Ahabyona Derrick

One of the great joys of working on @malengo.org is interacting with our amazing students. Here is a conversation I had with Hillary Turinawe, who is studying Medicine in Bonn, Germany.

(1) banger
(2) i wish non-economists would realise just how much time each economics paper takes to write (because of our norms about how thorough each paper has to be)

📊 Data update: We've just updated to the 2025 release of the OECD Government at a Glance dataset.

It has general government spending data up to 2024 and spending by function data up to 2023.

This update was led on our team by @parriagadap.bsky.social.

What happened when the U.S. forcibly sent 400,000 Mexican workers back to Mexico in the 1930s?

The employment rate of native workers *went down* noticeably as a direct result. (You read that correctly)

Why?

Forced repatriation destroyed low-skill markets.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Donate to Help Derrick Go to Paris school of Economics, organised by Clare Nakimpi My name is Derrick Ahabyona and I am deeply honored to have been accepted i… Clare Nakimpi needs your support for Help Derrick Go to Paris school of Economics

I would rarely do this, but I happen to know Derrick, and even wrote in his support for his applications. So, if you so inclined, this humble, ambitious, widely read, smart young budding African economist will work extremely hard not to disappoint.

shorturl.at/RgOVn

📊 Data update: We've just updated the data in our charts on electric vehicles!

The data comes from @iea.org‬’s Global EV Outlook 2025.

This update was led on our team by @hannahritchie.bsky.social.

You do field experiments: is there anything you should learn from laboratory experiments?

What can people doing field experiments learn from a new guide to lab experiments? @berkozler12.bsky.social discusses in today's blog and doesn't find that much
blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

🚨Development Economists!🚨Do you use Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS Program) data, which had been supported by USAID? IPUMS ( @ipums.bsky.social ) and the UN Statistics Division have a survey for you. I just filled it out. You can too. #econsky

Field evidence from Uganda on how trading networks shape firms’ tax behavior by #JustineKnebelmann @mitofficial.bsky.social
Paper: "Trading Networks and Tax Compliance: Experimental Evidence from Uganda"

Co-authors: Miguel Almunia, David Henning, Dorothy Nakyambadde, & Lin Tian

#CEPRNovaSBE2025

We kicked off 2025 with the full Malengo team in Nairobi—diving into strategy, culture, scholar & staff welfare, and more. We also made time to connect, relax, and have fun! Excited to share more in 2025 🎉 Learn more: www.malengo.org
#Malengo #Education #Migration

A bar graph illustrating the share of global area burned by wildfires across different regions from 2012 to 2024. The graph is divided vertically into segments representing five regions: Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and North and South America. The deep red color represents Africa, which dominates the graph, showing more than half of the total area burned. Other regions, represented by lighter colors, fill the remaining sections of the graph. The year labels are placed along the horizontal axis, indicating the timeline of the data. The title emphasizes that more than half of the area burned by wildfire is in Africa. The data source is the Global Wildfire Information System, with the year of the data being noted as 2025. The graph is under a Creative Commons BY license.

Every year, more than half of the global area burned by wildfire is in Africa

A line chart showing the share of women in England and Wales who have ever married, by their age, from 17 to 50. There is a line each for women born in 1900, 1920, 1940, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000. The data is sourced from the UK Office for National Statistics (2024).

📊 Data update: We've just updated many of our charts on marriage and divorce!

Remember the "Highlights" that some Elsevier journals require? Dean Karlan and friends developed an amazing way to troll them: haikus!

Best wishes, kindly let me know when you're here! Maybe I'll contribute starter seedlings to your new farm.

Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo: Foreign aid can be effective without the US [FREE TO READ] In the wake of USAID cuts, wealthy nations and individuals must take the reins

Rethinking foreign aid: In a new op-ed, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo call for governments outside of the US, multilateral institutions, and philanthropists to take the lead on impactful and cost-effective foreign aid. buff.ly/gRYRszI

A stacked area chart titled "Paralytic polio: estimated cases by world region, 1980 to 2023" displays data on estimated total cases of paralytic polio, caused by both wild and vaccine-derived polioviruses. The y-axis represents the number of cases ranging from 0 to 500,000, while the x-axis indicates the years from 1980 to 2023. Colored area bands represent different world regions: Oceania is shown in dark blue, Europe in light brown, North America in red, South America in orange, Africa in dark green, and Asia in teal. The chart illustrates a significant peak in cases in the early 1980s, followed by a dramatic decrease through the 1990s and early 2000s, leveling out to very low estimates by 2023. The footer cites the data sources: World Health Organization for the years 2019 and 2024, as well as Tebbens et al. from 2010. The graph is licensed under CC BY.

Foreign aid programs have played a crucial role in the fight against polio.

In the early 1980s, almost half a million people worldwide were paralyzed by polio every year, most of them children. But since the peak in 1981, the number of cases has fallen by more than 99%.

Musk is wrong – foreign aid is how countries show their character to the world The evidence shows international aid – when spent correctly – can bring tremendous benefits and save millions of lives, writes expert and author Stefan Dercon. But if helping people cope with deprivat...

My op-ed on the aid cuts in the US, the UK and Europe in The Independent:

Foreign aid is how countries show their national character to the world

www.independent.co.uk/voices/musk-...

I had to sign this letter to the UK PM on the aid cuts.

National Security is a public good: people rightly expect the state to provide it.

How to fund it is a key public finance decision.

Sensible public financial management is all about trade-offs.

This was the wrong one.

VoxDev’s 10 insights from development economics in 2024.

Fun list

voxdev.org/topic/ten-ke...

Personally, I love the broader approach of "development economics" of recent years. IMHO, development econ should cover all of economics in low- and middle-income countries (which is notably 84%of the world's population), rather than being a narrow field, segregated from the rest of economics.

I'm happy to announce that my book, "The Foreign Gaze: Essays on Global Health", is now out!

You can order the print copy and download the e-copy (open access) here: www.editions.ird.fr/produit/728/...

The book comes with a playlist for your listening pleasure: open.spotify.com/playlist/5K5...

The 'hidden founders' of African studies in Europe: African intellectuals in the Holy Roman Empire and the German Reich ca. 1652-1918. In June 1652, the Ethiopian scholar Abba Gorgoryos reached the city of Nuremburg in what was then the Holy Roman Empire (modern Germany) where he met Hiob Ludolf, an envoy and linguist whom later gene...

The 'hidden founders' of African studies in Europe: African intellectuals in the Holy Roman Empire and the German Reich ca. 1652-1918.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-hidden...

Applied econ papers be like

A Young Woman in Florida: Experiencing Health Inequity First-Hand — Perspectives on Global Health By Liliana Sisto I am a young woman who has lived 19 of my 20 years of life in Florida. I am a young woman who loves Disney World, the ocean, the springs, and living in Florida. But I am also a youn...

A Young Woman in Florida: Experiencing Health Inequity First-Hand

Liliana Sisto

www.perspectivesmcgill.com/allposts/202...