David McKenzie

@dmckenzie.bsky.social

5.3K followers 300 following 310 posts

Lead Economist at the World Bank’s Development Research Group
Development Impact blogger

https://sites.google.com/site/decrgdmckenzie/

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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 Washington, D.C. His research topics include migration, microenterprises, and methodology for use with developing country data. .. more

Economics 43%

Sociology 18%

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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

Reposted by Clark Gray

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 18h

In today's job market post, Sneha Nimmagadda shows in India that mothers misperceive how stunted their kids are, because so many other kids around are also stunted. Correcting this perception changes beliefs and feeding practices, increasing weight for age blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

When every child is stunted, no child Is? How local norms distort perceptions of growth: Guest post by Sneha Nimmagadda

blogs.worldbank.org

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 18h

Our job market series continued on Friday: amenjalal.bsky.social shows revealing pay in online job applications reduces gender sorting in Pakistan. Large firms pay more, but are less likely to reveal salaries and offer less job flexibility. blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Amen Jalal (@amenjalal.bsky.social)

Economics PhD student at LSE; previously at Yale and World Bank. amenjalal.com (she/her)

amenjalal.bsky.social

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 4d

Updated link: blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

When Risk Aversion Keeps Firms Small: Evidence from Kenyan Retailers: Guest post by Grady Killeen

blogs.worldbank.org

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 4d

Yes, it is unclear why a risk-neutral large manufacturer does not offer this, but perhaps the transactions costs are too high with lots of tiny vendors

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 4d

Today we start our job market paper blog series, with Grady Killeen providing an experiment in Kenya that shows how risk aversion keeps firms from introducing new products - a temporary returns policy got them to learn and adopt a new profitable product blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

When Risk Aversion Keeps Firms Small: Evidence from Kenyan Retailers: Guest post by Grady Killeen

blogs.worldbank.org

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 5d

A special Wednesday links is now up, since it is the deadline for our blog your job market paper series today. I cover the new update of our VoxDevLit on business training, work on exporting, political polarization, and return migration, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Reposted by David McKenzie

Reposted by David McKenzie, Cátia Batista

VoxDev @voxdev.bsky.social · 5d

What have we learned about training entrepreneurs?

Issue 4 of our VoxDevLit on Training Entrepreneurs by @dmckenzie.bsky.social, Christopher Woodruff & Co-Editors is out now!➡️ voxdev.org/voxdevlit/tr...

Today's podcast covers the update➡️ voxdev.org/topic/firms/...

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 7d

In today's blog, I discuss how much I'm updating my priors on the effectiveness of wage subsidies in developing countries based on several new studies: quite a bit on shaping who is hired, much less on whether they create new jobs, a bit on coping with shocks blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Updating my priors on the effectiveness of wage subsidies in developing countries

blogs.worldbank.org

Reposted by David McKenzie

Todd Pugatch @toddpugatch.bsky.social · 17d

Sad to hear about the death of Betty Sadoulet. In addition to the research and mentoring mentioned in this remembrance, she also co-authored a fantastic development econ text I use in class. It's so good I read the chapters I don't teach just for fun! www.routledge.com/Development-...

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 17d

This week's links include the African PhD pipeline, creative destruction and entry reform in China, our blog your job market paper series is taking submissions, remembering Betty Sadoulet, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Weekly links October 24: the pipeline of African PhDs, creative destruction x2, Brazilian innovation, and more…

blogs.worldbank.org

Reposted by David McKenzie, Alistair Munro, Marcos Vera‐Hernández

Brendon McConnell @brendonmcconnell.bsky.social · 24d

this has a good overview of the recent Fiscal Studies symposium to which @papiteide.bsky.social and I contributed. Our paper here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/..., more on the symposium here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14755890...

Reposted by Berk Özler, Marcos Vera‐Hernández, Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 24d

This week's links include a mini-symposium on power calculations, what makes for good descriptive work, publishing tips for econometrics, making nice dot charts, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Weekly links October 17: statistical power, good descriptives, nice graphs, publishing metrics, and more…

blogs.worldbank.org

Reposted by Caroline Krafft, Climent Quintana‐Domeque, Peter Bergman

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 27d

One of my favorite traditions is now underway: for the 15th straight year, the Development Impact blog launches a call for PhD students in development economics to blog their job market paper - submissions due 8pm EST on Wednesday November 5: blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

Blog your job market paper 2025: submissions now open

blogs.worldbank.org

Reposted by Berk Özler, Florence Kondylis

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Oct 9

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

Reposted by Climent Quintana‐Domeque

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Oct 8

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.

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Oct 3

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

Reposted by David McKenzie

Marcos Vera-Hernandez @papiteide.bsky.social · Oct 3

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

Reposted by David McKenzie

CERDI @cerdi.bsky.social · Oct 1

📈 #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

Reposted by Climent Quintana‐Domeque, Florence Kondylis

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Sep 29

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

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Sep 19

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

David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · Sep 12

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

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

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 &

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.

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

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