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Economic Development

Can Industrial Policy Help Revive Struggling Regions?

A new paper co-authored by Yale SOM’s Cameron LaPoint looks at an effort in 1980s Japan to narrow economic inequalities between geographic regions, in order to understand the potential impact of the similar U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, enacted in 2022.

President Joe Biden with a quantum computer during a tour of an IBM facility in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 2022.
  • To Reduce Risk, Build Trust, in Developing Countries and the U.S.

    Mena Cammett ’12 of the World Bank says that the tools used to analyze risk in emerging markets are increasingly relevant to the United States. To mitigate vulnerabilities, build trust.

    The Taiba N’Diaye Wind Power Station in Senegal, a project underwritten by the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. Photo: MIGA.
  • How Systems Thinking Can Help Stop Neglected Tropical Diseases

    Despite being easy and inexpensive to treat, a group of common bacterial and parasitic infections kill hundreds of thousands of people in tropical countries each year. In a new paper, Yale SOM’s Teresa Chahine and her co-authors map the complex system of stakeholders surrounding the diseases and identify key leverage points for making progress.

    Students receiving a deworming treatment at a school in Rwanda.
  • Seeking Scalable Solutions to Poverty

    Prof. Mushfiq Mobarak describes the arc of his research on scalable, evidence-based policy responses to poverty and how existing research tools have been applied to fight COVID.

    Garment workers demonstrating in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on September 20, 2020. Photo: Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
  • Can Religious Teachings Help Lift People Out of Poverty?

    A study in the Philippines, co-authored by Yale SOM’s James Choi, suggests that learning Protestant Christian values and theology can boost poor families’ income.

    A speaker in front of a whiteboard in the Philippines
  • Study Examines Spread of COVID-19 among Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

    Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak and his co-authors investigated the prevalence of the disease in the crowded refugee camps and offered recommendations to slow its spread.

    Rohingya refugees at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh on May 15, 2020. Photo: Suzauddin Rubel/AFP Via Getty Images.
  • Can Mobile Cash Transfers Help the Very Poor Survive COVID-19?

    In the developing world, many of those most at risk from the economic effects of COVID-19 are beyond the reach of aid programs. Yale SOM’s Kevin Donovan is testing the use of the transfers in a slum on the outskirts of Nairobi.

    A street in Dandora, Nigeria
  • Helping the Hardest Hit

    Even when the economy was roaring along, far too many Americans lacked the savings and support to respond to an unexpected loss of income. The COVID-19 crisis has thrown that fragility into stark relief.

    A graphic of an umbrella made out of money sheltering houses with faces
  • Responding to COVID-19 in the Developing World 

    The mass social distancing strategy being used to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the United States and Europe doesn’t easily translate to a developing country like Bangladesh, which lacks the capacity to impose restrictions or provide a social safety net for the unemployed.

    Idled boats on the shore of Buriganga River in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on March 31. Photo: Ahmed Salahuddin/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
  • When Women Speak, Do People Listen?

    In a study of farming villages in Malawi, Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak and his colleagues found that women’s performance on communication tasks seemed to be hindered by how other people received their work.

    Mary Musa on her farm in Malawi in 2010.
  • How Evidence Can Make International Development More Effective

    Research by Yale SOM’s Rodrigo Canales and Tony Sheldon points toward a new model that brings together academics, policy makers, and NGOs from the beginning of the process in order to better integrate evidence generation into policy and practice.

    An NGO representative meeting with women in a village in Burkina Faso