This week we launched our VoxDevLit on Taxation & Development, as well as featuring research on the gap between education policy and practice, the under adoption of air purifiers, scaling up information interventions and the impacts of large infrastructure projects on formal and informal firms.
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On Monday, we released our new VoxDevLit on Taxation and Development and hosted a launch event led by Senior Editor Anders Jensen. Catch up on the launch event and download the VoxDevLit here.
How large is the gap between education policy and practice in LMICs, and how can we close it? In this week's VoxDevTalk, Noam Angrist speaks to Tim Phillips about the gap between policy and practice in education, how it varies by geographic region and what this means for policymakers and researchers. Listen to this insightful conversation on VoxDevTalks.
Despite persistently high pollution levels, the demand for private preventive technologies like air purifiers remains remarkably low. In Wednesday's article, Ashfaqul Chowdhury, Teevrat Garg, Maulik Jagnani and Martin Mattsson explore why we may observe the under adoption and usage of air purifiers in Bangladesh.
Although randomised evaluations have provided compelling evidence on policy effectiveness in specific contexts, many studies have been undermined by a scale-up problem. In Tuesday's article, Matteo Bobba, Marco Pariguana and Verónica Frisancho assess the generalisability of the results from a randomised evaluation of an information intervention that provides students with individualised feedback about their academic skills.
In today's article, Elena Perra, Marco Sanfilippo and Asha Sundaram examine the interaction between a large infrastructure investment in Ethiopia and the performance of the informal sector. Why may better connectivity via new roads help the formal sector at the expense of the informal sector? Read the full article on our website.
A number of excellent events took place last week. Catch up on innovative market solutions to confront climate change at LSE Environment Week, or learn about the importance of implementation and scaling from the What Works Hub for Global Education's Annual Conference.
Elsewhere in development economics:
- Rachel Glennerster reshared this excellent article on "The Generalizability Puzzle" which thinks through when the results of specific programmes generalise to other contexts.
- Soumaya Keynes' podcast on how Jamaica cut its debt is an interesting listen.
- On CEPR, Ravi Kanbur argues that "the distinction between development economics and economics in general is increasingly untenable and indeed unnecessary".
- CEPR's Autumn 2024 sessions of the Virtual Development Economics Series started on the 24th of September taking place virtually. Register for next week's session here.
- Listen to the latest CSAE research podcast on the impact of cash transfers in refugee camps in Kenya.
- Mark Lowcock and Ranil Dissanayake of the Centre for Global Development have released a new book covering the rise and downfall of the UK's Department for International Development. The book claims to provide critical insights into the institutional structures that work best to deliver results.
We will be back on Monday with a full week of content on floods and urbanisation, tree planting in the Philippines, informality in Mexico and more!