million consumers by Marco Di Maggio and colleagues paints a shockingly ordinary picture of today's cryptocurrency buyer. What do they stand to gain?

• 15 Aug 2023

Why Giving to Others Makes Us Happy

Giving to others is also good for the giver. A research paper by Ashley Whillans and colleagues identifies three circumstances in which spending money on other people can boost happiness.

• 13 Mar 2023

What Would It Take to Unlock Microfinance's Full Potential?

Microfinance has been seen as a vehicle for economic mobility in developing countries, but the results have been mixed. Research by Natalia Rigol and Ben Roth probes how different lending approaches might serve entrepreneurs better.

• 23 Jan 2023

After High-Profile Failures, Can Investors Still Trust Credit Ratings?

Rating agencies, such as Standard & Poor’s and Moody's, have been criticized for not warning investors of risks that led to major financial catastrophes. But an analysis of thousands of ratings by Anywhere Sikochi and colleagues suggests that agencies have learned from past mistakes.

• 29 Nov 2022

How Much More Would Holiday Shoppers Pay to Wear Something Rare?

Economic worries will make pricing strategy even more critical this holiday season. Research by Chiara Farronato reveals the value that hip consumers see in hard-to-find products. Are companies simply making too many goods?

• 21 Nov 2022

Buy Now, Pay Later: How Retail's Hot Feature Hurts Low-Income Shoppers

More consumers may opt to "buy now, pay later" this holiday season, but what happens if they can't make that last payment? Research by Marco Di Maggio and Emily Williams highlights the risks of these financing services, especially for lower-income shoppers.

• 01 Sep 2022
• What Do You Think?

Is It Time to Consider Lifting Tariffs on Chinese Imports?

Many of the tariffs levied by the Trump administration on Chinese goods remain in place. James Heskett weighs whether the US should prioritize renegotiating trade agreements with China, and what it would take to move on from the trade war. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 05 Jul 2022

Have We Seen the Peak of Just-in-Time Inventory Management?

Toyota and other companies have harnessed just-in-time inventory management to cut logistics costs and boost service. That is, until COVID-19 roiled global supply chains. Will we ever get back to the days of tighter inventory control? asks James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

National Bureau of Economic Research

Latest from the nber, seven researchers receive postdoctoral fellowships, 2024-25.

news article

Seven postdoctoral scholars have been awarded NBER fellowships for the 2024–25 academic year, following widely disseminated calls for applications.

Woojin Kim, who received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and Chika O. Okafor, who received his PhD from Harvard University, will hold fellowships in aging and health economics supported by the National Institute on Aging. Kim is studying the interaction between physicians political allegiance and practice patterns, while Okafor will investigate how the criminal legal system impacts health outcomes and disparities.

From the NBER Bulletin on Retirement and Disability

Disability Insurance Benefits and Household Composition

Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) “family maximum” rules cap the benefits that can be paid to a disabled worker’s family at the lower of 85 percent of the worker’s average indexed monthly earnings and 150 percent of their primary insurance amount. The effect of these rules is that family payments are the same whether a DI beneficiary has one or many dependents, and when DI beneficiaries have low benefit determinations, there are no payments for dependents at all. 

In  Understanding the Disparate Impacts of the Social Security Disability Insurance Family Maximum Rules (NBER RDRC Paper NB23-07),  Timothy J. Moore examines how the economic wellbeing of DI beneficiary...

Six Affiliates Take Leave for Public Service

NBER affiliates Anusha Chari , Matthew Kraft , and Laura Wherry are currently serving as senior economists at the Council of Economic Advisers. Chari, affiliated with the International Finance and Macroeconomics program, is a Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Kraft, an Economics of Education program affiliate, is an Associate Professor of Education at Brown University. Wherry, affiliated with the Economics of Health program, is an Associate Professor at New York University’s Graduate School of Public Service. 

A research summary from the monthly NBER Digest

Effects of Texas' Top Ten Percent College Admissions Plan

While some colleges use transparent criteria such as grade point averages (GPAs) and class ranks to evaluate applicants, many add elements such as applicant essays and letters of recommendation to their admissions process. Broader criteria allow colleges to consider more information about applicants at the cost of increased opacity of the admissions process. This lack of transparency may deter applicants who are uncertain about their chances of satisfying vague requirements.

In Transparency and Percent Plans (NBER Working Paper 32372), Adam Kapor studies the Texas Top Ten Percent Plan, a policy dating back to 1997 that guarantees admission to any Texas public college to high school students...

From the NBER Reporter: Research, program, and conference summaries

Clearing the Air: Historical Air Pollution and Health

Air pollution has serious and longstanding negative effects on human health. The primary focus of research on air pollution in the United States since the enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 has been the health implications of particulate matter. In comparison, there has been relatively little work on air pollution and health in historical periods, even though air pollution was much higher in earlier times than it is today. Research on historical air pollution can provide new evidence on the health consequences of air pollution in the United States and offer insights that may be relevant for policymaking in settings with high levels of air pollution, such as developing countries.

From the NBER Bulletin on Health

Why Do More Educated Communities Have Better Health Outcomes?

Adults who live in more educated communities have lower mortality rates. In 2010, every 10 percentage point increase in an area’s share of adults with a college degree — equivalent to moving from the 25th to the 75th percentile of area education — was associated with 97 (8 percent) fewer deaths per 100,000 people. In Human Capital Spillovers and Health: Does Living around College Graduates Lengthen Life? (NBER Working Paper 32346), researchers Jacob H. Bor , David M. Cutler , Edward L. Glaeser , and Ljubica Ristovska explore this relationship...

From the NBER Bulletin on Entrepreneurship

Immigration Policy and Entrepreneurs’ Choice of Startup Location

Immigrants play a significant role in the entrepreneurial landscape. In the United States, immigrants are 80 percent more likely to start businesses than native-born Americans. More than half of America's billion-dollar startup companies trace their roots to immigrant founders. There is limited research, however, on the factors that influence immigrants' decisions about where to locate their startup businesses. 

Featured Working Papers

When US states adopt paid sick leave requirements, payouts of workers’ compensation benefits decrease, though there are no observed reductions in workplace injury rates, according to a study by  Xiuming Dong ,  Johanna Catherine Maclean , and  David Powell .

The completion rate for graduate students entering programs at public universities in Texas in 2013 was 10 percentage points higher than that of students starting in 2004.  There was wide variation across fields of study, for example 81 percent completed in law versus 53 percent in education,  Jeffrey T. Denning and  Lesley J. Turner find.

Criminal justice data from North Carolina and Ohio suggest that individuals who are given a year-long prison sentence experience a cumulative earnings decline of 13 percent over the five years that include their prison time, but little decline in employment or earnings thereafter, according to  Andrew Garin ,  Dmitri K. Koustas ,  Carl McPherson ,  Samuel Norris ,  Matthew Pecenco ,  Evan K. Rose ,  Yotam Shem-Tov , and  Jeffrey Weaver . 

