Development economics finally has a global professional home. Today we launch @ideadevecon.bsky.social ... Open to every development economist, everywhere. Join the community: idea.devecon.org Please share 🌍
Mahreen Mahmud
@mahreenmahmud.bsky.social
Development economist at Exeter | Postdoc CSAE, Oxford | Kent, Warwick, LUMS alumna From Lahore, Pakistan 🇵🇰 Website: https://sites.google.com/site/mahreenmahmudsite/
Thank you to the amazing keynotes @cynthiakinnan.bsky.social @essobecker.bsky.social, and all presenters at the Diversity and Human Capital Workshop in Exeter! It was a pleasure for us to host you all and hear about so many exciting projects. @sanchariroy.bsky.social @climent.bsky.social
The 4th Diversity and Human Capital Workshop opens with our 1st keynote by Cynthia Kinnan @cynthiakinnan.bsky.social (Tufts University) presenting “Network barriers to worker reallocation: Evidence from Thailand”. #DHC2026 @vatsalecon.bsky.social @climent.bsky.social @uofebusiness.bsky.social
Today I have put up my 10th annual look at development journals, which works with journal editors to put together statistics on submission numbers, acceptance rates, review times, and more. This is the post that takes me the most time to do each year blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...
The State of Development Journals 2026: More than 16,000 submissions, over 1,000 published papers, and more details.
blogs.worldbank.org
New working paper with Amol Singh Raswan and Chris Udry: "The Sisyphean Pursuit of Evidence for Poverty Traps." A central idea in development economics is that poverty can trap people. We went looking for the cleanest evidence. Here's what we found – and didn't.
⏰ Reminder — The last date to submit papers for the 4th Diversity and Human Capital Workshop (June 9-10, 2026, @uofebusiness.bsky.social ) is March 16, midnight GMT! You can submit your papers here: bit.ly/3YRaYMa @climent.bsky.social @sanchariroy.bsky.social
Apply to present your work at the @novafrica.bsky.social PhD Workshop on Development Economics. Organized by the fantastic Econ PhD students at Nova SBE!
NOVAFRICA@novafrica.bsky.social · 6mo ago📢 Call for papers now open for the 4th @NOVAFRICA PhD Workshop on Development Economics 📍 Nova SBE (Lisbon, PT) | 📅 June 17, 2026 This is a pre-conference event ahead of the #NOVAFRICA2026 Conference. 📝 Submission Deadline: March 15, 2026 🔗 bit.ly/4qPvWHy #DevEcon #EconResearch
📢 Call for Papers 4th Diversity and Human Capital Workshop, June 9–10, 2026 @exeter.ac.uk @uofebusiness.bsky.social We welcome papers in applied microeconomics, including health, labour, education, development, and public economics. Submit your paper by 16 March: bit.ly/3YRaYMa
🆕 When do cash transfers empower women? Today on VoxDev, Mahreen Mahmud (University of Exeter), Kate Orkin (Blavatnik School of Government) & Emma Riley (University of Michigan) discuss how an aspirations workshop paired with a cash transfer helped Kenyan women: https://ow.ly/51YC50XSkZH
When do cash transfers empower women?
Pairing an aspirations workshop with a cash transfer helped Kenyan women gain control of household resources and reduced intimate partner violence.
ow.ly
🚨 Job alert We’re hiring 5 permanent faculty positions at Assistant Professor level: • 3 x Open field • Health Economics • IO Come work in a large, research-intensive department! ⏰ Applications reviewed on a rolling basis (deadline 18 Jan 2026) #econjobs econjobmarket.org/positions/12...
📢 Thrilled to announce the 4th Diversity and Human Capital Workshop on June 9-10, 2026 at the University of Exeter, featuring keynotes by Sascha Becker, Cynthia Kinnan, and Helmut Rainer! Stay tuned for the Call for Papers—coming soon! More info here: bit.ly/4pjRnjm
🚨 Postdoctoral opportunities! 🚨 Hello #econsky! We are hiring 2 postdocs in the department of economics at UCalgary for those working in *electricity economics* Term: 2 years Pay: $80,000/yr + benefits + $10k research allowance Start: July 2026 Details in next two posts 👇
Thrilled to recommend Ye Yuan @ye-yuan.bsky.social, an outstanding economist whose research is sharp, creative, & methodologically rigorous. He is a generous colleague and an excellent teacher. Anyone hiring in #AppliedMicro should take a close look at his work: sites.google.com/view/ye-yuan/
🚨 New opportunity for PhD students in dev econ! Join Rema Hanna, Ben Olken & others in the J-PAL network for a deep dive into social protection research and policy in an upcoming BREAD–IGC Virtual PhD Course. 🌍 Register: https://www.theigc.org/events/bread-igc-virtual-phd-course/social-protection
BREAD-IGC virtual PhD course on social protection 2025
Join the BREAD-IGC virtual PhD course 2025 to deepen your understanding of social protection challenges and policies.
theigc.org
We (development econ faculty at Princeton) are hiring predocs, to start in summer 2026. Please share the application with folks who might be interested: rpde.princeton.edu/rpde-%E2%80%93-predoctoral-fellows-research-specialists-start-summer-2026 We'll review apps starting on 9/15. Thanks!
Princeton Research Program in Development Economics@princetondevo.bsky.social · 11mo ago🚨🚨 Pre-doc Hiring! 🚨🚨 We are hiring pre-docs to start in Princeton in Summer 2026, supporting Pascaline Dupas, @thomasfujiwara.bsky.social @seema.bsky.social and Mica Sviatschi. This is a great opportunity to gain experience in development economics research before applying to PhD programs. Link 👇
Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @nikita_sang at Queen's University Belfast who works on topics related to education, gender + environment
As we all work very hard on our development economics papers this summer, I want to make sure everyone knows about "How to Write the Introduction of Your Development Economics" - title is self explanatory www.cgdev.org/blog/how-wri...
