· Kelsey Piper in the new “The Argument” on how studies in the U.S. find that giving people money helped less than she thought it would. The piece discusses some of the challenges of trying to capture impacts of cash, but then notes the lack of media coverage for null results “While exciting big results from pilots tend to make headlines and travel quickly on social media, sobering results from RCTs generally don’t. The depressing facts I've recounted for you are largely missing, obscured or glossed over in the public communications about these studies. Articles focus on tiny positives or, at best, will note the evidence is uncertain. Very few articles or press releases put the big picture together even if they cover one disappointing result.” They then have a “MadLibs” back-and-forth debate between Matt Bruenig and Kelsey Piper in which Bruenig argues for the importance of cash in welfare systems.
· “Since the degree of informality is a continuum, policy should always focus on how to derive the substantive benefits of formality and not merely fixating on the forms of either mode of organizing economic activity. Formalization as performative checking of boxes doesn’t work. What matters is the substance. Policy interventions that might work include lowering the cost of doing business and getting big, active government support of young domestic firms, cultivating financial systems that provides longer runways for young firms, and an ideational commitment to modernization and rationalization as critical to organizing economic activities. Basically, doing stuff that makes it easy for firms to become bigger, more profitable, and to employ more people (and make them more productive).” – Ken Opalo on why Africa needs a lot more large private sector firms
· A Guide to finding and setting up a research project for early-career researchers, from the University of Barcelona training program BESTEPS.
· In Asterisk magazine – Oliver Kim on whether it makes sense to try to look at GDP over centuries, as the Maddison data does (he argues no).
· In the latest Finance & PSD Impact note, Bruhn et al discuss a staggered DiD evaluation of a second-tier loan program in Ecuador – where the state bank provided credit lines to banks to in turn have them onlend to MSMEs – they find this did increase financing, jobs, and sales in the firms receiving credit.
· Behind the Scenes Workshop series on the different stages of an experiment: the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL) is starting a workshop series where early-career researchers will learn directly from field experiment scholars about the practical, sometimes invisible, decisions that shape experimental research in organisations and management. The first session takes place on September 16, and focuses on pre-registration and trial design, with presentations by myself and Amisha Miller of NYU, followed by discussion. To register, fill out this google form.
· A virtual workshop on using mixed methods/qualitative research to understand unusual results in RCTs and other quantitative work will take place 9-12 on Friday October 17. Details and a link to register are here.
· The Animal Welfare Economics Mentorship Program is now accepting applications from PhD students and early-career scholars curious about working at the intersection of economics and animal welfare. This program offers guidance, encouragement, and opportunities for collaboration with senior researchers in the field. Applicants should be enrolled in a PhD program or have completed their PhD within the last two years. They welcome candidates in economics and related disciplines (e.g., agricultural and resource economics, business economics, etc.). The program offers one-on-one mentorship with faculty scholars active in animal welfare economics; supportive conversations on research ideas, feedback, and professional development, with a low-commitment format: mentors and mentees meet remotely 2–4 times per academic year.
· Calls for Papers:
o Conference on New Thinking in Industrial Policy: Perspectives from Developed and Developing Countries, at Columbia University, Nov. 6-7, 2025. They are looking to convene leading researchers from economics, sociology, political science, and related fields to take stock of what is known and what needs to be learned about the optimal design of industrial policy, the challenges in evaluating interventions empirically, and the difficulties that practitioners face on the ground. They are considering both full papers and extended abstracts. Submission deadline is Friday September 12.
o ANAPRI and the World Bank are excited to announce a call for papers on “Leveraging the Agrifood System AFS for Jobs” to be presented on November 3, 2025, in Kigali, Rwanda during a pre-conference to the 12th Annual ANAPRI Stakeholders Conference (4-6 November 2025). Interested candidates are invited to submit their full papers by September 15, 2025 here. Economy-class travel and lodging support will be provided for one presenter per paper. Publication of selected papers in a special journal issue is being explored. The findings will also inform the World Bank flagship study on “Leveraging the Agrifood System for Jobs”.
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