Consumer product markups increased by about 30 percent on average over the period 2006–19, largely because of decreases in marginal costs, according to analysis by  Hendrik Döpper ,  Alexander MacKay ,  Nathan H. Miller , and  Joel Stiebale . Consumer demands appear to have become less price sensitive over this period. 

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s elimination of federal charitable giving incentives for some income tax filers was associated with a decrease in charitable giving of about $20 billion annually,  Xiao Han ,  Daniel M. Hungerman , and  Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm find. 

In the News

Recent citations of NBER research in the media _______________________________________

Research Projects

Conferences, books & chapters.

Through a partnership with the University of Chicago Press, the NBER publishes the proceedings of four annual conferences as well as other research studies associated with NBER-based research projects.

Research Spotlights

NBER researchers discuss their work on subjects of wide interest to economists, policymakers, and the general public. Recordings of more-detailed presentations, keynote addresses, and panel discussions at NBER conferences are available on the  Lectures  page.

Take a look at the latest research from MIT Economics faculty, including published work and newly-released working papers.

Working Papers

Capital and wages, help for the heartland: the employment and electoral effects of the trump tariffs in the united states.

Risky Business: Why Insurance Markets Fail and What To Do About It

Cooking to Save Your Life

Published papers, a task-based approach to inequality, automation and the workforce: a firm-level view from the 2019 annual business survey.

Labs and Centers

Research news.

Through econometrics, Isaiah Andrews is making research more robust

Michael D Whinston receives the 2024 Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize

NEP: New Economics Papers

NEP is an announcement service which filters information on new additions to RePEc into edited reports. The goal is to provide subscribers with up-to-date information about the research literature. Our success in achieving this goal has been substantial. Today, there are 76900 subscriptions from 29897 unique addresses distributed throughout the world. The reports are generated by subject-specific editors. They are available by email and RSS feeds.

The current set of reports includes:

If you wish to make your colleagues aware of NEP, please give them the URL of this page:

https://nep.repec.org

NEP is a free service for the academic community in economics and related disciplines. Comments and contributions are welcome. To contact us, write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese , at < director @ nep point repec point org >.

• how to make papers available in NEP
• our governance
• sponsorship opportunities available to you
• our user email privacy policy
• the NEP internal mailing lists
• the issue timing
• editors’ guide
• our edition control
• the technical guide
• the literature .

What’s the Latest Research in Development Economics? A Roundup from NEUDC 2022

Almedina music, david evans.

What’s the latest in international economic development research? Last weekend was the North East Universities Development Consortium annual conference , often called NEUDC. With more than 135 papers presented (and almost all of them available for download ), it’s a great way to see recent trends in the international development research by economists and to learn about new findings.

The studies come from all over the world, as you can see in Figure 1 below. Just like last year , the plurality of studies take place in India (30 studies). Kenya is next (12), then Bangladesh (8), Brazil (7), China (7), and Indonesia (7). More than 40 countries are represented overall, from almost all regions of the world.

Figure 1: Where are recent development economics studies focused?

Source: This map draws on a sample of 139 studies from the NEUDC 2022 conference. Studies that covered more than three countries (often broad global or regional analyses) were excluded.

Researchers draw on a wide range of empirical methods. Nearly a third of studies reported on the results of a randomized controlled trial (43 studies). Other commonly used methods include difference-in-differences, fixed effects, and instrumental variables.

Figure 2: What empirical methods do recent development economics papers used?

Source: This chart draws on a sample of 139 studies from the NEUDC 2022 conference. Some studies used more than one method.

Below, we provide a quick takeaway from every paper in the conference for which we could find a digital copy. As you read our takeaways, keep the following in mind. First, we can’t capture all the nuance of a paper in a couple of lines. Second, our takeaway may not be the authors’ takeaway. Third, some of the papers are marked as preliminary and not ready for formal citation (you can see which if you follow the paper links). Fourth, we largely take the findings of these papers at face value: most have not yet been through peer review, so feel free to dig into the data and analysis to decide how confident you are in the results.

Our takeways are sorted by topic. If your principal interest is in a country or region, you can also read the takeaways sorted by country . We provide some indication of the empirical method used (for empirical papers) with hashtags at the end of the takeaways. Some papers fit into more than one category: for example, is a paper about the impact of free childcare on mothers’ careers about labor or about gender? It’s about both! In those cases, we’ve repeated studies in multiple sections below so if you’re focused on health, you’ll find all the health-related papers in the health section. The second or third time a paper appears, we put an asterisk after the summary so you can skip it if you’re reading straight through.

Happy learning!

Guide to the methodological hashtags: #DID = Difference-in-differences, #FE = Fixed effects, #IV = Instrumental variables, #LIF = Lab in the field, #PSM = Propensity score matching, #RCT = Randomized controlled trial, #RD = Regression discontinuity, #Other = Other

Households and human capital

Education and Early Childhood Development

·        How critical are family conditions in early years for child development? Better weather (which means more agricultural income and better nutrition) at age 2 in Indonesia leads to higher adult cognitive ability. When households face hard times at earlier ages, they compensate with prolonged breastfeeding. ( Webb ) #FE

·        Data from Indonesia suggest that parental education and parental income are the main drivers of differences in skills once kids grow up. ( Thomas ) #Other

·        “Many teachers [in India and Bangladesh] underestimate the share of low performers in their classrooms, and...they believe that those students will perform better than they actually do. These results are not driven by less educated, trained, or experienced teachers or explained by biases against female, low-income, or lower caste students.” ( Djaker, Ganimian, and Sabarwal ) #Other

·        A 1985 change in Indian law discouraging the payment of dowries led to a 24 percent drop in dowry payments, but it also led to an 18 percent reduction in girls' education attainment (with no impact on boys' education). ( Jha ) #DID

·        Providing information about a learning app in Bangladesh didn't lead more people to use it, but it did lead some parents to arrange more tutoring, resulting in "lasting math learning gains, concentrated among richer households." ( Beam, Mukherjee, and Navarro-Sola ) #RCT

·        Students in Kenya often apply to secondary schools with little information about the available schools. Providing information to students "led them to apply to" schools that were closer to home "without compromising school quality." Adding parents to those information meetings "led students to enroll in lower cost schools." ( Bonds ) #RCT

·        Among students in 9th grade in India, student test scores rose similarly whether they were exposed to "rigidly defined remedial lessons that take time away from the curriculum" and "teacher determined remedial lessons," which allow teachers more flexibility. ( Beg et al. ) #RCT

·        Parental aspirations for their children matter, but they may not be enough on their own. “In rural Gambia, families with high aspirations for their children’s future education and career, measured before children start school, go on to invest substantially more than other families in the early years of their children’s education. Despite this, essentially no children are literate or numerate three years later. When villages receive a highly-impactful, teacher-focused supply-side intervention, however, children of these families are 25 percent more likely to achieve literacy and numeracy than other children in the same village.” ( Eble and Escueta ) #RCT

·        A ten day increase in the overlap between school days and peak farming periods in Malawi translates to children losing about a third of a year of schooling. ( Allen ) #IV

