Development Economic researchers explore the factors that contribute to the persistence of poverty and/or to slow growth, such as the country’s infrastructure, the standards of health and education services, the functioning of markets, and government policy. By studying the decisions of households, firms and policymakers, they formulate theories and test them empirically, with the goal of offering solutions for improvement.

Key areas covered are:

  • poverty reduction
  • social services and human capital: health and education policies
  • private sector development in low-income countries
  • microeconomics of growth
  • markets and market failures: land, credit, insurance

VoxDev

Development economics from research to practice

VoxDev is a platform for economists, policymakers, practitioners, donors, the private sector and others interested in development to discuss key policy issues. Expert contributors provide insightful commentary, analysis, and evidence on a wide range of policy challenges in formats that we hope are accessible to a wide audience interested in development. We aim to put evidence from decades of academic research into the hands of decision-makers and civil society in developing countries in a way that they can be easily accessed and actually put to use, ultimately encouraging the design and implementation of more evidence-based policy.

Programme Directors

Eliana La Ferrara

Professor of Public Policy Harvard Kennedy School; Scientific Director Laboratory for Effective Anti-poverty Policies Bocconi University

Research Fellows

Daron Acemoglu

Institute Professor in the Department of Economics Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Abigail Adams-Prassl

Research Fellow Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS); Associate Professor in Economics and Associate Head of Impact and External Engagement of University Of Oxford

Philippe Aghion

Professor College De France; The Kurt Björklund Chaired Professor in Innovation and Growth European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD); Visiting Professor London School Of Economics And Political Science

Sule Alan

Adjunct Professor of Economics Bilkent University; Professor of Economics European University Institute

Ingvild AlmĂĄs

PI for Development Research at FAIR Centre of Excellence Norwegian School Of Economics (nhh); Professor of Economics at the Institute for International Economic Studies Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University

Siwan Anderson

Professor in the Vancouver School of Economics University Of British Columbia

Sam Asher

Cofounder Development Data Lab; Associate Professor Imperial College London Business School

Nava Ashraf

Co-Lead Academic International Growth Centre; Director of Research, the Marshall Institute; Co-Director of the Psychology and Economics Programme, STICERD; Professor of Economics London School Of Economics And Political Science

David Atkin

Professor of Economics Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Oriana Bandiera

Sir Anthony Atkinson Professor of Economics London School Of Economics And Political Science

Abhijit Banerjee

Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Natalie Bau

Associate Professor in the Department of Economics University Of California, Los Angeles

Marianne Bertrand

Chris P. Dialynas Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Willard Graham Faculty Scholar in the Booth School of Business University Of Chicago

Tim Besley

School Professor of Economics and Political Science and the W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics London School Of Economics And Political Science

Martina Björkman Nyqvist

Executive Director of Misum, Mistra Center of Sustainability Center; Carl Bennet & Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Professor in Economics Stockholm School Of Economics

Christopher Blattman

Co-Lead of the Development Economics Centre and the International Policy & Development Programme, the Ramalee E. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at the Harris School of Public Policy University Of Chicago

Tessa Bold

Associate Professor Institute For International Economic Studies (IIES), Stockholm University

Francois Bourguignon

Global Professor New York University Abu Dhabi; Director of Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Emeritus Professor Paris School of Economics (PSE)

Gharad Bryan

Associate Professor of Economics London School Of Economics And Political Science

Konrad Burchardi

Research Affiliate Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development; Associate Professor of Economics Institute For International Economic Studies (IIES), Stockholm University

Robin Burgess

Professor of Economics, Co-Founder and Director of the International Growth Centre and Director of the Economics of Environment and Energy Research Programme London School Of Economics And Political Science

Michael Callen

Associate Professor of Economics London School Of Economics And Political Science

Lorenzo Casaburi

Associate Professor (with Tenure) in the Department of Economics University Of Zurich

Francesco Caselli

Norman Sosnow Chair in Economics London School Of Economics And Political Science

Julie Chytilová

Associate Professor of Economics Charles University; Researcher Czech Academy of Sciences

Antonio Ciccone

Professor of Macroeconomics in the Department of Economics University Of Mannheim

Lucia Corno

Executive Director, Laboratory for Effective Anti-poverty Policies (LEAP) Bocconi University; Associate Professor of Economics UniversitĂ  Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore

