Oliver Hanney

📢 Political polarisation has been rising sharply in both advanced and developing democracies.

At our VoxDevLit launch event on October 27, Cesi Cruz and @hlarreguy.bsky.social will summarise research on the causes and consequences of polarisation.

Register➡️ cepr-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

First movers post conflict: How managerial experience shaped firm entry after Angola’s civil war Firms were more likely to enter Angola’s market after the civil war if they employed managers with prior, Angola-specific export experience – highlighting the critical role of managerial human capital in overcoming fixed entry costs in post-conflict economies.

🆕 First movers post conflict: How managerial experience shaped firm entry after Angola’s civil war

Today on VoxDev, Giordano Mion (ESSEC), Luca David Opromolla (NC State University) & Alessandro Sforza (INSEAD) outline research on Angola: https://ow.ly/zyTq50X6TMU

Weekly links October 3: rainfall insurance, deforestation, being visible, successful research, and more…

This week's links include some of the successes of recent development economics research, advice on being visible, myths in development, index insurance, spatial causal inference approaches, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

How foreign direct investment shapes Africa’s role in global value chains Greenfield investment plays a critical role in Africa’s integration into global value chains, with inward investment in manufacturing boosting forward participation, while outward African investment in services enhances overall participation.

🆕 How foreign direct investment shapes Africa’s role in global value chains

Today on VoxDev, Prachi Agarwal (ODI Global) & Anirudh Shingal (SPJIMR) discuss the role of greenfield investment in Africa's integration into global value chains: https://ow.ly/ezIs50X60WH

How rural pensions boosted China's economy China’s New Rural Pension Scheme unexpectedly lowered the high cost of migration by freeing younger workers from household duties – boosting migration, wages, household welfare, and even national GDP.

🆕 How rural pensions boosted China's economy

Today on VoxDev, Qingen Gai (Shanghai Jiao Tong University), Naijia Guo (University of Hong Kong), Bingjing Li, Qinghua Shi & Xiaodong Zhu discuss how pensions impacted migration in China: https://ow.ly/sxQR50X5rOO

Such cool research

In previous work, the authors used data from Mexico in 2010 to predict future air conditioning adoption.

It turns out that air conditioning spread far more quickly than they predicted, so they revisited their predictions and investigate why ⤵️

What have we learned about women in the workforce?

Issue 2 of our VoxDevLit on Female Labour Force Participation by Rachel Heath and Co-Editors is out now!➡️ voxdev.org/voxdevlit/fe...

Today's podcast covers the update➡️ voxdev.org/topic/labour...

Does index insurance work? Insights from eight experiments in agriculture Index insurance can help smallholder farmers take on more productive risks, but its impacts remain modest, uncertain, and highly context dependent.

Interested in agricultural insurance, meta-analysis, and external validity? Read my VoxDev blog with Pauline Castaing, based on an article published earlier this year in the JDE. voxdev.org/topic/agricu...

Mythbusters: Development economics edition Economic research plays a very useful role in testing our priors and establishing when widely held beliefs turn out to be false.

🆕 Mythbusters: Development economics edition

Development is full of persistent myths: ideas about how the world works which are widely held but not supported by research.

On @voxdev.bsky.social, I've highlighted 10 myths which don't stand up to the evidence: voxdev.org/topic/mythbu...

Why don’t farmers grow more profitable crops? Agricultural productivity in developing countries remains low and uneven, with high-return crops offering significant potential gains but limited adoption due to clustered social networks that restrict the diffusion of new technologies.

🆕 Why don’t farmers grow more profitable crops?

Today on VoxDev, Andre Groeger (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) & Yanos Zylberberg (University of Bristol) discuss agricultural productivity in Vietnam: https://voxdev.org/topic/agriculture/why-dont-farmers-grow-more-profitable-crops

Climate adaptation in Argentina: Short-term instability, long-term risk Argentina’s volatile macroeconomic and political environment – marked by inflation, debt crises, and policy instability – makes it difficult to commit to the long-term investments needed for climate adaptation, despite the country’s high vulnerability to extreme climate events. While the advanced and export-oriented agricultural sector has incentives to adopt adaptive technologies, weak institutions, limited finance, and short-term policy cycles hinder broader resilience efforts against escalating climate risks.