·        Eliminating school fees for secondary school in Tanzania led not only to increased secondary school enrollments; it also increased primary school pass rates. ( Sandholtz ) #DID

·        Indonesia's major school construction program from the 1970s led to eight percent overall higher national output forty years later, and much of that comes through migration from rural to urban areas. ( Hsiao ) #DID

·        Phone call tutorials during COVID-19 were effective at boosting learning in India, Kenya, Nepal, Philippines, and Uganda, whether implemented by government teachers or non-government organization instructors. ( Angrist et al. ) #RCT

·        An affirmative action policy in Brazil was effective at redistributing university spots to low-income students, with little drop in average achievement. "The policy also reduced the gap in applications to selective majors" between poor and rich students by more than 50 percent, but note that those are applications: many of those major-choice changes were among students unlikely to be accepted into a highly selective major. The policy worked, but it could work even better. ( Melo ) #DID

·        Peru shut down a bunch of low-quality universities in 2015. Graduates from surviving universities experienced an increase in wages and higher employment rates. ( Vivar, Flor-Toro, and Magnaricotte ) #DID

·        An influx of Syrian refugees in Jordan reduced school enrollment among Jordanians, particularly boys and kids with less-educated parents. More young Jordanians went to work instead. ( Almuhaisen ) #DID

·        An edutainment program in Bangladeshi schools to trace school-to-home transmission of handwashing find that children are induced to wash more at school but less at home, yielding a net negative effect of the program ( Hussam and Oh ) #RCT

·        Removing English language study from pubic primary schools in West Bengal, India, increased private school enrollment and---for those still in public schools---increased private tutoring among the richest households. ( Nandwani and Sen ) #FE

·        In utero exposure to high ocean salinity levels (induced by climate change) reduces a child’s height-for-age z-score in Bangladesh, and increased prevalence of stunting and severe stunting due to nutritional deficiencies by age five. ( Guimbeau et al. ) #FE

·        In Indonesia, “remittances increase household consumption, reduce poverty, and stimulate growth. Households send more children to school, and district governments increase public schools at the primary and junior secondary levels.” ( Hilmy ) #FE

·        The tariff reduction from the U.S-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement decreased school attendance and increased children’s work, mainly in non-wage and household business jobs. Effects were stronger for boys, older children and households where the head had little education. ( Nguyen ) #DID

·        Giving a widely known award "to top performers on a mandatory nationwide exam in Colombia" boosts their earnings by between 7 and 12 percent, and the effect endures for 5 years after graduation. It helps students graduating from low-reputation colleges the most. ( Busso, Montaño, Muñoz-Morales ) #RD

Health (including mental health)

·        A national vaccine program in Burkina Faso in 1984 boosted the country’s child vaccination rate (against measles, yellow fever, and meningitis) from 17 percent to 77 percent in a few months. Child mortality fell, primary school completion rose, and—when the children reached adulthood—employment and agricultural productivity rose. ( Daramola et al. ) #DID

·        School-based deworming in western Kenya—nearly a quarter of a century later—reduced under-5 mortality of the beneficiaries’ children by 24 percent! ( Walker et al. ) #RCT

·        In Ecuador, letting employees use work time to get a flu vaccine boosted vaccination rates, but employees got sick about as much. Why? Some evidence suggests that employees engaged in “riskier health behaviors after getting vaccinated.” ( Hoffman, Mosquera, and Chadi ) #RCT

·        In Kenya, “both patient subsidies and pharmacy incentives for diagnostic testing significantly increase usage of testing and may encourage malaria positive individuals to purchase high quality antimalarials.” ( Dieci ) #RCT

·        Women who were babies in utero during a cholera epidemic in Peru in the 1990s were nearly 20 percent more likely to die of COVID-19. ( Ritter and Sanchez ) #DID

·        After four years of using iron and iodine fortified salt in school lunches in India, children have lower likelihood of anemia, higher hemoglobin levels, but no differences in cognitive or educational outcomes. ( Grafenstein et al. ) #RCT

·        Gold mining in the Philippines created new bodies of stagnant water, which boosted malaria cases by nearly a third (relative to provinces without gold deposits). ( Pagel ) #DID

·        Giving households a flyer about mobile health services in rural Bangladesh didn't get them to use it more, but offering to save the access numbers in the participants' phone boosted take-up by 22 percent in the succeeding 2 months and reduced health expenditure, since households were less likely to go to "informal providers who usually overprescribe medicines." ( Sardar ) #RCT

·        A drug procurement program in China "brought down the prices of 10 chronic condition drugs by an average of 78" percent. As a result, "drug adherence was improved for the uninsured who had poorer adherence" before the price reduction. ( He and Yang ) #DID

·        In Dakar, Senegal, it can be hard to find someone to desludge your septic pit. Providing subsidies to use a government run call center to connect households with desludgers increases use, and that use continues for a while after the subsidies end. Later, a city-wide subsidy increased adoption most in those communities that had received subsidies earlier. ( Deutschmann ) #RCT

·        How critical are family conditions in early years for child development? Better weather (which means more agricultural income and better nutrition) at age 2 in Indonesia leads to higher adult cognitive ability. When households face hard times at earlier ages, they compensate with prolonged breastfeeding. ( Webb ) #FE *

Fertility and family planning

·        "Learning about government mistreatment of citizens undermines trust in institutions. In Perú, “disclosure of information about illegal sterilization reduced usage of contraceptive methods, prenatal and delivery services, and the demand for medical services, resulting in worsened child health."" ( León-Ciliotta, Zejcirovic, and Fernandez ) #DID

·        During the colonial period in the Congo, greater exposure to Catholic nuns increased women’s fertility (as opposed to exposure to Protestant or male Catholic missionaries). Catholic nuns likely promoted the image of an ideal Christian woman which explains the results. ( Guirkinger and Villar ) #DID

Households and marriage

·        Households in Bangladesh reduced their monthly residential electricity use by 15.8 percent (≈37 kWh) when they switched from postpaid electricity metering system to prepaid metering. ( Das ) #IV

·        A new method to infer causal effects on choices that exploits relationships between choices and hypothetical evaluations “can recover treatment effects even if the treatment is assigned endogenously and standard estimation methods are poorly suited, or if the treatment does not vary.” ( Bernheim, et al. ) #Other

·        In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 73 percent of households provided with access to childcare centers use them.  Both parents “increase their engagement in commercial activities, leading to gains in agricultural productivity, household income and women’s subjective well-being." Women reported increases in their concentration and sense of control.  Using the centers also led to  significant gains in early childhood development outcomes, particularly for younger children.  ( Donald and Vaillant ) #RCT

·        Can commitment-saving ahead of a lean season alter consumption downfalls among the ultra-poor? In Bangladesh, a temporary savings subsidy doubled formal savings, and resulted in increased food and non-food expenditure by 8.6-12.6 percent during the lean season, with no lasting post-lean season impact. ( Takahashi et al. ) #RCT

