Development

The Development Programme fosters theoretical and empirical research into the design, impact and determinants of public policy and organisational change. Key fields include development economics, political economy and public economics. There is strong interest within the group in identifying policies and developing institutions capable both of reducing poverty and enhancing growth.

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image of power plant, photo by Valeriy Kryukov on Unsplash, https://unsplash.com/photos/zc9__sCp1sc

How feasible is it to phase out coal-fired power plants? Evidence from a global attitudes survey

Coal-fired power plants are a highly polluting energy source but people are either unaware or unable to convey their dissatisfaction about living with poor air quality. Using survey data from 51 low- and middle-income countries, this article by Tim Besley and Azhar Hussain calculates citizens' willingness to pay to phase-out coal power. Read more...

Video: Why Do People Stay Poor?

Video animation based on the paper by Clare Balboni, Oriana Bandiera, Robin Burgess, Maitreesh Ghatak, and Anton Heil why do people stay poor and what are the implications for efforts to reduce global poverty. Read more...

Pillars of Prosperity

Using the tools of modern political economics and combining economic theory with a bird's-eye view of the data (now updated for 2021), Timothy Besley and Torsten Persson reinterpret Adam Smith's pillars of prosperity to explain the existence of development clusters--places that tend to combine effective state institutions, the absence of political violence, and high per-capita incomes. Read more...

People

Image of Maitreesh Ghatak used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Credit: Jolanda Flubacher. https://www.flickr.com/photos/15237218@N00/12115969445

Maitreesh Ghatak (@maitreesh) is Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is Co-Editor of Economica, having formerly served as the Editor-in Chief of the Journal of Development Economics, Managing Editor of the Review of Economic Studies, and Co-Editor of the Economics of Transition. He is the Director of the Development Economics research programme at STICERD. Read more...

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