In this episode of Development Dialogues, a panel of experts dissect one of Africa’s most persistent development challenges: the low productivity of smallholder farmers. Despite decades of investment, innovation, and policy reform, yields on African small farms remain significantly below those in high-income countries—even when similar technologies are used.

The discussion explores the nuanced landscape of African agriculture with panelists Gérardine Mukeshimana, Christopher Udry and Mark Rosenzweig. Together, they examine the limitations of smallholder models, opportunities for structural transformation, and the imperative of inclusive rural development.

• Gérardine Mukeshimana is Vice-President of the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). She has extensive knowledge of and networks in agricultural and rural development, including with other multilateral development banks and climate funds.
• Christopher Udry is the Robert E. and Emily King Professor of Economics at Northwestern University and former director of the Yale Economic Growth Center. He is a development economist whose research focuses on rural economic activity in sub-Saharan Africa. His current research examines technological change, risk and financial markets, gender and households, property rights, psychological well-being and economic decision-making and a variety of other aspects of rural economic organization.
• Mark Rosenzweig is is the Frank Altschul Professor of International Economics at Yale University and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is an elected fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society of Labor Economics, and the Bureau of for Research and Analysis of Development (BREAD).

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In this episode of Development Dialogues, host Catherine Chaney is joined by Max Bearak, Anant Sudarshan and Jessica Seddon to examine one of the most complex challenges in global development: how can the clean energy transition move forward both quickly and equitably, particularly for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) still grappling with poverty?

A central tension throughout the discussion is the balance between emissions reductions and economic growth. While wealthy nations historically contributed the most to climate change, LMICs are now under pressure to take costly action. 

• Max Bearak is a reporter for The New York Times who covers international climate negotiations, energy politics, and new approaches to reducing emissions. His recent Poynter Lecture at Yale asked: Why are the rich failing the poor on climate change?’
• Anant Sudarshan is an economist at the University of Warwick and a Senior Fellow at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. His work focuses on environmental regulation and air pollution, and he’s the senior editor of an upcoming VoxDevLit on that topic.
• Jessica Seddon is a governance and environmental policy expert whose career spans India and the U.S. She focuses on how institutions can better use data to tackle challenges like air quality and climate risk. She is currently a Senior Fellow at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, director of the Deitz Family Initiative on Environment and Global Affairs, and faculty affiliate of Yale’s Economic Growth Center.

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Vocational training programs are designed to boost employment in low- and middle-income countries — but often they fall short. In the fourth in our series of Development Dialogues, we examine the real impact of vocational training programs in low- and middle-income countries. Our guests take on pressing questions around evidence, expectations, market realities, and coordination challenges in designing skills-based interventions for employment:

• Oriana Bandiera is the Sir Anthony Atkinson Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, where she also directs the Hub for Equal Representation. Her research explores how economic policies and institutions shape labor markets and development outcomes. Bandiera delivered the 34th Simon Kuznets Memorial Lecture on the topic of “Development and the Organization of Labor,” hosted by EGC. 
• Stefano Caria is a Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick. He uses experimental methods to investigate how to make labor markets work better for the poor. Caria was also senior editor for a VoxDevLit on Barriers to Search and Hiring in Urban Labour Markets.
• Munshi Sulaiman is the Director of Research at the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development and a Professor in the Master of Development Studies program at BRAC University. He brings a unique lens from decades of applied work in organizations like BRAC and Save the Children, focusing on labor markets, poverty, and the practical realities of designing and scaling programs.

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In this episode of Development Dialogues, Rory Stewart, Stefan Dercon, and Trudi Makhaya join host Catherine Cheney to discuss the challenges of evidence-based policy in an era where populism and narratives often outweigh facts. The conversation centers around how to ensure facts and evidence still matter in policymaking and international development, especially as political landscapes become increasingly divided.

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In the second episode of Development Dialogues, our new series with VoxDevTalks, host Catherine Cheney is joined by Amit Khandelwal, Isabela Manelici and Arvind Subramanian to discuss the challenges that developing countries encounter when opening their markets to trade, the effectiveness of industrial policy and the implications of Trump's presidency for trade in these nations.

Amit Khandelwal is the Dong-Soo Hahn Professor of Global Affairs and Economics at Yale University. He holds affiliations at the National Bureau of Economic Research and Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab.