·        An “edutainment” intervention designed to reduce child marriage in rural Pakistan, significantly reduces marriage of girl adolescents. Targeting men alone reduced child marriage in sample households, while targeting women or men & women jointly reduces child marriage at the village level. ( Cassidy et al. ) #RCT

·        In Kenya, workshops and couples’ therapy sessions to decrease alcohol consumption lowered prevalence of sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) by 0.21 standard deviations, with smaller or no effects on physical and emotional IPV. ( Castilla, Aqeel, and Murphy ) #RCT

Migration and refugees

·        Can temporary foreign work permits “throttle human smugglers’ businesses? “Combining internal and external controls with a regulated market for temporary visas alleviates the policy trade-off between migration control and ending human smuggling.” Data from migration between Senegal & Spain and the Democratic Republic of the Congo & South Africa. ( Auriol, Mesnard, and Perrault ) #Other

·        Massive exodus of Venezuelans in Colombia had a larger negative effect on the lower tail of the natives’ wage distribution, increasing inequality in the host economy. Due to formal restrictions, immigrants ended up working in more routine and low-paying jobs. “A large-scale amnesty program reduced the magnitude of downgrading, mitigating the unequalizing impact of the exodus.” ( Lombardo et al. ) #IV

·        In Mexico, children in households with return migrants (from the U.S.) “benefit from an increase in school attendance and a decrease in the probability of schooling delay relative to children in non-migrant households.” However, females in return migrant households are likely to complete a lower grade relative to non-migrant households. ( Chakraborty, Bucheli, and Fontenla ) #IV

·        An evaluation of a large-scale migration loan program in Bangladesh revealed that capacity constraints at scale lead effort to be directed toward those already planning to migrate without a loan. ( Mitchell et al. ) #RCT

·        A Zambian fertilizer subsidy program led to “some households to intensify their agricultural activity, and others to out-migrate.” The subsidy increased the share of households with outmigrants by 40 percentage points and doubled the number of outmigrants net of in-migrants. ( Diop ) #DID

·        Clearance of slums in Santiago, Chile, and families’ relocation to public housing in low-income areas led to displaced children having 10 percent lower earnings and 0.5 fewer years of education as adults than non-displaced. ( Rojas-Ampuero and Carrera ) #FE

·        In refugee camps and surrounding communities in Uganda and Kenya, refugee children can be up to three times more likely to be poor than adults. Child’s age, household composition, and access to sanitation and clean water, predict child poverty in refugee settlements well, often better than per-capita household expenditure. ( Beltramo et al. ) #ML

·        In Indonesia, “remittances increase household consumption, reduce poverty, and stimulate growth. Households send more children to school, and district governments increase public schools at the primary and junior secondary levels.” ( Hilmy ) #FE *

·        During WWII, nine ethnic groups were entirely deported from the Soviet Union to Central Asia. In the 50s, five returned to their former homeland, while the other four remained marginalized in internal exile. Locals in host regions had significantly higher levels of education two generations later. “A strong positive effect on higher education is found among returnees to origin regions, suggesting that these ethnic groups hedged against further negative shocks.” ( Zimmermann ) #IV

·        An influx of Syrian refugees in Jordan reduced school enrollment among Jordanians, particularly boys and kids with less-educated parents. More young Jordanians went to work instead. ( Almuhaisen ) #DID *

·        Pairing employers in Uganda with a refugee and providing an incentive to offer a free internship to that refugee "improves employers’ beliefs about refugees’ skills, but it does not change their willingness to hire new refugees," but certain types of matches (depending on employer and refugee characteristics) do result in more refugee hires. ( Loiacono and Silva-Vargas ) #RCT

·        In India, Hindu women are subject to caste “purity” norms, while Adivasi, or Indigenous, women are not. “Having more Adivasi neighbors leads to: (i) higher rates of Hindu women’s paid work and lower perceived stigma of such work; and (ii) lesser adherence to a range of purity norms, including the practice of untouchability towards Adivasis.” ( Agte and Bernhardt ) #FE

·        Does free childcare improve mothers’ careers? Yes. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, mothers in sub-districts with above median childcare availability have a persistent increase of 8 percent in earnings, driven by 1 percentage point higher labor force participation and 4 percent longer hours. ( Garcia, Latham-Proença, and Mello ) #FE

·        Can cash transfers influence gender roles? In Chad, cash transfers increased women’s business profits (0.6 SD) as well as marital separation. The program also “led to large improvements (0.3-0.7 SD) in a broad set of women’s subjective well-being, including self-efficacy, depressive symptoms, and perceived social status.” ( Kandpal, Schnitzer, and Dayé ) #RD

·        In Nigeria, women prefer to defer budget allocation decisions to their husband even when deferral is costly and is not observed by the husband; the reverse is true for husbands. A randomized cash transfer receipt increases women’s demand for agency: if the decision is hidden from the husband, women want to make their own budget decisions, even if it is the same as their husband’s. ( Bakhtiar et al. ) #LIF

·        Showing teachers in Pakistan a pro-women’s rights award-winning movie (the 2011 film Bol) increased their own and students’ support for women’s rights, being unbiased in gender Implicit Association Tests, and willingness to petition parliament for greater gender equality. ( Mehmood, Naseer, and Chen ) #RCT

·        Profiles for women who signal on an online Indian matchmaking site that they want to work after marriage receive up to 22 percent less interest from men than those of women who have never worked. Women willing to give up work after marriage face a lower penalty. ( Dhar ) #RCT

·        In Chile, informing outstanding students in mathematics and science about their relative performance and presenting STEM majors as a feasible option, led to women applying more, but only in health-related majors, and not in STEM majors. ( Ramirez-Espinosa ) #RCT

·        In Brazil, union bargaining that prioritized women’s needs increased female-centric amenities (like longer maternity leave with job protection) at work. These led to women queueing for jobs at treated establishments and separating from them less, which are both indicators of firm value. ( Corradini, Lagos, and Sharma ) #DID

·        While both gender barriers to occupational choices and wage penalties persist across countries, the “reduction in wage gaps between 1980-2000 was primarily driven by economic channels while the more recent decline between 2000-2015 was driven by changes in gender barriers.” ( Chiplunkar and Kleineberg ) #Other

·        “A program targeting ultra-poor women in Uganda” paired “business and entrepreneurship skills development with psychological empowerment.” It increased profits by 105 percent. ( Lang and Seither ) #RCT

·        Expansion of the coffee mills in Rwanda led to increased “women’s paid employment, women’s and their husbands’ earnings and decreases domestic violence.” Decline in violence is driven by women’s increased bargaining power and their contribution to household earnings, not exposure reduction between couples. ( Sanin ) #DID

·        Sharing a hyperlocal digital job search platform with couples as well as the wives' social networks in Delhi, India, increased husband's labor market outcomes (including working hours and total earnings), but only home-based self-employment among the women, potentially due to social norms. ( Afridi et al. ) #RCT

