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Blog post
How COVID-19 lockdowns and car-free days affected air pollution in Rwanda’s capital
Rising levels of vehicle traffic, industrial activity and urban sprawl are contributing to rising levels of air pollution across the global South. This is particularly the case in cities where urbanisation is progressing fastest. In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, the population has surged from less than 500,000 in 2000 to more than 1 million today. It is set to increase to...
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Blog post
Part 1: Smallholder farmers, biodiversity, and agricultural sustainability
In Part 1 of this series, we discuss policy steps that could be taken by the world's least developed countries (LDCs) to ensure farmers can grow genetically diverse crops. In Part 2, we discuss the global community’s role in ensuring this is economically sustainable, including trade and domestic policy considerations for high- and middle-income countries that affect...
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Blog post
BREAD 2021: Insights on mobility, health, and infrastructure
The IGC hosted the BREAD Conference on Economics of Africa from 7-9 July and our new blog series explores key findings from research presented during the conference, including the following publicly available papers on topics such as mobility, health, and infrastructure. Perpetual motion: Human mobility and spatial frictions in three African countries (Blanchard, Gollin,...
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Blog post
Vaccine uptake and resistance: Lessons and policy levers
As new variants of COVID-19 are disrupting global efforts to end the pandemic, governments need to work faster to immunise populations and curtail the spread. This blog examines lessons and policy solutions for global immunisation efforts, drawing from recent evidence on vaccine acceptance in low- and middle-income countries. With the urge to vaccinate their populations...
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Blog post
BREAD 2021: Insights on family planning and marriage
The IGC hosted the BREAD Conference on Economics of Africa from 7-9 July and our new blog series explores key findings from research presented during the conference, including the following publicly available papers on family planning and marriage. Some interesting findings are below. Many women in sub-Saharan Africa wish to avoid or delay pregnancy but are unable to use...
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Blog post
BREAD 2021: Insights on governance
The IGC hosted the BREAD Conference on Economics of Africa from 7-9 July and our new blog series explores key findings from research presented during the conference, including the following publicly available papers on governance. Some interesting findings are below. Good governance is complex, not least because the number of different actors involved: politicians,...
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Blog post
BREAD 2021: Insights on agriculture
The IGC hosted the BREAD Conference on Economics of Africa from 7-9 July and our new blog series explores key findings from research presented during the conference, including the following publicly available papers on agriculture. Some interesting findings are below. Agriculture is a large economic sector in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for an estimated 15 to 23% of...
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Blog post
BREAD 2021: Insights on education
The IGC hosted the BREAD Conference on Economics of Africa from 7-9 July and our new blog series explores key findings from research presented during the conference, including the following publicly available papers on education. Some interesting findings are below. Young people make up most of sub-Saharan Africa’s population, with nearly 500 million children of up to 14...
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Blog post
BREAD 2021: Insights on labour and markets
The IGC hosted the BREAD Conference on Economics of Africa from 7-9 July and our new blog series explores key findings from research presented during the conference, including from the following publicly available papers on labour and markets. Some interesting findings are below. Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are growing rapidly, moving from largely informal and...
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Blog post
The long-term journey to electric public transit in sub-Saharan Africa
Mobility is necessary for economic development and human welfare; however, private vehicle and fossil fuel-driven transport is unsustainable, contributing to air pollution, climate change, and vehicle-caused deaths and injury. Public transit using electric vehicles (EVs) solves many of these problems. Many sub-Saharan African countries lack strong and centralised public...
Blog post
Diversifying economics: Resources for Black and other underrepresented minorities
This post has been updated recently on 14 October 2021. Over 2011-2017, the top 20 economic departments in the US awarded PhDs to only 15 Black students. In 2017, only 0.6% of the doctorates in economics and 2% of the undergraduate degrees in economics awarded in the US went to Black women. The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently found that Black economists in the UK...