Ideas in Development

<p>Bill McRaith spent his career building supply chains – from 1980s Britain, to a factory in Panyu, China in 1990, to Ethiopia three decades later. He joins Oliver Hanney to explain what really attracts manufacturing...

Bill McRaith spent his career building supply chains – from 1980s Britain, to a factory in Panyu, China in 1990, to Ethiopia three decades later. He joins Oliver Hanney to explain what really attracts manufacturing...

<p>Slightly different episode today. This is a repost of a recent episode on the Africa Urban Lab's podcast, in which Kurtis Lockhart (who co-hosted our Cities series) interviews Stefan Dercon - very much an episode I...

<p>In 2022, Dean Karlan became Chief Economist at USAID, tasked with steering the world's largest bilateral aid agency towards evidence-backed approaches. He left in 2025, as the agency was being dismantled, having...

<p> Ethiopia is one of Africa's most ambitious bets on export-led manufacturing. It’s also the site of one of the continent's boldest recent macroeconomic reform programmes.</p><p>In this episode of the Ideas in...

<p>The conversation about evidence-based policy usually asks why good evidence isn't shaping decisions. But we should also be asking, is the evidence base itself actually worthy of shaping policy?</p><p>In this episode...

<p>Development economics has built a large empirical evidence base across a range of topics and policies – but how, when and where is it being used? We often assume that evidence will have an impact, but have...

<p>This episode might sound a little different to normal, as it was recorded live.<br><br>For decades, the standard prescription for growth in developing countries was clear: industrialise. Dani Rodrik used to argue...

<p>How can developing countries catch up with the technology frontier? The standard debate frames it as a choice between adopting technology from abroad and innovating at home. Karthik Tadepalli argues that this...

<p>What does a perfect city look like in a low- or middle-income country – and how do you get there?</p><p>In the closing episode of our cities series, Ed Glaeser joins Kurtis Lockhart and Oliver Hanney for a...

<p>Are African cities a powder keg of restless youth – or the most promising place to build prosperity, peaceful politics and shared civic life?</p><p>Leonard Wantchekon joins Ideas in Development to argue that African...

<p>How does organised crime take over a city – and can mayors act before it does?</p><p>Chris Blattman, economist and political scientist at the University of Chicago, joins Oliver Hanney and Kurtis Lockhart on the...

<p>Broken land markets are holding back cities across Africa. But not in Rwanda, which was able to register over 10 million land parcels, and issue over 7 million title deeds, in under five years. How did they do it...

<p>Africa needs to house nearly a billion new urban residents by 2050. Who's going to build it – and how will it be paid for?</p><p>Kecia Rust joins the Ideas in Development series on cities to discuss the full housing...

<p>There is a paradox at the heart of governing cities in Africa. Mayors are responsible for building the infrastructure their fast-growing cities need. But most don't control the money that this requires. In this...