·        New data from more than 90 countries demonstrates three things: (1) the shift out of agriculture that happens as countries grow richer is driven by whole households (not just individuals within households), (2) "in the poorest countries, the gap between female and male market employment is only large for married urban women," and (3) "countries where employment rates of urban married women are low relative to their rural counterparts also see low urbanization rates of married men." ( Doss et al. ) #Other

·        In Kenya, workshops and couples’ therapy sessions to decrease alcohol consumption lowered prevalence of sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) by 0.21 standard deviations, with smaller or no effects on physical and emotional IPV. ( Castilla, Aqeel, and Murphy ) #RCT *

·        A 1985 change in Indian law discouraging the payment of dowries led to a 24 percent drop in dowry payments, but it also led to an 18 percent reduction in girls' education attainment (with no impact on boys' education). ( Jha ) #DID *

Working and saving

Banking and credit

·        In India "delinquent borrowers who are offered a debt moratorium by their lender are 4 percentage points (6.9 percent) less likely to default on their loan, while forbearance has no effect on repayment if it is granted by the regulator.” ( Fiorin, Hall, and Kanz ) #RCT

·        What are the household welfare gains from financial inclusion? Applying a new approach using demand estimates from three RCTs (on retirement savings in the United States, commitment savings in the Philippines, and microfinance in Mexico) , welfare gains per dollar lent or saved are small as compensated demand elasticities are large, but still correspond to large aggregate welfare gains from financial inclusion. ( Loeser ) #Other

·        In Ghana, microenterprises receiving joint liability loans reported higher profits six to ten months after borrowing. Effects are driven by borrowers whose applications were not endorsed by political party operatives. ( Boso, Burlando, and Abdul-Rahaman ) #FE

·        A self-help group lending program in rural Bihar, India, “significantly improved risk-sharing in regions where the program had greater institutional capacity and was better implemented.” ( Attanasio et al. ) #FE #IV

·        In Kenya, “performance-contingent microfinance contracts can encourage investment and increase profits – and, as a result, increase household consumption.” ( Cordaro et al. ) #RCT

·        In India, “plants exposed to banking shocks redistribute this liquidity through the supply chain. As a result, firms extending trade credit can increase their own sales as their customers are able to purchase on credit. Downstream firms are able to increase their own sales, employment, and productivity.” ( Chakraborty et al. ) #DID

·        In India, “risk pooling creates a distortion in consumption such that food consumption is better protected from aggregate village shocks than nonfood consumption.” ( Fafchamps and Shrinivas ) #Other

Cash transfers

·        Can cash transfers influence gender roles? In Chad, cash transfers increased women’s business profits (0.6 SD), and marital separation. The program also “led to large improvements (0.3-0.7 SD) in a broad set of women’s subjective well-being, including self-efficacy, depressive symptoms, and perceived social status.” ( Kandpal, Schnitzer, and Dayé ) #RD *

Firms and microenterprises

·        In India, “larger cultural proximity [by way of caste and religion] between a pair of firms reduces prices and fosters trade at both the intensive and extensive margins.” ( Fujiy, Khanna, and Toma ) #FE

·        After close elections in India, entrepreneurs from the same social group as the winning candidate are more likely to start businesses. ( Bhalla et al. ) #FE

·        Politically connected firms in India were more likely to get access to short-term credit from banks and to be able to delay short-term payments to suppliers and creditors during the surprise demonetization of 2016. ( Chen et al. ) #Other

·        Variation of COVID lockdowns over time and across parts of India reveal that inputs delivered by suppliers within the same industry are complements (rather than substitutes), which means that "shocks propagate through supply chains," increasing the shock to overall GDP. ( Fujiy, Ghose, and Khanna ) #FE

·        "Starting in 1997, India dismantled its policy of product reservation whereby hundreds of products had been reserved for exclusive production by small firms." The effect? "entry in the downstream product market increases with no observable decline in quality of entrants." ( Rastogi ) #Other

·        Inviting Zambian farmers to participate in a simple budgeting exercise (i.e., think through their budget and formulate a spending plan) increased how much they expected to spend for the coming year by 20-60 percent and lowered their willingness to pay for a nonessential item of clothing by 34 percent. By the end of the year, farmers decreased their expenditures by 15 percent and ended up with one additional month of savings. ( Augenblick et al. ) #RCT

·        A new way to measure productivity of retailers in low- or middle-income countries captures their three-fold need to attract customers, manage a storefront, and maintain inventory across many products. In Malawi, "the three dimensions of productivity are correlated with one another" but not perfectly, so that a training that focuses on just one may fail to boost overall productivity. ( Huntington ) #Other

·        In Mexico, a rise in gas prices led to an increase in mom-and-pop shops but "their average size and quality fell." ( Ramos-Menchelli and Sverdlin-Lisker ) #IV

·        Waiving competitive bidding for small-value purchases in Brazil led to 23 percent more expensive purchased products. At least half of this overpricing is explained by discretion allowing agencies to purchase higher-quality products. ( Fazio ) #FE

·        “A program targeting ultra-poor women in Uganda” paired “business and entrepreneurship skills development with psychological empowerment.” It increased profits by 105 percent. ( Lang and Seither ) #RCT *

Labor (including child labor)

·        A late 1990s labor market reform in China led to tens of millions of layoffs in a short period. That led to a drop in employment for workers who did not finish high school—by 20 percent in the industrial sector—and a 5 percent increase in the high school completion rate. ( Zhao ) #DID

·        “A 2014 Bolivian law that recognized the work of children as young as 10 years old, whose age placed them below the minimum working age of 14 years old, enabling them to legally work (subject to a work permit) while simultaneously extending benefits and protections to child workers” (such as adult minimum wages) actually decreased work for children under 14. ( Lakdawala, Martínez Heredia, and Vera-Cossio ) #Other

·        A federal policy that set minimum fares for drivers of motorcycle taxis on a ridesharing app in Indonesia led to higher trip prices but not driver earnings, both because more drivers signed on for any given day AND drivers logged onto the app for more hours, meaning that each driver got fewer rides. ( Nakamura and Siregar ) #DID #SC

·        Providing mentorship to vocational students in Uganda to help with their training-to-work transition increased their likelihood of working a few months later by more than a quarter and also boosted their incomes after a year. Why? It's mostly through info about how the entry-level job market works (not through referrals): As a result, mentored youth "turn down fewer job offers." ( Alfonsi, Namubiru, and Spaziani ) #RCT

·        College students in Mumbai, India, were less likely to share information about jobs if they knew they'd have to compete for them, and the men in particular tended not to share the information with the peers they viewed as having high abilities. ( Chiplunkar, Kelley, and Lane ) #RCT

·        Why do "workers in richer countries experience faster rates of wage growth over their lifetimes than workers in poorer countries"? Cross-country data suggest that workers in rich countries received more training from the firms they work for, and that this is a major component of workers' skills. "Firm-provided training accounts for 38% of cross-country wage growth differences." ( Ma, Nakab, Vidart ) #Other

