- A great piece by Ingrid Gercama and Nathalie Bertrams looks at the negative impact of vanilla fever in Madagascar.
- Markus Goldstein and David Evans summarise the economic research and other presentations delivered at the Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE) conference held at Oxford University in March.
- John Bolton, Donald Trump’s pick for US National Security Adviser, has previously talked of action to shut down the International Monetary Fund. Scott Morris, Senior Fellow and Director of the US Development Policy Initiative, explains why Bolton’s comment was not justified.
- According to Adam Smith’s foundational economics book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, the division of labour (specialisation) increases productivity. However, David Evan argues that this basic economic concept does not apply to the primary education sector.
- An interesting program has been launched by the Kenyan Government and the World Bank to reduce the cost of textbooks and their distribution, with the aim of making learning materials available to every student in Kenya.
- According to the UN, in 2017 climate change disasters and conflicts caused hunger levels around the world to rise, affecting 124 million people in 51 countries.
- David Hammond, Research Director at the Institute for Economics and Peace, explains multidimensional risks and how to prevent them, using the 2014 Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone as a case study.