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Blog post
Technology and the future of work in developing economies
2018 has been a year for critical debates on the impact of emerging technology on jobs and the imminent threats and challenges of automation. Although the prospects of development and fast-approaching opportunities are advocated by many tech optimists, they have often been eclipsed by gloomier forecasts, such as “The robots are coming”, “Underestimating AI could be...
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Blog post
Public finance to improve outcomes
Pakistan continues to face significant social and economic challenges. Provision of basic services such as health and education falls short of international standards, while women and the poor are often wholly excluded from accessing these services. At a time when the government is under pressure to demonstrate fiscal restraint, a strong public financial management system...
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Blog post
From transport to growth corridor: Do communities benefit from the Central Railway Transit Corridor in Tanzania?
The government of Tanzania has embarked on a journey to revive the railways, through its investment in the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) on the central corridor. The 2,561 km Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line will connect the port of Dar es Salaam to Tanzania's land-locked neighbours (Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, and Eastern DR Congo). The project is estimated to cost $14.2...
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Is the rule of law good for women? Evidence from micro-entrepreneurs in Lusaka, Zambia
The rapidly growing cities of the developing world can be an engine for private sector growth (Krugman, 1991; Glaeser, 2011). However, the positive externalities of living in urban areas become lost opportunities when people cannot safely trade with each other. This can happen either because of lack of mutual confidence or weakness in the rule of law. Across countries,...
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Blog post
IGC Quick Clicks: Where are all the female economists?
“In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders,” once said Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook. Hopefully, yes. But today, this is not true in most fields and definitely not in economics. Why is this and how can we change it? Over the last few years, we have witnessed an uproar in many parts of the world. Women have...
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Blog post
Why reliability matters in expanding access to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa
It is almost a cliché to state that electricity supply is a critical infrastructure. Without it, the quest for sustained and inclusive growth is sure to falter. Yet, across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), access to this critical piece of infrastructure is limited. Currently, two in five Sub-Saharan Africans lack access to electricity (IEA, 2018) While policymakers across the...
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Blog post
Improving land security through community-based organisations
Researchers and policymakers agree that secure land rights constitute a vital pillar for sustained livelihood improvements among marginalized populations, but existing solutions have been primarily top-down in orientation. Can community-based organisations help to improve land security from the ground up? Bihar state law guarantees each rural household the right to hold...
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Blog post
Wage returns for work experience: Development and urbanisation
Globally, on average, people spend ten years in school but work for 40 years. People learn valuable skills in school and at work. Students who advance on to employment have the opportunity to continue to accumulate human capital and wage increases in relation to their work experience. In developing economies, students face obstacles in accruing such employment...
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Blog post
AfCFTA: Africa is moving too slowly towards economic integration
Africa’s quest for a single market dates back to the establishment of the Organisation of African Union (OAU) in 1963. The OAU, which brought together Africa’s newly independent nations, had at its heart intra-Africa economic integration. In fact, it aimed to emulate Europe by creating an African Economic Community, encompassing a single market and a customs union. In...
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Blog post
Tracking constraints to micro-enterprise growth in Kenya and Uganda
Existing surveys that aim to measure and track barriers to business growth often under-represent micro-enterprises and small informal firms. Our pilot, which targeted a sample of small scale entrepreneurs in Kenya and Uganda in a survey conducted by phone, suggests that such enterprises may face a very different set of constraints to growth. This exposes a potential...
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Mining taxation policy in Zambia: The tyranny of indecision
Instability, massive increases and novel taxes not seen anywhere in the world’. That is the way the outgoing Zambia Chamber of Mines President, Nathan Chishimba, described the new tax measures targeted at the mining sector in the 2019 budget. The Zambian government has charged that these new measures will ensure that the sector is paying its fair share of taxes, but the...