Giacomo De Giorgi

Visiting Professor of Economics University Of California, Berkeley; Professor of Economics University Of Geneva

Stefan Dercon

Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies and Fellow of Jesus College; Professor of Economic Policy in the Blavatnik School of Government and Economics Department University Of Oxford

Matthias Doepke

Professor of Economics London School Of Economics And Political Science; Gerald F. and Marjorie G. Fitzgerald Professor of Economic History Northwestern University

Dave Donaldson

Professor of Economics Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Oeindrila Dube

Philip K. Pearson Professor, Harris School of Public Policy University Of Chicago

Pierre Dubois

Senior Member Institut Universitaire de France; Professor of Economics, Toulouse School of Economics Toulouse School Of Economics

Pascaline Dupas

Professor of Economics and International Affairs Princeton University

Ruben Enikolopov

Researcher, Barcelona Institute of Political Economy and Governance; Affiliate Professor Barcelona School Of Economics; Visiting Professor New Economic School; ICREA Research Professor Pompeu Fabra University

Benjamin Faber

Associate Professor of Economics University Of California, Berkeley

Marcel Fafchamps

Satre Family Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute Stanford University

Erica Field

Professor of Economics and Global Health Duke University

Garance Genicot

Professor of Economics Georgetown University; Research Associate in the Development Economics Programme National Bureau Of Economic Research (NBER); President, Theoretical Research in Development Economics (ThReD)

Maitreesh Ghatak

Director of the Development Economics Programme, STICERD; Professor of Economics London School Of Economics And Political Science

Douglas Gollin

Governing Body Fellow at St. Antony’s College and Professor of Development Economics University Of Oxford

Michael Greenstone

Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, Director of the Becker Friedman Institute and the Interdisciplinary Energy Policy Institute University Of Chicago

Fellow, Development Economics

Rema Hanna

Jeffrey Cheah Professor of South-East Asia Studies and Chair of the International Development Area at the Kennedy School, Faculty Director of Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) at the Center for International Development Harvard University

Johannes Haushofer

Visiting Senior Fellow and Visiting Professor of Economics National University Of Singapore; Professor of Economics Stockholm University

Chang-Tai Hsieh

Phyllis and Irwin Winkelried Professor of Economics and PCL Faculty Scholar University Of Chicago

Seema Jayachandran

Director of the Research Programme of Development Economics and Professor of Economics and Public Affairs Princeton University

Simon Johnson

Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship, Head of the Global Economics and Management Group and Faculty Chair of the Sloan Fellows Programme Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Joseph Kaboski

David F. and Erin M. Seng Foundation Professor of Economics University Of Notre Dame

Ravi Kanbur

T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, Professor of Economics Cornell University

Martin Kanz

Senior Economist for the Development Research Group The World Bank

Dean Karlan

Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance, Kellogg School of Management Northwestern University; Chief Economist, USAID

Supreet Kaur

Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics University Of California, Berkeley

Asim Khwaja

Director of the Center for International Development and Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development, Harvard Kennedy School Harvard University

Michael Kremer

Faculty Fellow for the Center for International Development at Harvard Kennedy School Harvard University; University Professor in the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics and Director of the Development Innovation Lab University Of Chicago

Eliana La Ferrara

Professor of Public Policy Harvard Kennedy School; Scientific Director Laboratory for Effective Anti-poverty Policies Bocconi University

Victor Lavy

William Haber Chaired Professor of Economics Hebrew University Of Jerusalem; Chaired Professor in the Department of Economics University Of Warwick

Rocco Macchiavello

Professor of Managerial Economics & Strategy London School Of Economics And Political Science

David McKenzie

Lead Economist in the Development Research Group, Finance and Private Sector Development Unit The World Bank

Costas Meghir

Douglas A. Warner III Professor of Economics Yale University

Guy Michaels

Associate Professor in the Department of Economics London School Of Economics And Political Science

Edward Miguel

Faculty Co-Director of the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and Oxfam Professor in Environmental and Resource Economics University Of California, Berkeley

Ameet Morjaria

Associate Professor of Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences Kellogg School Of Management, Northwestern University

