· On VoxDev talks, Catia Batista and Caroline Theoharides discuss high-skilled emigration, brain drain and brain gain, building on a recent Science review paper I blogged about here. “Do not assume a brain drain. Do not assume that, because people are leaving, the origin country will be harmed… We present enough rigorous evidence from different contexts that shows that there is surely the possibility that high-skilled immigration will benefit origin countries”
· On the IADB’s Enfoque Educación blog, Nicolás Ajzenman and co-authors summarize an RCT in progress which tests the use of AI agents vs human counselors in providing at-scale career guidance about teaching as a career in Chile.” Early analysis of students’ interactions in both treatment arms show how students use AI differently than human counselors, revealing important patterns for scaling educational interventions…More students appear to be more willing to begin interactions with Kai (35%) than with human counselors (28%)…Students tend to ask Kai more informative, factual-based questions about teaching careers, scholarships, benefits, and entry requirements (62.6% of all queries to Kai are factual-based questions, versus 25.8% of queries to human counselors). In contrast, they direct more than twice as many subjective questions to human tutors, seeking guidance on vocational decisions, experiences with teaching practicums, and the academic rigor of education programs.”
· “we examine whether a woman was elected in 2020 in an open seat in Rajasthan, based on whether that seat had been reserved in any of the three prior election cycles (since 2005). Despite this extended 15-year window, we find no evidence that longer exposure to female leaders increases the likelihood that women run for or win office once reservations are lifted.”….from a VoxDev piece by Varun Karekurve-Ramachandra and Gaurav Sood on the long-term impacts of gender quotas in India. There is also this interesting piece on whether women are perhaps just serving as figureheads “First, we called 500 randomly sampled representatives in gender-reserved seats on their official phone numbers. About 88% of the calls were answered by someone other than the representative, typically a male relative such as a husband, father, or son. When we requested to speak to the representative, most of the interlocutors refused without giving a reason. In contrast, when we called representatives from non-reserved (open) seats, around 80% of the mostly male incumbents answered directly. These patterns suggest that while gender quotas ensure women hold office formally, men often continue to exercise control.”
· Tatyana Deryugina on the intuition behind bad controls. “I’d like to explain, in an intuitive way, why including such time-varying controls in quasi-experimental studies is a bad idea…. First…you shouldn’t need them if your source of variation is as good as random. If you feel that you need these time-varying controls to estimate the treatment effect correctly, then you should probably rethink your study design or the claim that you’re exploiting variation that’s as good as random…second …you could reach the wrong conclusion about whatever it is that you’re trying to study.”. She gives an example of valuing green spaces in cities, and deciding to control for neighborhood population and income.
· A new VoxDevLit on sanitation infrastructure, with senior editors Britta Augsburg, Andrew Foster and Molly Lipscomb.” Because sanitation generates large positive externalities, individual households frequently underinvest—pointing to a clear role for well-designed public subsidies and collective action. At the same time, interventions that rely on behavioural nudges alone, such as information provision or social pressure, have yielded limited results when not paired with material support.”
· Conference calls:
o The World Bank and George Washington University are inviting submissions for a 1-day symposium on "AI & the Future of Human Capital in the Global South" on September 29, 2025. They are seeking cutting-edge research on AI and its impact on developing economies. The conference is intended to foster the exchange between economics and related disciplines, and computer science and engineering. Topics include: AI-driven innovations in education, healthcare, social protection, and labor markets in low and middle-income countries. The role of AI in enhancing human capital and policy implications for integrating AI into human capital development. Specific considerations and challenges in implementing AI solutions in low-capacity institutional contexts. The deadline for paper submissions is July 18.
o Reminder NEUDC submissions are now open, and close August 16. Conference details here.
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