VoxDev Development Economics

Paul Collier has for many years challenged the conventional wisdom of development
economics, bringing our attention to the real-world impact of policies many of us take
for granted. His new book is called Left Behind. It is about how some countries or
regions in the world fall behind, and what we can do to help them recover. In this
week’s episode he talks to Tim Phillips about what causes a place to be left behind,
the difficulty in stopping that downward spiral, and what the places that have
recovered have in common.

If women in developing countries want to work, what keeps them out of the labour
force? Is it the other tasks they have to do, or the expectations of the people around
them? Two new papers experiment with the effect of offering flexible working to
women in India, Lisa Ho talks to Tim Phillips about what the results might mean for
the millions of women in India and beyond who would like to work, but don’t.

If you want to do good, and do not have unlimited funds, how do you choose? Which
places, people, and situations are most deserving? Do you invest in economic
benefits or lives saved? Open Philanthropy in an organisation that aims to rigorously
optimise the impact of every dollar it spends. Emily Oehlsen tells Tim Phillips about
its successes so far, and how it still sometimes gets it wrong.

Many of us can recall when we first discovered there were more than a billion people
in the world who lived on “a dollar a day”. This extreme poverty line been effective at
raising awareness of the goals of development. But, if we want to eradicate poverty
rather than describe it, is it a useful tool – and what could improve on it? Charles
Kenny discusses how the line is drawn, and how it could be improved, with Tim
Phillips.

In developing countries, we know comparatively little about how well the elderly cope
with problems like depression and loneliness. There are few policies to support
sufferers, partly because of this lack of data. Maddie McKelway and Garima Sharma
tell Tim Phillips about some of the surprising revelations of a new cross-country
study and suggest ways in which policy can improve the mental health of seniors.

“There’s only so much adapting you can do with so few resources.” That’s a warning
from Asif Saleh, the executive director of BRAC, about the impact of the climate
crisis in Bangladesh. Changes in the climate are causing severe problems already
for millions of the world’s poorest people. A combination of ingenuity and hard work
is staving off disaster for now – but for how long?

How does new evidence influence the beliefs of policymakers, and when do hidden
biases of beliefs lead to bad policy decisions? There is more rigorous empirical
evidence on which interventions work than ever. But that doesn’t translate into better
policy unless a policymaker acts on it. Eva Vivalt and Tim Phillips offer advice to
researchers on how to present their insights.

In both high- and low-income countries, taxes are the main source of government
revenue. They fund roads, schools, and social programmes. But the average tax-to-
GDP ratio in a developing country is less than half of the ratio in the global north.
Oyebola Okunogbe tells Tim Phillips about the innovative ways that many LMICs are
using to collect the taxes that will finance their growth.

Inequality is high in many LMICs, and progressive taxation is a policy tool that would reduce it. But would a personal income tax or a consumption tax redistribute in the same way as in a high-income country? Lucie Gadenne of Queen Mary University of London and the IFS tells Tim Phillips that one of these taxes may be less progressive, and one may be more progressive, than we expect.

In a world of economic nationalism rather than integration, the export-led pathway to
development that transformed China, Vietnam and other countries might no longer
be effective. Instead, Penny Goldberg tells Tim Phillips, policies for poverty reduction
now also need to answer the question of where demand will come from, and that
may require more emphasis on creating a domestic middle class.