VoxDev Development Economics

Entrepreneurs create most of the new jobs in Africa. But can the skills of an entrepreneur be taught, and which skills will be most useful for Africa's young businesspeople? Paul Gertler tells Tim Phillips about a groundbreaking training program in Uganda.

Economists have been arguing about whether openness to international trade creates growth for 250 years. David Atkin tells Tim Phillips about his analysis of the conditions in which increased openness improves welfare in a developing country. 

Auditing ensures public procurement is good value. Or does it? An experiment in Chile suggests the audit itself makes procurement less efficient afterwards. Dina Pomeranz opened the black box of the audit process and tells Tim Phillips what she discovered.

Turkey has received 4m refugees from Syria, a quarter of them children. How can its schools integrate so many new students, help them to make friends and to learn a new language? Sule Alan tells Tim Phillips about a program that has successfully built social cohesion in Turkey's schools.

Paraguay, like Peru and Mexico, is supporting seniors with a monthly non-contributory pension payment. What difference does this income make to the people who receive it? Quite a lot, Sebastian Galiani tells Tim Phillips.

Indonesia recently started providing vouchers instead of rice to millions of households. Elan Satriawan of National Team for Acceleration of Poverty Reduction tells Tim Phillips that this has made it possible to target aid better and is cheaper to administer too.

Malnutrition in children is a silent killer. Is it made worse by lack of knowledge or lack of income? Michael Levere tells Tim Phillips about an experiment in Nepal that investigated the best way to help mums-to-be.

In Ethiopia, one development program is building roads to remote villages, while another tries to make small farms more productive. Mesay Gebresilasse tells Tim Phillips how well the projects work individually – and how much more successful they are when implemented together.

In May 2003 the Brazilian government launched an anti-corruption program that exposed and suspended corrupt public officials. Emanuele Colonnelli tells Tim Phillips that the campaign worked – and not just in the districts that were audited.

When courts lack credibility, non-state actors may step in – and the less that we engage with state institutions, the weaker they become. How do we turn this around? Daron Acemoglu tells Tim Phillips about an experiment to inspire more trust in the state among the citizens of Punjab in Pakistan.