Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

David McKenzie

@dmckenzie.bsky.social

5.3K followers 300 following 300 posts

Lead Economist at the World Bank’s Development Research Group Development Impact blogger https://sites.google.com/site/decrgdmckenzie/

Videos

David McKenzie is a lead economist at the World Bank's Development Research Group, Finance and Private Sector Development Unit in Washington, D.C. His research topics include migration, microenterprises, and methodology for use with developing country data. .. more

Economics 43%

Sociology 18%

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Nov 15

I started a starter pack for World Bank researchers. Let me know if I am missing you go.bsky.app/BWMsQG6

8 27 74

Reposted by Berk Özler, Florence Kondylis

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 1d

I learnt something new from Patrick Behrer's blog today: there seems to be evidence that aerosol pollution, while bad for air quality, health & productivity, has a localized effect on reducing heat - and so as pollution falls, more heat and cyclones may occur blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...?

Pollution, missing heat, and cyclones: what aerosols are doing to climate risk

blogs.worldbank.org

1 2 5

Reposted by Climent Quintana‐Domeque

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 2d

Call for papers for a World Bank Economic Review special issue on migration and development: we are doing a special issue that builds on a recent conference, but with submissions open also for non-conference papers. Short papers in the AER insights type format also welcome. Deadline November 30.

Details of WBER call for papers, including URL and submission deadline of November 30.

7 11

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 7d

This week's links include some of the successes of recent development economics research, advice on being visible, myths in development, index insurance, spatial causal inference approaches, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Weekly links October 3: rainfall insurance, deforestation, being visible, successful research, and more…

blogs.worldbank.org

1 3

Reposted by David McKenzie

Marcos Vera-Hernandez @papiteide.bsky.social · 8d

Are you preparing a randomized controlled trial? Don't miss a special symposium of Fiscal Studies (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1475...) with three articles on power and sample size calculations. (1/3) @theifs.bsky.social

Fiscal Studies | IFS Public Economics Journal | Wiley Online Library

Click on the title to browse this journal

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 5 6

Reposted by David McKenzie

CERDI @cerdi.bsky.social · 9d

📈 #EconSky

🔎 Focus on #research by S. Bertoli, @dmckenzie.bsky.social & E. Murard

#Migration and #marriage are deeply interconnected. Uncertainty about who migrants marry can affect their decision to move—and moving can change who they marry.

Learn more: t.ly/iRRcf%F0%9F%...

#EconDev

1 1 2

Reposted by Climent Quintana‐Domeque, Florence Kondylis

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 11d

In today's blog, I discuss 3 ways for international migration to be part of a structural transformation policy: 1) as an industry itself; 2) training people abroad in the skills to develop a new industry at home; and 3) through immigration (eg Start-up Chile) blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

International Migration as a Structural Transformation Policy

blogs.worldbank.org

9 13

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 21d

This week's links include some positive developments in development, how to negotiate your econ job, why an SEZ was not very successful, econ meets other disciplines, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Weekly links September 19: positive developments, negotiating a job, counting people, SEZ problems, and more…

blogs.worldbank.org

3 10

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 28d

Today's links include the new VoxDevLit on organized crime, going beyond push-pull migration, the state of the econ job market, and measuring success for female entrepreneurs. blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Weekly links September 12: measuring empowerment, beyond push-pull migration, crime and development, and more…

blogs.worldbank.org

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Sep 5

Today's catch-up links have a behind the scenes seminar coming up on doing pre-registration and PAPs, how loans to banks helped firms in Ecuador, animal welfare economics mentoring, the need for more big firms in Africa, and much more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Weekly links September 5: cash arguments, make it easier to have big firms, designing projects, lending and jobs, and more…

blogs.worldbank.org

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Sep 4

My paper on designing and analyzing powerful experiments is now up online at Fiscal Studies. Here is my shareable link for free access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

3 14

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Sep 2

and it is not clear that the right policy is to try to help every small town, no matter how remote and lacking in current opportunity, survive - it is hard and costly to migrate, but many people would be better off in the long run if they did.

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Sep 2

extended family members left behind may be supported in part by transfers from those who leave. But this does not mean that those who remain can't also benefit from place-based investment. But I still agree with Lant Pritchett also, that there are ghost/zombie towns www.cgdev.org/sites/defaul...

www.cgdev.org

1 1

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Sep 2

I don't know the US literature well enough, but don't think @timbartik.bsky.social is arguing these places would be better off if you restricted out-migration. They can both benefit from incentives to get education in order to leave these places, from tax transfers coming in from those who leave &

2 1

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Sep 2

Yeah the “have two (or more) independent teams code up the results from scratch and then reconcile” is costly but would be great.

