- Is driving based on a ride-sharing app good work? In the piece, Julie Zollmann and Amolo Ng’weno analyse the impact of the market fight between Uber and Taxify in Africa, and how it impacts directly the livelihood of drivers.
- Nudge units (techniques to steer people towards making beneficial decisions) have been growing around the world, applying behavioural theories to public policy, but a new survey found of the 111 identified OECD government policy nudges at least half did not work as intended.
- Joey Watson discusses the findings of journalist Joshua Keating’s new book Invisible Countries about the four “invisible countries” that could redraw the world map.
- Social cohesion is key to stability when a population is displaced by force from one place to another. Jo de Berry, Senior Social Development Specialist at the World Bank, discusses the new study “Social Cohesion and Forced Displacement” and how important it is to make sure that situations are managed well, both for the refugees and for the hosts.
- Ashlee Betteridge summarises her submission to DFAT’s Soft Power Review and explains the benefits and limitations of using aid and development policies as soft power tool.
- David Brancaccio talks to Paul Romer, a recent winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, about the role of government in innovation.
- Kathleen Beegle discusses the rise of social safety net programs in Africa.
- Gordon Hanson and Amit Khandelwal write about using night-light intensity to measure markets – with a comparison to what daytime satellite imagery reveals.