·        Many interventions help workers with job searches. Doing that without increasing the number of jobs could limit the effectiveness of those interventions. On the other hand, "making it easier for firms to find qualified workers could reduce the cost of hiring" and generate more jobs. With an intervention to subsidize job searches for people in Ethiopia, the lack of jobs ends up limiting the effectiveness. ( Van Vuren ) #RCT

·        A survey in Accra, Ghana, showed that lots of job vacancies were not widely circulated, and---as a result---many employers are unable to find qualified workers during six months. But publishing detailed advertisements on a state-operated online portal increases both the likelihood of finding workers and of those workers being suitable for the jobs. ( Lambon-Quayefio et al. ) #RCT

·        The timing of when auctions for public procurement contracts end in Brazil is random, which permits comparison of winners and runners-up. "Winning a government contract increases wages." ( Carvalho, Galindo da Fonseca, and Santarrosa ) #IV

·        In rural Kenya, a “future orientation” workshop that teaches participants techniques to imagine a positive future, lay out concrete short-term steps to achieve their vision, and plan for obstacles, lifted aspirations and expectations. It led to increased labour supply and spending on productive inputs. The “intervention is at least twice as cost-effective as an (unconditional) cash transfer.” ( Orkin et al. ) #RCT

·        Peru shut down a bunch of low-quality universities in 2015. Graduates from surviving universities experienced an increase in wages and higher employment rates. ( Vivar, Flor-Toro, and Magnaricotte ) #DID *

·        Does free childcare improve mothers’ careers? Yes. In Sao Paulo, mothers in sub-districts with above median childcare availability have a persistent increase of 8 percent in earnings, driven by 1 percentage point higher labor force participation and 4 percent longer hours. ( Garcia, Latham-Proença, and Mello ) #FE *

·        Can temporary foreign work permits “throttle human smugglers’ businesses? “Combining internal and external controls with a regulated market for temporary visas alleviates the policy trade-off between migration control and ending human smuggling.” Data from migration between Senegal & Spain and the Democratic Republic of the Congo & South Africa. ( Auriol, Mesnard, and Perrault ) #Other *

·        Pairing employers in Uganda with a refugee and providing an incentive to offer a free internship to that refugee "improves employers’ beliefs about refugees’ skills, but it does not change their willingness to hire new refugees," but certain types of matches (depending on employer and refugee characteristics) do result in more refugee hires. ( Loiacono and Silva-Vargas ) #RCT *

·        Expansion of the coffee mills in Rwanda led to increased “women’s paid employment, women’s and their husbands’ earnings and decreases domestic violence.” Decline in violence is driven by women’s increased bargaining power and their contribution to household earnings, not exposure reduction between couples. ( Sanin ) #DID *

·        Sharing a hyperlocal digital job search platform with couples as well as the wives' social networks in Delhi, India, increased husband's labor market outcomes (including working hours and total earnings), but only home-based self-employment among the women, potentially due to social norms. ( Afridi et al. ) #RCT *

·        Giving a widely known award "to top performers on a mandatory nationwide exam in Colombia" boosts their earnings by between 7 and 12 percent, and the effect endures for 5 years after graduation. It helps students graduating from low-reputation colleges the most. ( Busso, Montaño, Muñoz-Morales ) #RD *

·        New data from more than 90 countries demonstrates three things: (1) the shift out of agriculture that happens as countries grow richer is driven by whole households (not just individuals within households), (2) "in the poorest countries, the gap between female and male market employment is only large for married urban women," and (3) "countries where employment rates of urban married women are low relative to their rural counterparts also see low urbanization rates of married men." ( Doss et al. ) #Other *

Poverty Measurement

·        Poverty is often measured using annual income. But using monthly data from India shows that “experiences of poverty are substantially more common than annual measures suggest; entry into and exit from poverty are much less clear than typically assumed;” and the use of monthly poverty measures “is a stronger predictor of development outcomes – child weight and height – than conventional” annual measures. ( Merfeld and Morduch ) #Other

·        Are poverty lines real? This study articulates social and theoretical underpinnings for such a distinction between the poor and the nonpoor. ( Dutta et al. )

·        Many social programs identify their beneficiaries collaboratively with multiple community members together. Comparing the judgments that the same individuals make about who to target when they’re deciding collaboratively versus individually in Indonesia suggests that gains from collaborative targeting are negligible. “These results suggest that policymakers should think carefully before asking community members to invest valuable time in participating in [community-based targeting] exercises.” ( Trachtman ) #Other

Governments, institutions, and conflict

Conflict and crime

·        A national-level electoral reform in Mexico that increased politicians’ cost of accepting bribes decreased the number of suspicious financial reports by around 4 percent ( ∼ 650 fewer reports), while the number of attacks by violent groups increased by approximately 2 percent ( ∼ 44 more attacks), in places with the presence of criminal organizations. ( Rámon Enríquez ) #DID

·        How does ethnic violence and subsequent segregation shape children’s lives? In India, Muslims perform better in cities that were more susceptible to (Hindu) communal violence in terms of early education outcomes. ( Kalra ) #PSM

·        In India, judges are more likely to convict offenders in cases of sexual crimes (excluding rape) if they are exposed to more media coverage about sexual crimes that are unrelated to the case on trial. A central mechanism behind this result is heightened judicial scrutiny in response to greater media coverage. ( Vasishth ) #DID

·        During WWII, nine ethnic groups were entirely deported from the Soviet Union to Central Asia. In the 50s, five returned to their former homeland, while the other four remained marginalized in internal exile. Locals in host regions had significantly higher levels of education two generations later. “A strong positive effect on higher education is found among returnees to origin regions, suggesting that these ethnic groups hedged against further negative shocks.” ( Zimmermann ) #IV *

·        In Colombia, close family connections in the public administration are pervasive and they weaken performance. “Connected bureaucrats receive higher salaries and are more likely to be hierarchically promoted but are negatively selected in terms of public sector experience, education, and records of misconduct.” A 2015 anti-nepotism legislation had limited effectiveness. ( Riaño ) #RCT

·        In China, after a high-profile corruption inspection, labor “strikes experienced a twofold increase within six months and a threefold increase in two years.” ( Chen ) #Other

·        Reducing corruption in China "induces positive selection for integrity and public-mindedness into the state sector, which remains present even when conditioning on ability and family background." ( Hong ) #DID

·        Do autocrats favor their supporters during economic shocks? The Maduro regime was more likely to exempt regime-supporting regions affected by the Venezuelan blackout from later power rationing. In Sub-Saharan Africa, “droughts magnify differences in development, protests and state-coercion outcomes in favor of leaders’ home regions.” ( Morales-Arilla ) #FE

·        In Brazil, a 1 percentage point increase in the share of Pentecostals increased Evangelical and far-right candidates’ vote share by 18 percent and 16 percent, respectively. These effects are larger in municipalities with less educated, poorer, and more rural populations. ( Solá Cámpora ) #DID