Hannes Mueller

Programme Director of the M.Sc. Data Science for Decision Making and Associate Research Professor Barcelona School Of Economics; Tenured Researcher Institute for Economic Analysis

Sendhil Mullainathan

Roman Family University Professor of Computation and Behavioral Science at Chicago Booth University Of Chicago

Benjamin Olken

Jane Berkowitz Carlton and Dennis William Carlton Professor of Microeconomics Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Ralph Ossa

KĂĽhne Foundation Professor of International Trade and Director of the KĂĽhne Center for Sustainable Trade and Logistics University Of Zurich; Chief Economist and Director of the Economic Research and Statistics Division World Trade Organization

Gerard PadrĂł i Miquel

Director of the Leitner Program in International and Comparative Political Economy and Professor of Economics and Political Science Yale University

Rohini Pande

Professor (Courtesy), Jackson School of Global Affairs; Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics and Director of the Economic Growth Center Yale University

Torsten Persson

Swedish Research Council Distinguished Professor at the Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES) Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University

Thomas Piketty

Co-director, World Inequality Lab & World Inequality Database; Professor of Economics Paris School of Economics (PSE)

Nancy Qian

James J. O'Connor Professor of Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences at Kellogg MEDS Northwestern University

Yingyi Qian

Professor in the School of Economics and Management and Distinguished Professor of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Tsinghua University

Hillel Rapoport

Professor Paris School of Economics (PSE); Professor University of Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne

Imran Rasul

Professor of Economics and Co-director of the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre on Wealth Concentration, Inequality and the Economy University College London

Marta Reynal-Querol

ICREA Research Professor, Professor of Economics, Director of IPEG, Department of Economics and Business Pompeu Fabra University

Dani Rodrik

Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University

Dominic Rohner

Co-Director of the Department of Economics and Professor of Economics Hec Lausanne

GĂ©rard Roland

E. Morris Cox Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science University Of California, Berkeley

Christopher Roth

Senior Research Fellow Max Planck Institute For Research On Collective Goods; Professor of Economics and Management University of Cologne

Paul Seabright

Professor of Economics Toulouse School Of Economics; Professor of Economics and Fellow of All Souls College University Of Oxford

Sandra Sequeira

Associate Professor at the International Development Department London School Of Economics And Political Science

Tavneet Suri

Louis E. Seley Professor of Applied Economics at MIT Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Jakob Svensson

Director and Professor of Economics Institute For International Economic Studies (IIES), Stockholm University

Adam Szeidl

Professor in the Department of Economics and Business Central European University

Alessandro Tarozzi

Associate Professor (with tenure) in the Department of Economics and Business Barcelona School Of Economics; Professor of Economics European University Institute; Associate Professor (with tenure) Pompeu Fabra University

Silvana Tenreyro

External Monetary Policy Committee Member Bank Of England; Professor London School Of Economics And Political Science

Andrea Tesei

Associate Professor of Economics Queen Mary University Of London

Edoardo Teso

Associate Professor of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences at the Kellogg School of Management Northwestern University

Duncan Thomas

Norb F. Schaefer Distinguished Professor of International Studies and Professor of Economics, Global Health and Public Policy Duke University

Robert Townsend

Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Christopher Udry

Co-Director, Global Poverty Research Lab King Professor of Economics Northwestern University

Oliver Vanden Eynde

Research Fellow French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS); Chaired Professor Paris School of Economics (PSE)

Anthony Venables

Research Director The Productivity Institute; Professor of Economics University Of Manchester

Eric Verhoogen

Founding Director and Current Co-Director of the Center for Development Economics and Policy and Professor in the Department of Economics and School of International and Public Affairs Columbia University

Pedro Vicente

Founder and Scientific Director, the Nova Africa Center for Business and Economic Development; Professor of Economics NOVA University Lisbon

Shang-Jin Wei

N.T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy, Professor of Finance and Economics at the Graduate School of Business and School of International and Public Affairs Columbia University

Yanhui Wu

Associate Professor of Economics University of Hong Kong

Cheng-Gang Xu

Visiting Professor in the Finance Department Imperial College London; Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution Stanford University

David Yanagizawa-Drott

Professor of Development and Emerging Markets in the Department of Economics University Of Zurich

Noam Yuchtman

Professor of Managerial Economics and Strategy London School Of Economics And Political Science