How to Write the Introduction of Your Development Economics Paper
You win or lose your readers with the introduction of your economics paper. Your title and your abstract should convince people to read your introduction. Research shows that economics papers with mor...
cgdev.org
Kartik Srivastava @kartiksrivastava.bsky.social (Harvard @harvardkennedy.bsky.social ) wraps-up the session with presentation on "Familiar strangers: Evidence from referral-based hiring experiments in India". #DHC2025
Session 4 on Labour starts with Amen Jalal @amenjalal.bsky.social (LSE) presenting "Screening Women Out? Experimenting with Salary Disclosure in Job Ads". #DHC2025 @exeter.ac.uk @uofebusiness.bsky.social @climent.bsky.social @vatsalecon.bsky.social @rabbiatariq.bsky.social
The 3rd Diversity and Human Capital Workshop is now underway at @uofebusiness.bsky.social. Prof. Steve Wood, Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Dean of @UofEBusiness, and Prof. Loukas Balafoutas, Head of the Econ Department, opened the day with an insightful introduction. #DHC2025
Next, @greg-veramendi.bsky.social (Royal Holloway, University of London) discusses their research on "The Labor Market Returns to Delaying Pregnancy". #DHC2025
Prof. Imran Rasul (UCL) delivers the 2nd keynote at the 3rd Diversity and Human Capital Workshop at @uofebusiness.bsky.social, presenting their research on firm behavior and worker outcomes during the pandemic in Uganda. #DHC2025
Session 2 on Human Capital kicks off with Ronak Jain @jainr.bsky.social (@econ.uzh.ch) discussing how access to 3G internet impacts human capital development. #DHC2025 @uofebusiness.bsky.social @exeter.ac.uk @climent.bsky.social @vatsalecon.bsky.social @rabbiatariq.bsky.social
Re-upping my advice about how to write a good title and abstract for an academic paper, appropriately called: "How to Write a Title and Abstract" Feel free to share this thread, which will focus on titles. #EconSky #AcademicSky
Forthcoming in the AER: "Mission Motivation and Public Sector Performance: Experimental Evidence from Pakistan" by Muhammad Yasir Khan. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
Mission Motivation and Public Sector Performance: Experimental Evidence from Pakistan
(Forthcoming Article) - This paper studies, through a randomized field experiment involving community health workers in Pakistan, if public sector organizations can improve worker performance by inves...
aeaweb.org
Users of the Demographic and Health Surveys, please take the United Nations Statistics Division DHS impact survey (form.jotform.com/250913880478...) regarding recent cuts. Replies inform future planning and advocacy. All responses are confidential and presented only in aggregate.
Questionnaire on the use of the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data
Please click the link to complete this form.
form.jotform.com
Excited to share work with Kate Orkin @emmariley.bsky.social in rural Kenya. We show that adding an aspiration-boosting workshop to cash transfers increased women’s control over resources & decreased intimate partner violence as compared to cash transfers alone. tinyurl.com/3fwuhjyc
DP20107 Cash Transfers and Role Models: Impacts on Women’s Empowerment in Rural Kenya
Cash and asset transfer programs are widely used to improve household economic outcomes, but their impact on women’s empowerment is mixed. In a four-arm field experiment with 3,000 rural Kenyan women, we examine the effects of augmenting unconditional lump-sum cash transfers with a workshop designed to raise women’s aspirations through role model exposure and facilitated planning. We find that combining the cash transfer and workshop increases women’s share of household resources and reduces intimate partner violence compared to the cash transfer alone. Our study highlights potential gains for women from combining poverty reduction strategies with psychological empowerment interventions.
tinyurl.com
⭐NEW @cepr.org paper by the CSAE's Kate Orkin on 'Cash Transfers & Role Models: Impacts on Women’s Empowerment in Rural Kenya' Examining the effects of pairing unconditional cash transfers w/ a workshop to raise women’s aspirations in an experiment w/ women in rural Kenya. cepr.org/publications...
DP20107 Cash Transfers and Role Models: Impacts on Women’s Empowerment in Rural Kenya
Cash and asset transfer programs are widely used to improve household economic outcomes, but their impact on women’s empowerment is mixed. In a four-arm field experiment with 3,000 rural Kenyan women, we examine the effects of augmenting unconditional lump-sum cash transfers with a workshop designed to raise women’s aspirations through role model exposure and facilitated planning. We find that combining the cash transfer and workshop increases women’s share of household resources and reduces intimate partner violence compared to the cash transfer alone. Our study highlights potential gains for women from combining poverty reduction strategies with psychological empowerment interventions.
cepr.org
📢Call for Papers: Joint @g2lmlic.bsky.social /BREAD/path2dev dev econ conference at LUMS (Lahore/Pakistan) on Sep 11-13 Including mentoring feature for young scholars from South Asia by BREAD fellows Submit by May 15 here: conference.iza.org/GLMLIC_BREAD...
In today’s episode of VoxDevTalks, @katevyborny.bsky.social addresses a central question in development: Can women be incentivized into entering the labor market? Evidence from #Pakistan suggests that access to safe transport is key to tapping into a large segment of the country’s workforce:
VoxDev@voxdev.bsky.social · last yr.🆕 How safe transport could unlock women’s labour force participation in Pakistan Today on VoxDev, @katevyborny.bsky.social (World Bank) discusses the impacts of a women-only transport intervention in urban Pakistan: voxdev.org/topic/infras...