🆕 Climate adaptation in Argentina: Short-term instability, long-term risk

Today on VoxDev, Elisa Belfiori (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) & Yanel Llohis (World Bank) reflect on climate adaptation in Argentina: https://ow.ly/2ETr50X4b4V

What have we learned from research on electricity infrastructure? How can this inform Mission 300?

Register to join this important VoxDev-World Bank discussion on October 9th with Stephane Straub, Robyn Meeks, Franz Drees-Gross & Andrew Dabalen here: www.worldbank.org/en/events/20...

International Migration as a Structural Transformation Policy

In today's blog, I discuss 3 ways for international migration to be part of a structural transformation policy: 1) as an industry itself; 2) training people abroad in the skills to develop a new industry at home; and 3) through immigration (eg Start-up Chile) blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Does index insurance work? Insights from eight experiments in agriculture Index insurance can help smallholder farmers take on more productive risks, but its impacts remain modest, uncertain, and highly context dependent.

🆕 Does index insurance work? Insights from eight experiments in agriculture

Today on VoxDev, Pauline Castaing (World Bank) & @gazeaud.bsky.social (@cerdi.bsky.social) discuss the impact of index insurance on smallholder productivity in developing countries: voxdev.org/topic/agricu...

How competition between villages helped divided communities in Indonesia Competing for development grants helped divided communities in Indonesia work together – and fight less.

🆕 How competition between villages helped divided communities in Indonesia

Today on VoxDev w/ Teevrat Garg (UCSD), Caterina Gennaioli (QMUL), Stefania Lovo (University of Reading) & Gregor Singer (LSE) discuss how competing for development grants helped build cohesion: voxdev.org/topic/instit...

Turning paper trails into revenue: Strengthening Pakistan’s tax system Pakistan’s tax system shows that even with extensive withholding and VAT-based reporting, weak documentation and limited enforcement capacity – exacerbated by political resistance – undermine revenue ...

🆕 Turning paper trails into revenue: Strengthening Pakistan’s tax system

Today on VoxDev, Zehra Farooq (Federal Board of Revenue) reflects on the economic evidence on taxation in Pakistan: voxdev.org/topic/public...

Empowerment or protection? A potential trade-off in cash transfer design In Uganda, digital cash transfers had contrasting effects on women’s empowerment: mobile money boosted women’s personal income and decision-making power, while jointly disclosed cash transfers reduced...

🆕 Empowerment or protection? A potential trade-off in cash transfer design

Today on VoxDev w/ Giulia Greco (@lshtm.bsky.social @lshtm-gheco.bsky.social), @selimgulesci.bsky.social (Trinity College Dublin), Pallavi Prabhakar (BIGD) & Munshi Sulaiman (BIGD): voxdev.org/topic/social...

🆕 Understanding and tackling school bullying 📢

Today on VoxDevTalks, Sule Alan (Cornell & Bilkent) discusses how teaching students socio-emotional skills can help reduce violence, improve learning, and ultimately foster more cohesive societies: voxdev.org/topic/educat...

Deforestation Deforestation is a major source of global carbon emissions, but efforts to curb deforestation rates have faced significant challenges. In this VoxDevLit, we synthesise recent economic research that at...

📢 Our new VoxDevLit on Deforestation is out now!

Senior Editors @franciscocosta.bsky.social & @allanhsiao.bsky.social (@stanford.edu) review economic research on deforestation.

Read & download here: voxdev.org/voxdevlit/de...

Communicating economic research: How to summarise academic papers for a policy audience How can researchers write accessible summaries of academic research? In this blog, I reflect on some key takeaways from editing over 500 VoxDev articles that summarise policy-relevant research in deve...

