Ethiopia

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa, and has seen economic growth of around 10 percent annually since 2000 driven by the expansion of domestic agriculture and services, non-traditional export growth and inflows of official development assistance. Agriculture accounts for over half of GDP and over 80% of employment, and coffee is a leading export sector. 

Nonetheless, Ethiopia remains one of the world's poorest nations. The government faces increasing difficulty in financing fiscal and current account deficits and tackling inflation. Ethiopia has few natural resources and one of the smallest manufacturing sectors in the world. As a landlocked country, it is highly dependent on its links with Djibouti for its imports and exports.

The IGC-Ethiopia programme will address agricultural innovation, the functioning of rural input and output markets, the structure of the rural finance system, the interaction of the agriculture sector with the rest of the economy, industrial policy and other areas.  The IGC-Ethiopia office is housed at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI), which is directed by the Chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister.

Below are short summaries and updates about IGC work in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia

Growth Week - current agenda
Adam Robert Green

Please download the current agenda for Growth Week, subject to modifications. Day time sessions are now closed. 4.30 pm and 6.30pm sessions are open to the public on a first-come first-serve basis.

Development Blossoming: Industrial Policy and the Evolution of the Kenyan and Ethiopian Floriculture Exports (Trade programme)
Rocco Macchiavello

Following the success of Kenya, several sub-Saharan African governments have actively promoted the cut flower industry. Ethiopia has notable potential, and the government has adopted a radically more active floriculture sector industrial policy than the Kenyan government’s laissez faire approach. Rocco Macchiavello (University of Warwick, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the Centre for Economic Policy Research) and Ameet Morjaria (LSE) develop an original methodology to evaluate the impact of the industrial policy pursued by the Ethiopian government

Update

24th March 2010
On the distribution of climate damages in the poor world

Policy-makers increasingly agree that climate change poses a serious threat to world order. But there remains limited understanding of how the economic impact of climate change will be spread across the world, and this restricts progress on policies to mitigate the effects. John Hassler and colleagues will develop new models to estimate the different welfare effects of such policies around the world. Read more...