·        During a social media ban at the climax of the Uganda 2021 election campaign, those maintaining access through the use of virtual private networks (VPNs)—who are more likely to be opposition partisans—came to view the dominant National Resistance Mmovement party relatively positively. This is driven by an increase in pro-NRM social media content during the ban. ( Bowles, Marshall, and Raffler ) #DID

Taxes and subsidies

·        Simulations suggest that removing subsidies for electric vehicles in China would raise the effective marginal costs of vehicle production, reducing total welfare by 7.4 billion yuan (RMB) per quarter, amounting to 13.9 percent of the total subsidy expenditure. ( Kwon ) #IV

·        In South Africa, "firms with paid tax practitioners exhibit sharper bunching, driven primarily by a lower lumpiness parameter rather than by a different income elasticity." ( Anagol et al. ) #Other

·        In Liberia, creating a new property database and including identifying information from it (the name of the owner and a property photograph) in tax bills more than quadruples the tax payment rate, from 2 percent to almost 10 percent, when the notice also includes details on the penalties for noncompliance. Compliance goes up even more when the tax bill warns delinquent property owners that they’re in the “next batch” of properties designated for “intensive follow-up.” ( Okunogbe ) #RCT

·        An increase in the subsidy for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in India leads to a surprising decrease in LNG purchases by poor households. Why? The subsidy goes up when the market price rises—i.e., the government keeps the price to consumers stable—but consumers only receive the subsidy as a refund a few days after they purchase the LNG, and “poor households may find it difficult to pay the higher unsubsidized price upfront.” ( Afridi, Barnwal, and Sarkar ) #FE

Regulation and government

·        In Argentina, “serving in the military leads to stronger national identity and openness to fellow countrymen several decades after serving.” ( Ronconi and Ramos-Toro ) #FE

·        In Pakistan, policymakers who received a special training in econometrics are twice as likely to actually choose policies for which there is evidence from randomized controlled trials. They triple the funding for those same policies. ( Mehmood, Naseer, and Chen ) #RCT

·        In Brazil, state judges with higher grades on admission examinations perform better than their lower-ranked peers. ( Dahis, Schiavon, and Scot ) #FE

·        In India, improving the maintenance of fee-funded community toilets improved delivery and reduced free riding, but excludes a share of residents from using the service. ( Armand et al. ) #RCT

·        In, Kenya’s nationwide electrification program, imposing audits improved network size, voltage, household connectivity, and electricity usage at African Development Bank (AfDB) sites. (World Bank sites already had lots of inspections, so random audits didn’t affect those.) The World Bank’s procedures delayed construction at the average site by 9.6 months relative to AfDB sites but improved construction quality by 0.6 standard deviations. ( Wolfram et al. ) #RCT

·        In Bihar, India, instituting a complaint filing system for politicians who run into bureaucratic obstacles in the implementation of their projects led to a 26 percent rise in the implementation of public projects in constituencies run by low-caste local politicians. ( Kumar and Sharan ) #RCT

·        Informing government agents about illegal (gold) mining in Colombia, reduced illegal mining by 11 percent in the disclosed locations and surrounding areas. ( Saavedra ) #ML

·        In India, switching the approving authority of economic development projects that require forest diversion from central to state government “leads to a modestly adverse impact on forest conservation while approving lower quality development work.” ( Chiplunkar and Das ) #DID

·        When two districts in India share groundwater resources, extraction is more likely to be unsustainable and districts are more likely to have defunct wells. ( Bhogale and Khedgikar ) #DID

Agriculture, infrastructure, and the environment

Agriculture and land

·        In Mozambique, contract farming has spillover effects: “both contracted farmers and non-contracted farmers from villages with contracted farmers earn approximately 11 percent more in price per kilogram of maize” than farmers in areas without contract farming. ( Ingram ) #FE

·        The vanilla price boom in Madagascar led to increased asset accumulation and higher informal savings, improved performance on cognitive tests, well-being, and optimism. There were positive effects for smallholder vanilla farmers, but without spillover benefits on non-producing households. ( Boone, Kaila, and Sahn ) #FE

·        In Rwanda, using text messages to remind agricultural extension workers of their self-set goals increased their performance by 0.08 SD. ( Abel et al. ) #RCT

·        How do rural marketplaces shape local development? In Kenya, “while rural population quadrupled, two thirds of weekly markets operating in 1970 no longer do so today.” Population concentrated around markets that were active in 1970, and markets further from large cities saw the most population concentration. ( von Carnap ) #FE

·        If you rely on farmer reports on what seeds they’re using in Ethiopia, you’ll see apparently small, negative returns to using new seed varieties. But that’s because farmers are including “older and genetically diluted varieties, for which” they “may be paying a premium.” If you just look at seed varieties with “higher-purity germplasm, drought-tolerant maize, and newly released varieties,” you do see positive returns. ( Michuda et al. ) #Other

·        How much is one farmer in Uganda willing to pay for their neighbor to use a pest-control technology? A “novel incentive-compatible elicitation mechanism” finds that “a farmer’s willingness-to-pay for one other farmer [to use the technology] is equal to two days’ wage on average, about half the willingness-to-pay for self.” ( Lerva ) #RCT

·        Maybe farmers don’t train their workers in modern planting technologies because they know they won’t get all the benefits of that training: the workers may go and use it somewhere else. In Burundi, providing a contract that guaranteed farmers the benefit from training their workers increased farmers’ willingness to train their workers by about 90 percentage points! ( Cefala et al. ) #RCT

·        In Odisha, India, villages with more variation in castes have lower adoption of flood-resistant seeds. Adoption is more likely to spread within castes and less likely to spread to castes with lower status. ( de Janvry, Rao, and Sadoulet ) #RCT

·        In India, bureaucrats who are assigned to their home states decrease protests or riots in opposition to land acquisition projects by 9-12 percent. ( Tóth ) #DID #RD

·        Lake Chad shrunk by 90 percent between the 1960s and the late 1980s: the reduced water supply had negative effects for neighboring communities in Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger—25 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s population—on fishing, in addition to farming and herding which outweighed any positive land supply effects. ( Jedwab et al. ) #DID

Climate and pollution

·        Lake Chad shrunk by 90 percent between the 1960s and the late 1980s: the reduced water supply had negative effects for neighboring communities in Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger—25 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s population—on fishing, in addition to farming and herding which outweighed any positive land supply effects. ( Jedwab et al. ) #DID *

·        Households from heavily damaged communities in Indonesia after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami saw a 75 percent decline in real wealth immediately after the tsunami. The large adverse effects persisted 10 years after the tsunami. ( Lombardo et al.) #FE

·        In India and Pakistan, the incidence of fires from crop burning drops by 10 percent when air pollution is likely to be borne by the bureaucrats’ own constituents. “Reduction in fires is present or larger when bureaucrats can better monitor (due to road proximity) or manage fires (due to changes in experience during a turnover), and when they have incentives to act (e.g., when pollution is most visible).” ( Dipoppa and Gulzar ) #DID

