All articles

Can social media be harnessed to bolster electoral accountability?

Digital information campaigns on social media can be used to disseminate objective information about government performance and bolster electoral accountability. Targeting information at a larger share of the electorate can raise the effectiveness of...

Institutions & Political Economy

José Ramón Enríquez Horacio Larreguy John Marshall Alberto Simpser

Published

21.10.24

Smallholder farmers’ crop yields and productivity are failing to rise in sub-Saharan Africa

What has new evidence taught us about the evolution of smallholder agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa over recent decades?

Agriculture

Philip Wollburg Thomas Bentze Yuchen Lu Christopher Udry Douglas Gollin

Published

18.10.24

The impacts of noisy workplaces on productivity

Loud workplaces can cause hearing loss, but can they also hurt workers’ productivity and performance?

Firms

Joshua T. Dean

Published

17.10.24

The feedback loop between climate change and agriculture

Anthropogenic climate change will likely intensify the negative environmental impacts of agriculture through powerful feedback loops. This has important implications for development research, policy and R&D investment.

Agriculture

Chris Barrett Jennifer Burney Teevrat Garg Ariel Ortiz-Bobea Trinh Pham

Published

15.10.24

How anti-poverty programmes are used to undermine democracy in India

Welfare programmes, even when designed to prevent misuse, can be subverted by a political party and may encourage the centralisation of corruption.

Institutions & Political Economy

Ajay Shenoy Laura Zimmermann

Published

14.10.24

The challenges of reducing informal employment: Evidence from Mexico

Increasing the cost of informal employment raised formalisation rates for workers at formal firms. However, it also led to a large, persistent drop in firm size. There is a trade-off between higher formalisation rates for current employees and lower ...

Labour Markets

Brenda Samaniego de la Parra León Fernández Bujanda

Published

11.10.24

How the Philippines sequestered carbon while reducing poverty and creating jobs

The National Greening Program, a large-scale tree planting programme in the Philippines, not only contributes to carbon sequestration but also promotes poverty reduction and job creation.

Energy & Environment

Jeffrey Pagel Lorenzo Sileci

Published

10.10.24

Boosting women’s labour force participation: Opportunities and challenges in Bangladesh

What are the barriers to women’s labour force participation in Bangladesh? What are some promising evidence-based policy options? Where is more evidence required?

Labour Markets

Nusrat Jahan

Published

09.10.24

Rapid urbanisation is forcing human settlements into flood zones

Amidst rapid urbanisation and climate change, evidence on urban expansion and flood exposure can help policymakers increase climate resilience in the world’s cities.

Energy & Environment

Jun Rentschler Paolo Avner Stéphane Hallegatte

Published

08.10.24