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David McKenzie

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David McKenzie is a lead economist at the World Bank's Development Research Group, Finance and Private Sector Development Unit in… more

H-index: 79
Economics 43%
Sociology 18%
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by David McKenzie

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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by Marcos Vera‐Hernández — Reposted by: David McKenzie

papiteide.bsky.social
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
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Reposted by: David McKenzie

cerdi.bsky.social
📈 #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
Photo © IRD - Jean-Jacques Lemasson
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by David McKenzie — Reposted by: David McKenzie, Climent Quintana‐Domeque, Florence Kondylis

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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by David McKenzie

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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by David McKenzie

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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by David McKenzie

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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by David McKenzie

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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by David McKenzie

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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.
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by David McKenzie

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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by David McKenzie

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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 &
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by David McKenzie

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

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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.
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by David McKenzie

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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?
ryancbriggs.net
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
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by David McKenzie — Reposted by: Valerie Mueller, Berk Özler, World Bank

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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Reposted by: David McKenzie, Ingo Rohlfing

ryancbriggs.net
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
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by Berk Özler — Reposted by: David McKenzie, David K. Evans

berkozler12.bsky.social
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...
dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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by David McKenzie — Reposted by: Berk Özler

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
3

by David McKenzie — Reposted by: Berk Özler

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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by David McKenzie

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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.
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by David McKenzie — Reposted by: Climent Quintana‐Domeque

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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by David McKenzie

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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by Jessica Leight — Reposted by: David McKenzie, Todd Pugatch

leightjessica.bsky.social
A description of researcher initiative that is both accurate (imo) + unflattering
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by David McKenzie — Reposted by: Brad R. Humphreys, Berk Özler, Climent Quintana‐Domeque , and 1 more

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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by David McKenzie — Reposted by: Maarten Vink, Berk Özler, Todd Pugatch

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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by David McKenzie

dmckenzie.bsky.social
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
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Reposted by: David McKenzie, Peter Bergman

leightjessica.bsky.social
Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @CriClerici
@poverty_action who works on topics related to gender + health
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Reposted by: David McKenzie, Dean Yang

catiabatista.bsky.social
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...
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by David McKenzie — Reposted by: Cátia Batista

dmckenzie.bsky.social
This week's links include more on brain drain, comparing AI and human chat on career advice for potential teachers, women leaders in India did not have long-run impacts, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...
Weekly links July 11: brain drain, AI’s giving career advice, disappointing long-term impacts of women leaders in India, and more…
blogs.worldbank.org
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by David McKenzie

dmckenzie.bsky.social
I haven’t read it but Gabe blogged about it: blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...
Does economics need more prophets? Thematic summer book recommendations
blogs.worldbank.org
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References

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