Eyes on Development reveals the personal perspectives and cutting-edge insights of researchers working on global development issues around the world, hosted by Asha Sundaram, Chair and Professor of Economics at Northeastern University.
Hear from students, faculty and other research pioneers leading multidisciplinary projects in low- and middle-income countries across the globe—transforming poverty and inequality through their work. You’ll walk away with timely insights, and data that could inform your world view.
Eyes on Development is brought to you by the King Center on Global Development, Stanford’s multidisciplinary research hub on global poverty and development. Learn more about the King Center at kingcenter.stanford.edu (http://kingcenter.stanford.edu).
Erica Field and Alessandra Voena on Gender Norms and the Labor Market
Erica Field and Alessandra Voena explore the relationship between deeply entrenched gender norms and global economies. They discuss the sticky nature of informal societal rules, the double-edged sword of technology and remote work in shifting household dynamics, and how gender transitioned from a niche topic into a mainstream pillar of modern economic research.
Erica Field is a James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Economics at Duke University specializing in the fields of Development Economics, Health Economics and Economic Demography. Her work examines the microeconomics of household poverty and health in developing countries, with an emphasis on the study of gender and development. Her work has been published in several leading peer-reviewed journals, including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Political Economy and the American Economic Journal.
Alessandra Voena is Holbrook Working Professor of Price Theory at Stanford University. She is a labour and development economist whose research focuses primarily on the economics of the family and the economics of science and innovation. Her most recent work studies the economic consequences of the cultural norms around marriage on human capital investments in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
24 Feb 2026
Michael Callen on Economic Development in Fragile States
Michael Callen, Associate Professor at the London School of Economics and Noosheen Hashemi Visiting Fellow at the King Center, explores how conflict and institutional instability reshape the path to economic progress. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Afghanistan and beyond, Callen examines the hurdles of policy implementation when the landscape is in flux. He also discusses why the insights gained from fragile states are becoming vital for understanding institutional resilience in developed nations.
Callen's research focuses on development economics, political economy, and behavioral economics, with a primary emphasis on Afghanistan, Nepal, and Pakistan. He serves as co-director of the State Capabilities Program and the lead academic for the Fragile States Initiative at the International Growth Centre. Additionally, he is the Scientific Director for Inclusion Economics – Nepal and a research associate at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). He also currently serves on the editorial boards of the Review of Economic Studies and the Journal of the European Economic Association, and is a co-editor at VoxDev.
20 Oct 2025
Rachel Glennerster on Smarter, Cost-Effective Aid
Rachel Glennerster, President of the Center for Global Development, discusses the need for smarter, more cost-effective aid, especially in a time of shrinking budgets. Glennerster stresses the value of focusing aid on areas with proven high-impact returns, and the critical role of research and innovation. She also calls for communicating more clearly with the public to rebuild trust and support for global development.
28 Jun 2025
Iqbal Dhaliwal on Building Better Aid Systems
Iqbal Singh Dhaliwal, Global Executive Director of J-PAL, explores the evolving world of global development, emphasizing evidence-based solutions and strategic philanthropy as foreign aid decreases in this interview.
5 May 2025
Alex Odundo on Eco-Innovation and Period Poverty
New host Asha Sundaram, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Auckland and former visitor at the King Center, chats with Alex Odundo about his journey in tackling period poverty, the "inability to afford and access menstrual products, sanitation and hygiene facilities and education and awareness to manage menstrual health."
Odundo is a Kenyan engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur specializing in sustainable materials and agricultural technology, as well as founder of Sifa Machineries Enterprises (https://sifamachinery.wordpress.com/). With a focus on frugal science and sustainability, he has developed innovative machinery for processing sisal fiber – a renewable, biodegradable resource – into eco-friendly products.
16 Oct 2024
Dean Karlan on Bridging Academia, Government, and Social Impact
Faculty Director Katherine Casey speaks with Dean Karlan, Professor of Economics and Finance at Northwestern University and Chief Economist at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). He is also the Founder and former President of Innovations for Poverty Action, a non-profit organization dedicated to discovering and promoting solutions to global poverty problems.
23 Sept 2024
Saumitra Jha on Political Polarization
Guest host Alice Evans, Senior Lecturer in the Social Science of Development at King’s College London speaks with Saumitra Jha, Associate Professor of Political Economy at Stanford University, on political polarization.
Professor Jha's research focuses on the effectiveness of organizations and innovations that societies have developed to address the problems of violence and political risk in the past and to develop new lessons for contemporary policy. He also convenes the Conflict and Polarization Lab (https://kingcenter.stanford.edu/our-work/research-initiatives/conflict-and-polarization) within the Stanford King Center on Global Development (https://kingcenter.stanford.edu/) and manages the Democratic Fragility and Conflict program (https://cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/content/democratic-fragility-and-conflict) at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Affairs (FSI). (http://fsi.stanford.edu/)
30 Jul 2024
Soledad Artiz Prillaman on Women's Political Participation
Guest host Alice Evans, Senior Lecturer in the Social Science of Development at King’s College London speaks with Soledad Artiz Prillaman, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, on women’s political participation.
In 2023, Professor Prillaman published her book, The Patriarchal Political Order (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/patriarchal-political-order/9262E786791FBF6090313B50520F6A31#fndtn-information), in which she shares her King Center-funded research. She analyzes data from more than 9,000 women and men in India to reveal how coercive power structures diminish political participation for women. She also explores how women working in solidarity combat their political exclusion.
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