·        In utero exposure to high ocean salinity levels (induced by climate change) reduces a child’s height-for-age z-score in Bangladesh, and increased prevalence of stunting and severe stunting due to nutritional deficiencies by age five. ( Guimbeau et al. ) #FE *

Infrastructure

·        In Kenya and Ethiopia, the “impact of bundled road and electricity investments on reducing the sectoral employment share in agriculture is … 2.5 times larger than the impact of roads alone.” ( Dappe and Lebrand ) #FE #IV

·        Aerial bundled cables (an infrastructure improvement) in Karachi, Pakistan, reduced utility losses and increased revenue recovery, with the greatest gains in the worst-performing areas pre-intervention. Gains come via two channels: the formalization of customers previously informally (illegally) connected and the improvement in payment behaviors among existing, formal consumers. ( Ahmad et al. ) #DID

·        A large-scale roll-out of electric transmission infrastructure in Nigeria from 2009 to 2015 increased individuals’ likelihood of migrating by 6 percent and reduced household size by 0.8 individuals, mainly driven by young adults and older teenagers. ( Budjan ) #DID #IV

·        How does transportation infrastructure investment affect spatial inequality of opportunity in Benin, Cameroon, and Mali? “On average only 6 of the top 10 aggregate opportunity-increasing roads also decrease inequality of opportunity.” ( Milsom ) #IV

·        In Dakar, Senegal, it can be hard to find someone to desludge your septic pit. Providing subsidies to use a government run call center to connect households with desludgers increases use, and that use continues for a while after the subsidies end. Later, a city-wide subsidy increased adoption most in those communities that had received subsidies earlier. ( Deutschmann ) #RCT *

Macroeconomics

Growth and inequality

·        Gaining subnational capital status leads to an influx of public investments, an increased population, skilled migration and foreign investments, with positive spillovers to nearby cities. ( Bluhm, Lessmann, and Schaudt ) #FE #DID

·        In China, state-level special economic zones (SEZs)—"geographically delimited areas targeted by governments to implement” policies like tax incentives, government innovation grants, and policies that favor human capital mobility—"have a positive and significant impact on patent output,” but SEZs established at geographic areas smaller than the state don’t have significant impacts. ( Wu, Lu, and Zhao ) #DID

·        Initial foreign direct investment into China “was mainly driven by the Chinese diaspora,” particularly to prefectures in China that members of the diaspora came from. Later, foreign investment that didn’t come from the diaspora was more likely to enter those same prefectures. ( Chen, Xiong, and Zhang ) #DID

·        “Countries are more likely to enter ‘nearby’ industries, i.e., industries that require fewer new occupations.” Also, “countries are more likely to diversify into products that require fewer new inputs,” which means that countries can get stuck on particular paths in their quest toward industrial development, “with certain routes leading to stagnation and others on a pathway to prosperity.” ( Diodato, Hausmann, and Schetter ) #Other

·        “The construction process of many residential buildings in African cities proceeds very slowly and may take over a decade.” Data from Nairobi plus a new theoretical model suggest that “improvements in credit provision can (a) substantially speed up the expansion of the aggregate housing stock which facilitates rural-urban migration, and (b) increase the city’s density by enabling the construction of taller buildings.” ( Gomtsyan ) #Other

·        Giving information about market prices and official border costs to traders in Kenya increases switches across markets and routes, leading to a large improvement in traders’ profits and significant formalization of trade. ( Wiseman ) #RCT

·        Can temporary trade disruptions lead to a persistent change in domestic trade? Yes. In India, COVID-19 induced lockdowns led to a collapse in trade across states, driven by plants reorienting “trade towards their home states to ... insure against any future disruptions.” ( Chakrabati, Mahajan, and Tomar ) #DID

·        The 2001 US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement reduced US import tariffs from Vietnam, leading to rapid Vietnamese export growth with “entry responses, driven by foreign and Vietnamese private firms. Entrants—rather than incumbents—drive the tariff-induced employment growth, particularly foreign entrants.” ( McCaig, Pavcnik, and Wong ) #FE

·        The tariff reduction from the U.S-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement decreased school attendance and increased children’s work, mainly in non-wage and household business jobs. Effects were stronger for boys, older children and households where the head had little education. ( Nguyen ) #DID *

·        In India, “larger cultural proximity [by way of caste and religion] between a pair of firms reduces prices and fosters trade at both the intensive and extensive margins.” ( Fujiy, Khanna, and Toma ) #FE *

The order of authors on this blog was determined by a virtual coin flip. This blog post benefited from research assistance from Amina Mendez Acosta .

Get updates from Development Impact

Thank you for choosing to be part of the Development Impact community!

Your subscription is now active. The latest blog posts and blog-related announcements will be delivered directly to your email inbox. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Senior Economist, Education Global Practice

Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development

Join the Conversation

• Share on mail
• comments added

Browse Econ Literature

• Working papers
• Software components
• Book chapters
• JEL classification

More features

• Subscribe to new research

RePEc Biblio

Author registration.

• Economics Virtual Seminar Calendar NEW!

Some searches may not work properly. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Search IDEAS All Articles Papers Chapters Books Software  In: Whole record Abstract Keywords Title Author Sort by: new options Relevance Oldest Most recent Most cited Title alphabet Recently added Recent & relevant Relevant & cited Recent & cited From: Any Year 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1985 1980 1975 1970 1960 1950 1940 1930 1900 1800 1700 To: Any Year 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1985 1980 1975 1970 1960 1950 1940 1930 1900 1800 1700 More advanced search New: sort by citation count and by recently added --> What is IDEAS? IDEAS is the largest bibliographic database dedicated to Economics and available freely on the Internet. Based on RePEc , it indexes over 4,700,000 items of research, including over 4,300,000 that can be downloaded in full text. RePEc is a large volunteer effort to enhance the free dissemination of research in Economics which includes bibliographic metadata from over 2,000 participating archives , including all the major publishers and research outlets. IDEAS is just one of several services that use RePEc data. For some statistics about the holdings on this site, see here . Authors are invited to register with RePEc to create an online profile. Then, anyone finding some of their research here can find your latest contact details and a listing of their other research. They will also receive a monthly mailing about the popularity of their works, their ranking and newly found citations. How do I find on IDEAS what I am looking for?

More services and features.

Follow serials, authors, keywords & more

Public profiles for Economics researchers

Various research rankings in Economics

RePEc Genealogy

Who was a student of whom, using RePEc

Curated articles & papers on economics topics

Upload your paper to be listed on RePEc and IDEAS

New papers by email

Subscribe to new additions to RePEc

EconAcademics

Blog aggregator for economics research

Cases of plagiarism in Economics

About RePEc

Initiative for open bibliographies in Economics

News about RePEc

Questions about IDEAS and RePEc

RePEc volunteers

Participating archives

Publishers indexing in RePEc

Privacy statement

Corrections.

Found an error or omission?

Opportunities to help RePEc

Get papers listed

Have your research listed on RePEc

Open a RePEc archive

Have your institution's/publisher's output listed on RePEc

Get RePEc data

Use data assembled by RePEc