Fabrizio Zilibotti

Fellow, Pauli Murray College; Tuntex Professor of International and Development Economics Yale University

Research Affiliates

Cevat Giray Aksoy

Associate Director of Research and Senior Research Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD); Associate Professor of Economics King's College London

Alex Armand

Associate Professor of Business and Economics NOVA University Lisbon; Resident Member NOVAFRICA

Sebastian Axbard

Senior Lecturer of Economics Queen Mary University Of London; Research Affiliate The Alan Turing Institute

Clare Balboni

Assistant Professor of Economics London School Of Economics And Political Science

Samuel Bazzi

Professor, Department of Economics and School of Global Policy & Strategy University of California, San Diego

Emily Breza

Assistant Professor, Economics Department Harvard University

Diogo Britto

Research Fellow at CLEAN - Baffi-Carefin Centre Research Fellow at CLEAN - Baffi-Carefin Centre Bocconi University; Senior Assistant Professor of Economics Senior Assistant Professor of Economics University of Milano Bicocca

J Michelle Brock

Associate Director, Senior Research Economist, Office of the Chief Economist European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

Anne Brockmeyer

Senior Economist and Global Lead for Tax Data Analytics The World Bank; Honorary Associate Professor University College London

Katherine Casey

Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research; Associate Professor of Political Economy and The Katherine and David deWilde Faculty Scholar for 2022–2023 Stanford Graduate School Of Business

Alexia Delfino

Assistant Professor, Department of Economics Bocconi University

Melissa Dell

Andrew E. Furer Professor of Economics Harvard University

Erika Deserranno

Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics Bocconi University; Associate Professor (untenured) in the MEDS Department of the Kellogg School of Management Northwestern University

Rebecca Dizon-Ross

Associate Professor of Economics and Charles E. Merrill Faculty Scholar, Booth School of Business University Of Chicago

Stefano Fiorin

Affiliate, Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research (IGIER); Assistant Professor in the Ettore Bocconi Department of Economics Bocconi University

Simon Franklin

Assistant Professor at School of Economics Queen Mary University Of London

Leander Heldring

Assistant Professor in the Kellogg School of Management Northwestern University

Solomon M. Hsiang

Principal Investigator at the Global Policy Laboratory and Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy University Of California, Berkeley

Clément Imbert

Professor of Economics Professor of Economics (on leave) University Of Warwick

Kelsey Jack

Associate Professor of Environmental and Development Economics University Of California, Santa Barbara

Namrata Kala

Associate Professor in Applied Economics (with Tenure) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Vasily Korovkin

Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Business Pompeu Fabra University

Julien Labonne

Associate Professor in Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government University Of Oxford

Gianmarco Leon-Ciliotta

Affiliated Professor Barcelona School Of Economics; Associate Professor at the Department of Economics and Business Pompeu Fabra University

Sara Lowes

Assistant Professor of Economics University of California, San Diego

Benjamin Marx

Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics Boston University; Associated Professor & Researcher in the Department of Economics Sciences Po Paris

Rachael Meager

Assistant Professor, Economics Department London School Of Economics And Political Science

Joana Naritomi

Assistant Professor London School Of Economics And Political Science

Suanna Oh

Invited Researcher Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL); Assistant Professor Paris School of Economics (PSE)

Kate Orkin

Associate Professor in Economics and Public Policy Blavatnik School of Government

Vincent Pons

Michael B. Kim Associate Professor of Business Administration Harvard Business School; Faculty Research Fellow National Bureau Of Economic Research (NBER)

Jacopo Ponticelli

Associate Professor of Finance, Kellogg School of Management Northwestern University

Mounu Prem

Associate Professor Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF)

Simon Quinn

Associate Professor Imperial College London Business School

Eva Raiber

Assistant Professor at the Aix-Marseille School of Economics Aix-marseille University

Pauline Rossi

Associate Professor École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique

Frank Schilbach

Associate Professor of Economics Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Andreas Stegmann

Invited Researcher at J-PAL Affiliated Researcher, Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE); Associate Professor in the Department of Economics University Of Warwick

Jonathan Weigel

Assistant Professor at the Haas School of Business University Of California, Berkeley

Yun Xiao

Assistant Professor, University of Gothenburg