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Sep 2

Stealth bayes/a sniff test though seems better than not investigating weird results with more scrutiny. A risk-based audit approach would do the same - and like that, we might prefer rules-based thresholds based on formal priors, but also want to maintain some scope for discretion.

1 3

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Sep 2

My sense is that from a Bayesian perspective this is not so bad? Essentially you require more evidence for claims that are more out of line with priors - so having a round of extra checks kick in when you get an unusual result may be justifiable? @economeager.bsky.social what do you think?

Ryan Briggs @ryancbriggs.net · Sep 2

It's very human to only double check that a process is working when you get a weird result. It's also very bad practice, because sometimes your "right" result is due to a bad process and you will be misled. Social scientists (economists) do this kind of asymmetric checking.
arxiv.org/pdf/2508.20069

2 1 12

Reposted by Valerie Mueller, Berk Özler, World Bank

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Sep 2

In today's blog post, what are attrition rates like in developed country field surveys? Benchmarks & lessons for development economists, especially those working with more urban/richer/more mobile populations... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Attrition in surveys in developed country field experiments

blogs.worldbank.org

2 9

Reposted by David McKenzie, Ingo Rohlfing

Ryan Briggs @ryancbriggs.net · Sep 2

1 14 54

Reposted by David McKenzie, David K. Evans

Berk Özler @berkozler12.bsky.social · Aug 20

Working papers get a lot of attention and journalists don't scrutinize the evidence. I do that here for the most recent cash transfers and infant mortality paper...

Is the effect that big?
How can spillovers be so important (and work so fast)?
Do forking paths affect the findings?
And more...

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Aug 20

The link seems to be having trouble: see if this works: blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

When conditions matter: Unconditional cash transfers and infant mortality

blogs.worldbank.org

6 7

Reposted by Berk Özler

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Aug 20

The link seems to be having trouble: see if this works: blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

When conditions matter: Unconditional cash transfers and infant mortality

blogs.worldbank.org

Reposted by Berk Özler

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Aug 20

In a break from our blog break, @berkozler12.bsky.social does a deep-dive into a recent working paper that found large impacts of cash transfers on infant mortality - discussing the set of conditions needed for the effect, and some puzzles blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...?

blogs.worldbank.org

1 2 4

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Aug 9

I think the topic of jobs and the role of different types of policies in helping people get them will be of even more relevance if there is a slowdown.

Reposted by Climent Quintana‐Domeque

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Aug 1

This week's links are the last for a while before we take a break for a month: cash transfers and jobs, representation and relevance in development econ, garment manufacturing and poverty, and more.. blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Weekly links August 1: cash and jobs, the econ job market, representation and relevance in development economics, and more…

blogs.worldbank.org

1 1 4

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Jul 29

The study in question: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...

Study May Undercut Idea That Cash Payments to Poor Families Help Child Development

www.nytimes.com

1 4

Reposted by David McKenzie, Todd Pugatch

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · Jul 29

A description of researcher initiative that is both accurate (imo) + unflattering

4 4 9

Reposted by Brad R. Humphreys, Berk Özler, Climent Quintana‐Domeque , and 1 more Brad R. Humphreys, Berk Özler, Climent Quintana‐Domeque, Simon Wiederhold

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Jul 28

For those without access, here is a gift link to the NYTimes article on the sad state of the economics job market www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/b...

The Bull Market for Economists Is Over. It’s an Ominous Sign for the Economy.

www.nytimes.com

2 9 23

Reposted by Maarten Vink, Berk Özler, Todd Pugatch

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Jul 28

My practical tips for designing, implementing, and analyzing powerful experiments. In today's blog I summarize a new paper I've written for a special issue on power calculations. A key message is that it does not make sense to talk of “the” power of an experiment. blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

My practical tips for designing and analyzing powerful experiments

blogs.worldbank.org

12 22

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Jul 25

Weekly links include what makes a good behavioral or lab experiment measure, the effects of building new pre-schools, using non-traditional types of data, conference and WBRO calls, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Weekly links July 25: what makes a good behavioral measure, preschools are good, reviewing soft skills, and more…

blogs.worldbank.org

Reposted by David McKenzie, Peter Bergman

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · Jun 16

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @CriClerici
@poverty_action who works on topics related to gender + health

1 4 16

Reposted by David McKenzie, Dean Yang

Catia Batista @catiabatista.bsky.social · Jul 15

Thank you @talknormal.co.uk for a great conversation on the @voxdev.bsky.social podcast together with #CarolineTheoharides on our recent @science.org article.

The "brain drain" is only part of the story—skilled migration can benefit origin countries too.

🎧 voxdev.org/topic/migrat...

1 3 13