WORKING PAPER

Can basic entrepreneurship transform the economic lives of the poor?

The world’s poorest people lack capital and skills and toil for others in occupations that others shun. Using a large-scale and long-term randomised control trial in Bangladesh this paper demonstrates that sizable transfers of assets and skills enable the poorest women to shift out of agricultural labour and into running small businesses. This shift, which persists and strengthens after assistance is withdrawn, leads to a 38% increase in earnings.

Countries: 
Bangladesh
Research programmes: 
Finance, Firm capabilities, Human capital
Researchers: 
Oriana Bandiera, Robin Burgess, Narayan Das, Selim Gulesci, Imran Rasul, Munshi Sulaiman
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RAPID RESPONSE

Learning from double-digit growth experiences

Current IMF forecasts predict growth in real GDP on the order of 6-7 percent per year for Liberia. The political leadership of Liberia believes that double-digit growth will be required in order to meet the expectations of the electorate, and consequently, lead to greater political stability. Political stability is the sina qua non for ensuring peace in Liberia, which, along with improving human development outcomes, is the primary goal of the current government. The President of Liberia, H.E.

Countries: 
Liberia
Research programmes: 
Governance, accountability and political economy, Human capital, Macroeconomics
Researchers: 
Eric Werker
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POLICY BRIEF

Prestige Matters: Value of Connections Formed in Elite Colleges

Tertiary education has fuelled the economic growth in India in recent times. This has in turn generated excess demand for highly a educated and skilled workforce. Against this backdrop, it is vital to understand whether public institutions should be expanded or private institutions could provide good quality higher education so that public subsidies could be targeted towards merit-cum-need based scholarships.

Countries: 
India - Central
Research programmes: 
Human capital
Researchers: 
Sheetal Sekhri
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NEWS

Ideas for Growth newsletter - March 2013

Leading the March 2013 edition of Ideas for Growth is the news that the UK government recently announced a major £51 million investment to the ICG to enable us to expand our work from 12 to 15 countries.  The first recipient of this new funding is Liberia, the IGC's newest partner country.  To assist Liberian policy-makers in tackling these issues, the IGC will provide frontier, research-based advice in four main focus areas: natural resource management for inclusive growth; strengthening state capabilities and improving governance and

Countries: 
Liberia, India - Central, Pakistan, Uganda
Research programmes: 
Agriculture, Climate change, environment and natural resources, Governance, accountability and political economy, Infrastructure and urbanisation, State capabilities
NEWS

IGC welcomes Liberia as new partner country

The IGC is pleased to announce Liberia as an official IGC partner country, following continuous engagement with stakeholders during 2011 and 2012. Liberia has been relatively successful in achieving basic economic revival, peace and security since the end of civil war in 2003. However, it remains one of the lowest income countries in the world. The main challenges to sustainable growth and development remain poor infrastructure, very limited human and institutional capacity and a non-diversified economy.

Countries: 
Liberia
WORKING PAPER

Imperfect Information and School Choice in Ghana

This study examines the link between information and schooling choices. Ghana is one of several countries that use standardised exams to determine admission to secondary school. However, students must apply to schools before they know their exam results or schools' admission requirements; they are thus required to make critical decisions based on imperfect information. Using data from a survey of 4,098 secondary school students in Ghana, Kehinde and Telli examine how students' expectations about exam performance relate to application decisions.

Countries: 
Ghana
Research programmes: 
Human capital
Researchers: 
Henry Telli, Kehinde Ajayi
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