How can you summarise your research for a wider audience?

I think it's a no-brainer to present your work in a way that's accessible to those outside academia.

Having edited over 500 @voxdev.bsky.social articles, I've put what I've learned into this blog: voxdev.org/topic/commun...

Communicating economic research: How to summarise academic papers for a policy audience How can researchers write accessible summaries of academic research? In this blog, I reflect on some key takeaways from editing over 500 VoxDev articles that summarise policy-relevant research in deve...

How can you summarise your research for a wider audience?

I think it's a no-brainer to present your work in a way that's accessible to those outside academia.

Having edited over 500 @voxdev.bsky.social articles, I've put what I've learned into this blog: voxdev.org/topic/commun...

Weekly links September 19: positive developments, negotiating a job, counting people, SEZ problems, and more…

This week's links include some positive developments in development, how to negotiate your econ job, why an SEZ was not very successful, econ meets other disciplines, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

First to wake, last to eat: How India’s quest for gender parity begins on an unequal footing Evidence from India suggests that women tend to wake earlier and eat later than men, leading to reduced sleep, leisure, and social time – which worsens physical and mental health outcomes. These dispa...

🆕 First to wake, last to eat: How India’s quest for gender parity begins on an unequal footing

Today on VoxDev, Udayan Rathore (Wadhwani Foundation) discusses disparities in the times women wake and eat in India: voxdev.org/topic/health...

Where to find development economics resources: Newsletters, articles, podcasts & videos Where can you find articles, podcasts, and videos about research and topics in development economics? This blog is your one-stop shop for accessible resources related to development economics.

🆕 Where to find development economics resources

I've updated my list of all the various sources of newsletters, articles, podcasts & videos relevant to development economics that I've come across in my three years at @voxdev.bsky.social: voxdev.org/topic/where-...

Markets, marriage, and norms: Understanding female labour force participation in India Despite recent gains due to rural self-employment, India’s female labour force participation remains constrained by entrenched social norms and a limited availability of quality jobs – keeping the gen...

🆕 Markets, marriage, and norms: Understanding female labour force participation in India

Today on VoxDev, Farzana Afridi (Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi) reflects on the evidence on female labour force participation in India: voxdev.org/topic/labour...

How extreme heat determines diets in rural India Extreme heat damages crops and increases the number of strongly undernourished households in terms of calories, iron, and other nutrients. While some households cope by buying food grown elsewhere, th...

🆕 How extreme heat determines diets in rural India

Today on VoxDev, Paul Stainier (@upenn.edu), Manisha Shah (@goldmanschool.bsky.social) & @alanbarreca.bsky.social (@ioes.ucla.edu) discuss how extreme heat affects health and nutrition in India: voxdev.org/topic/health...

🆕 Macroeconomics and climate change 📢

Today on VoxDevTalks, @adrienbilal.bsky.social (@stanford.edu) discusses the research on macroeconomics and climate change – highlighting evidence gaps in mitigation, adaptation, and labour transitions: voxdev.org/topic/macroe...

Roads to Ethiopia’s structural transformation Ethiopia’s large-scale road expansion cut travel times to markets – boosting farm productivity, reshaping cropping patterns, and accelerating structural change.

🆕 Roads to Ethiopia’s structural transformation

Today on VoxDev, Tasso Adamopoulos (York University) discusses how Ethiopia's large-scale road expansion accelerated structural transformation: voxdev.org/topic/macroe...

How interdisciplinary research is enriching development economics No discipline has a monopoly on high-quality, policy-relevant research. As reflected on VoxDev, development economists are increasingly teaming up with other fields to improve the relevance of their r...

🆕 How interdisciplinary research is enriching development economics

No discipline has a monopoly on high-quality, policy-relevant research.

I've highlighted some examples of interdisciplinary research that I enjoyed reading on @voxdev.bsky.social: voxdev.org/topic/how-in...

Really enjoyed learning about this research + the article features a great brief history of taxation!