Building In-Country Partnerships in Development Economics: Chris Udry, Francis Annan, and Rohini Pande share insights from Ghana and Beyond

Voices in Development: A Podcast from Yale's Economic Growth Center

​Much of the research on economic development in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa, is led by researchers who are outsiders to the regions they study. While this outsider perspective can help them see elements of the social or economic structure less visible to those who are deeply embedded in local institutions, partnerships with individuals and communities living and working in the area provide crucial insights for both the research process and its application to policy.
In this episode of Voices in Development, Christopher Udry, Robert E. and Emily King Professor of Economics at Northwestern University, Co-Director of the Global Poverty Research Lab, and former director of the Yale Economic Growth Center, discusses the role of in-country partnerships in development economics research. In collaborating with in-country partners, Udry regularly shares his research findings but rarely makes policy recommendations. "I view my work as more trying to support my local collaborators in providing them with the resources and the tools and maybe the authority to make recommendations to government," he says. "So I view myself as sort of a cheerleader, maybe a coach, for the athletes who are going to do the real policy."
This episode also featured Rohini Pande, Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics and Director of the Economic Growth Center, and Francis Annan, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Annan, who grew up in Ghana and studies digital financial markets, insurance, and firms, notes that involving in-country partners in the production of research data is essential because it can help reproduce meaningful results. “If the local institutions, the regulators, the users of this evidence are part of the production process for this evidence, it tends to make our lives easier,” he says.