Mike O’Sullivan

🚨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

Very happy and proud of Habibou Ibrahim Kassoum, who I am happy to co-supervise with Pascale Phélinas at @cerdi.bsky.social. Habibou is hosted for a research stay (visiting) by the World Bank's Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) 🙌🏼

We’re lucky to have Habibou with us!

An amazing opportunity for economics scholars in Africa to spend 3 months @oxfordcsae.bsky.social Deadline to apply = May 31

Wanted to do an #econtwitter #econsky 🧵about some of the amazing gender-related work (note - not exhaustive!) presented this week at CSAE - was not there, but had a fascinating time browsing the program. (Link below)

NEP feeds for new economics papers, by field. Join the conversation

New RePEc feature for Bluesky! Get new paper announcements from NEP in 100 different fields. Find them all on this starter pack bsky.app/starter-pack... and soon the links to the accounts will be at nep.repec.org

#RePEc #EconSky

@justsand.bsky.social and I try to answer the question: how many lives saved by US foreign assistance each year. Best estimate: 3.3 million.

www.cgdev.org/blog/how-man...

An ode to the Demographic and Health Survey Program Caren Grown reflects on the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program and its 40-plus years of impact.

Important piece from Caren Grown at Brookings on why the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program remains indispensable for global public health and development. Without good data, we simply can’t make good policy.

Personal initiative training continues to yield positive benefits after 7 years, but impacts vary with gender

In today's blog, I summarize 7-7.5 year impacts of a RCT we did in Togo that tested personal initiative (PI) training against a control and traditional business training. PI training has large and growing impacts for men, which diverge from those for women 1/3 blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

csae.ox.ac.uk/scholarships
final application date CSAE scholarships for African economics graduate students at Oxford is 4 March

Trump Administration Ends Global Health Research Program (Gift Article) The Demographic and Health Surveys were the only sources of reliable information in many countries on metrics such as mortality, nutrition and education.

What a huge loss…

What does U.S. aid really pay for anyway?

1.5 million lives saved via Gavi, for one.

New in AEJ: Economic Policy
www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Research Assistant - 133553 Apply for Research Assistant - 133553 position at UC San Diego in Remote, National on https://employment.ucsd.edu/

Please consider applying to a pre-doc position at UCSD. Projects at the intersection of development and culture in Africa with Eduardo Montero Nathan Nunn James Robinson & others. Possible fieldwork in DRC. French skills preferred. Thank you! employment.ucsd.edu/research-ass...

Improving hygiene, reducing menstrual stigma, and boosting learning in schools A hygiene- and menstruation-focused intervention in Madagascan schools boosted learning, while also reducing stress and improving the psychosocial climate of schools.

🆕 Improving hygiene, reducing menstrual stigma, and boosting learning in schools

Today, Julieta Vera Rueda @WorldBank, Karen Macours @PSE & Duncan Webb @PrincetonEcon outline their study of a hygiene- & menstruation-focused intervention in Madagascar:
voxdev.org/topic/health...

The lasting impact of war on trust: Evidence from Sierra Leone Sierra Leone's civil war not only left a legacy of lost lives and damaged infrastructure, but changed the way trust is formed, showing how early-life trauma can shape long-term economic decision makin...

🆕 The lasting impact of war on trust: Evidence from Sierra Leone

Today, Niklas Buehren @WorldBank, Markus Goldstein @WorldBank, Imran Rasul @uclofficial.bsky.social & Andrea Smurra @theifs.bsky.social outline how Sierra Leone's civil war changed the way trust formed: voxdev.org/topic/instit...

Do check out @mrao.bsky.social's excellent and important job market paper. It raises a bunch of important questions for those of us trying to conduct research to inform policy.

Way to go, Dave!

🚨40% of Africa's teen girls are out of school, married, or w/kids vs 12% of boys. Our new report w/@cgdev.bsky.social/Pop Council/WB People team offers new data & evidence on how targeted policy action unlocks big growth gains. Join us on Thurs. the 21st for the launch! Register:
shorturl.at/uQt7N

Great — if sobering — JMP post from @mrao.bsky.social on how impact evaluations do & don’t shift policy spending. Quicker results & those linked to political party in power (i.e., low political constraints) are more likely to shape CCT spending in Latin America. Paper: tinyurl.com/yc2m5xau

Long-run impacts differ btwn men & women, esp. at the top half of the profit distribution. Men saw 📈 capital & self-efficacy, while women did not. Authors explore potential mechanisms but face data limitations. Findings raise lots of Qs on how to sustain women's biz growth. @dmckenzie.bsky.social

Our #AfricaGIL team has studied psychology-based personal initiative training, first in Togo, showing remarkable results for women & men. A new 7-year follow-up RCT from Togo finds even larger profit gains—but these impacts are concentrated among men. More below. #EconSky tinyurl.com/57mwpkdz

Excited to see this paper published! You can find our #AfricaGIL policy brief on the findings here: documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/0...

Warrantage: A model of rural finance that boosts farmers’ income and investment Warrantage is an innovative model of rural finance which improves access to credit and crop storage. In Burkina Faso, warrantage increased farmers’ sales revenues, which they spent on education, healt...

Giving smallholder farmers access to warrantage (storing their crops and, when they choose so, using that as a collateral to obtain credit) helps them invest more in human and farm capital. Sharing our recent experimental evidence from Burkina Faso
#econsky

And check out many our papers, briefs, & synthesis reports on gender & entrepreneurship here:
openknowledge.worldbank.org/search?spc.p...

Please share widely!

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Learn more about our Africa GIL team’s work on women’s financial inclusion and entrepreneurship in Ethiopia presented at our recent conference with the National Bank of Ethiopia: www.worldbank.org/en/events/20... 3/4

This is a DC-based ETC Economist position to work with our amazing team & partners on the ground in Ethiopia to design & rigorously test innovative interventions, products, & services around entrepreneurship & financial inclusion, with lots of scope for policy engagement as well. 2/4

🚨Job Alert!🚨
We're looking for a creative & technically strong economist to lead experimental research on women’s access to capital & entrepreneurship support in Ethiopia (and beyond). Join us at the Africa GIL team! Pls share! Details ⬇️
worldbankgroup.csod.com/ats/careersi...
#EconSky #EconJobs 🧵

And here:
Unpacking Socio-Emotional Skills for Women’s Economic Empowerment [brief]
documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/3...

11/11

Learn more about World Bank’s Africa Gender Innovation Lab’s SES research here.

Which Socio-Emotional Skills Matter Most for Women’s Earnings? New Insights from Sub-Saharan Africa [brief]
openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/pub...

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🙏 Special thanks to our partners at BRAC Tanzania, IPA, IFC, Trinity College Dublin, & the teams that made this research possible. Thanks also to our funders (Wellspring, IDRC, FCDO, UFGE) for supporting this work.
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