The long-term effects of conditional cash transfer programmes: Evidence from Colombia

Conditional cash transfer programmes can have long-term benefits by reducing crime, lowering adolescent fertility and increasing school attendance as well as formal employment.

Growing apart: Declining within- and across-village risk sharing in rural China

Focusing on rural China, we provide evidence that the formal and informal mechanisms that previously protected households against unanticipated income changes weakened considerably from the late 1980s to the late 2000s, especially those that help to insure against income inequalities.

Informality and the effects of trade in developing countries

This column develops a structural equilibrium model of trade and informality to study the effects of trade openness on unemployment, welfare, productivity, and wage inequality.

How women's social networks vary with wealth and status: Evidence from India

This column examines new mothers’ social networks in rural Odisha, an eastern state in India, and finds that young mothers tend to be extremely isolated, with potentially important consequences for mental and physical wellbeing, access to services, and maternal empowerment.

Migration and risk sharing: Evidence from Bangladesh

Rural to urban migration can improve the allocation of labour as rural workers migrate to the city where there are greater job opportunities. In this VoxDev talk, Professor Costas Meghir analyses the effect of incentivizing rural to urban migration on informal insurance in rural Bangladesh. 

Earnings dynamics and firm-level shocks

We know little about how much fluctuations in a firm’s fortunes are passed on in wages. This column uses Swedish data from 1997 to 2008 that identifies individual workers to show that shocks to firm productivity are passed on as variation in worker wages. 

Scaling an early childhood development and nutrion programme in Colombia

Vast evidence exists on the decisive role early childhood interventions (ECIs) play in determining human capital formation, economic growth, development and equity in developing countries. We explore how to effectively scale-up and improve the quality of parenting and nutrition programs targeted at socioeconomically vulnerable children in a study based in Colombia.

The impact of time limits on employment, divorce, and the social safety net

Changing the terms and rules governing welfare can have substantial effects on employment. This column explores how the imposition of time limits for welfare receipt affected the employment, marriage, and divorce rates of women in the US. As intended by the reform, time limits decreased welfare use and the divorce rate, while increasing employment.