How human capital reshapes religious affiliation

Religion significantly influences people’s lives, both socially and economically. Researchers have long debated whether economic growth and education lead to less religious belief and participation. Yet, in many areas, strong religious beliefs persist despite economic advancements. In a recent study we delve into how economic and educational improvements in Kenya are reshaping religious affiliations, particularly the shift …

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Deworming improves lives across generations

Data tracking children in Kenya since they received deworming treatment over twenty years ago reveals that the benefits of deworming extend into the next generation

How Do Multilateral Agencies’ Contracting Structures Affect the Quality, Timeliness, and Cost of Large-Scale Infrastructure Projects?

Over the past two decades, the world has made tremendous progress towards the UnitedNations’ sustainable development goal (SDG) number seven, namely, access to affordable and clean energy. Multilaterals such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank spend billions of dollars each year in efforts to achieve SDG-7’s goal of universal access, which has …

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How contracting structures affect project outcomes in public procurement

Each year, billions of dollars are spent on public infrastructure projects which are often plagued by over-running costs, poor quality, or time delays. This column focuses on an under-studied dimension of contract structure in public procurement, namely, whether the various components of a major project are bundled together or tendered separately. The findings suggest that …

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Power Quality in Donor-Funded Infrastructure Projects

Governments and foreign aid institutions routinely finance large infrastructure construction projects in developing and emerging markets. In 2015, for example, the Government of Kenya launched the Last Mile Connectivity Project, designed to connect all Kenyan households to electricity by 2022 using financing from the World Bank (WB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). To complete …

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How the administration’s open government plan can be more transparent

Since the Biden-Harris administration’s release of its memo calling for a more modern regulatory review process, the U.S. government has taken important steps toward improving access to the data it produces. However, most of its policy analysis, including the estimates quantifying the billions of dollars in benefits and costs related to last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, remain largely …

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Scaling up agricultural policy interventions: Evidence from Uganda

Policy interventions aimed at increasing agricultural productivity have been central in the fight against global poverty. This column uses a new methodology combining experimental data with a quantitative model to shed light on the household-level and distributional effects of scaling up agricultural policies. The authors show how different forms of scaling up agricultural policies can …

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Scaling up agricultural policy interventions: Evidence from Uganda

A new methodology combining experimental data with a quantitative model sheds light on the household-level and distributional effects of scaling up agricultural policies.

Aprobando la transparencia y rechazando la polarización

A menos de una semana del plebiscito de salida, Chile vive momentos de alta incertidumbre y polarización política. Dado el terreno fértil para la proliferación de las “fake news”, es altamente deseable que el análisis experto contribuya a separar realidad factual de especulación, quitándole combustible a la polarización. Pero lamentablemente esto no siempre ocurre.

How to make research better, more transparent, and ethical?

Working in science and research is a continuous process of comparing, discussing, rediscovering, calculating, programming, building consensus and debating. On top of that, researchers must be prepared to repeat their experiments, rethink their approach, and sometimes revise statements and admit that an error has been made. To help further the development of evidence-based knowledge, science …

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Money or Power? Financial Infrastructure and Optimal Policy

During times of crisis, do people prefer cash or in-kind transfers, and why? To study this, we ran surveys with more than 2,000 respondents across two separate contexts: urban Kenya and urban Ghana.

Ending the pandemic in low and middle income countries

As SARS-COV2 reaches an endemic state, many high-income countries are trying to maintain low fatality rates through widespread vaccination. In contrast, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across Africa and Asia have made uneven progress towards managing the pandemic. In this essay we summarize our Annual Review of Economics article in which we look back at …

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