Isabela Manelici is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics of the London School of Economics and Political Science. 

Arvind Subramanian is an Indian economist and the former Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. Subramanian is currently a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

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In first episode of Development Dialogues, our new series with VoxDevTalks, host Catherine Cheney is joined by Namrata Kala, Rohini Pande, and Catherine Wolfram to discuss research on climate adaptation measures in lower-income countries, how to pay for them, and the role voluntary carbon markets and compliance markets can play.

Namrata Kala is an Associate Professor at MIT Sloan School of Management. She is also on the Editorial Board of VoxDev and served as Senior Editor for the VoxDevLit on Climate Adaptation.

Rohini Pande is the Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics and Director of the Economic Growth Center at Yale University. She is also the faculty director of Inclusion Economics at Yale.

Catherine Wolfram is the William Barton Rogers Professor in Energy and a Professor of Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. From March 2021 to October 2022, she served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate and Energy Economics at the U.S. Treasury.

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Rising sea levels are already creating intersecting crises in Bangladesh, often described as “the ground zero of climate change." How can social scientists aid in the response?

When economists Islamul Haque and Mushfiq Mobarak began to examine the economic impact of rising salinity levels in coastal areas of Bangladesh, they expected to focus on labor and migration issues among farmers shifting from agriculture to aquaculture. However, when they began to talk to community members, they found a more urgent research need, and pivoted their research to formulate a sustainable response to the scarcity of drinking water in the area.

In this episode of Voices in Development, host Catherine Cheney speaks with Haque and Mobarak about their new project, the role of social science in climate research, and the importance of conducting development research based on the needs on the ground.

Collaborating organizations mentioned in this episode:
BRAC
The International Growth Centre (IGC)
The Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE) 

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In Latin America, inequality has persisted despite major structural economic and social change. In order to help develop effective policies for a more equitable society, a new research initiative explores the causes and consequences of inequality within the Latin American context.

In this episode of Voices in Development, three leading social scientists discuss a project to develop “a shared vision” of inequality in Latin America. Marcela Eslava, Professor of Economics and Dean of the School of Economics at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia; Santiago Levy, a nonresident senior fellow with the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution; and Ana de la O, Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale University, discuss their engagement with the Latin America and the Caribbean Inequality Review (LACIR), a collaborative effort between Yale, the Inter-American Development Bank, the London School of Economics, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

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Although women around the world have joined the labor market in rising numbers over the past several decades, the percentage of women in the labor force in India has declined, even while their education levels have risen and the country has experienced rapid economic growth. 

In this episode of Voices in Development, Farzana Afridi, a professor of Economics at the Indian Statistical Institute in Delhi, and Kanika Mahajan, Associate Professor of Economics at Ashoka University in Sonipat, India, discuss their research collaborations on women and work, the benefits and risks of digital platforms for women in India, and how researchers can influence policy. 

Afridi and Mahajan recently participated in the Economic Growth Center’s Kuznets Visitors Program, which brings short-term visitors from around the world to the Yale campus to contribute to the development economics community. 

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​Much of the research on economic development in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa, is led by researchers who are outsiders to the regions they study. While this outsider perspective can help them see elements of the social or economic structure less visible to those who are deeply embedded in local institutions, partnerships with individuals and communities living and working in the area provide crucial insights for both the research process and its application to policy.

In this episode of Voices in Development, Christopher Udry, Robert E. and Emily King Professor of Economics at Northwestern University, Co-Director of the Global Poverty Research Lab, and former director of the Yale Economic Growth Center, discusses the role of in-country partnerships in development economics research. In collaborating with in-country partners, Udry regularly shares his research findings but rarely makes policy recommendations. "I view my work as more trying to support my local collaborators in providing them with the resources and the tools and maybe the authority to make recommendations to government," he says. "So I view myself as sort of a cheerleader, maybe a coach, for the athletes who are going to do the real policy."

This episode also featured Rohini Pande, Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics and Director of the Economic Growth Center, and Francis Annan, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Annan, who grew up in Ghana and studies digital financial markets, insurance, and firms, notes that involving in-country partners in the production of research data is essential because it can help reproduce meaningful results. “If the local institutions, the regulators, the users of this evidence are part of the production process for this evidence, it tends to make our lives easier,” he says. 

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