David Lagakos
David Lagakos is a Lead Academic for IGC Ghana.
David Lagakos is an associate Professor of Economics at UC San Diego. He received his Ph.D in economics from UCLA. He as previously held positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis as well as Arizona State University, and is currently a research associate with the Economic Fluctuations and Growth Group at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on macroeconomic and growth theory. Much of his recent work examines productivity, particularly as it relates to agriculture and developing economies, as well as human capital.
Content by David Lagakos
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Project
Building tax capacity at scale: Evidence from technology investments in Ghana
Increased capacity to collect taxes leads to the funding of public goods which have high returns and contributes to the wider state-development process (Schumpeter, 1918; Besley and Persson, 2010). At the heart of any strong tax system lies the ability to accurately observe economic activities and use this information as inputs into an efficient billing, collection, and...
2 Dec 2019 | Anders Jensen, David Lagakos
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Publication - Project Report
Harnessing technology to exorcise ghosts
12 Nov 2019 | David Lagakos, Nii Sowa
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Project
Harnessing technology to exorcise ghosts
Ghana, as a developing country, has always been strapped of resources to promote growth and development. Revenue mobilised has never been sufficient for taking care of recurrent expenditure, and therefore the country has had to rely heavily on external grants and loans to support development projects. A closer look at the budget of the Government of Ghana shows that much...
11 Nov 2019 | David Lagakos, Nii Sowa
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Publication - Policy Brief
Improving local government tax collection capacity: Evidence from Ghana
30 Sep 2019 | James Dzansi, Anders Jensen, David Lagakos, Henry Telli
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Data Item
Data: The agricultural productivity gap in developing countries
According to national accounts data for developing countries, value added per worker is on average four times higher in the non-agriculture sector than in agriculture. Taken at face value this “agricultural productivity gap” suggests that labor is greatly misallocated across sectors in the developing world. In this paper we draw on new micro evidence to ask to what...
28 Feb 2019
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Publication - Project Report
Survey of local government revenue mobilisation capacity in Ghana, 2017: Summary and policy implications
7 Jan 2019 | James Dzansi, Anders Jensen, David Lagakos, Isaac Otoo, Henry Telli, Cynthia Zindam
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Project
Guidance on 'One-District, One Factory'
Ghana has begun an ambitious policy of building one new factory in each of its 216 districts. This study provides guidance on which types of factories would be most viable in each district. The study concludes that several unexploited primary resources exist in almost each district, and highlights the challenges districts are likely to face when trying to process...
26 Sep 2018 | David Lagakos, James Dzansi, Henry Telli
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Publication - Project Report
Manufacturing capabilities in Ghana’s districts: A guidebook for “One District One Factory”
26 Sep 2018 | James Dzansi, David Lagakos, Isaac Otoo, Henry Telli, Cynthia Zindam
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Blog post
The macroeconomic benefits of increasing tax enforcement in Pakistan
In Pakistan, increased tax enforcement may be a more effective way to raise revenues than increased tax rates, given the large share of informal employment. This could in turn increase GDP due to increased government investment capacity. Goods and taxes Like most developing countries, Pakistan has a comprehensive set of statutory taxes that firms are required to pay on a...
20 Oct 2017 | David Lagakos, Ethan Ilzetzki
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Publication - Project Report
The macroeconomic benefits of tax enforcement in Pakistan
19 Sep 2017 | Ethan Ilzetzki, David Lagakos
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Publication - Project Report
The role of energy capital in accounting for Africa’s recent growth resurgence
31 Aug 2017 | Stephie Fried, David Lagakos
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Publication - Working Paper
Rural electrification, migration, and structural transformation: Evidence from Ethiopia
25 Aug 2017 | Stephie Fried, David Lagakos
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Project
Improving tax collection capacity in the developing world: Evidence from local government in Ghana
In most developing countries, tax collection capacity remains inadequately low. Nowhere is the lack of tax collection capacity more apparent than in local governments, which collect a negligible fraction of local income in taxes (Gordon, 2010). As a result, local governments provide inadequately low levels of public goods - such as roads, schools and electricity - which are...
27 Jul 2017 | David Lagakos, Anders Jensen
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Project
Taxation, misallocation and development
Why are there so few large, productive firms in the developing world? To what extent is weak fiscal capacity a constraint on firm productivity and economic growth? This project seeks to answer these questions using a mix of new micro evidence and quantitative theory.
19 Oct 2016 | David Lagakos, Ethan Ilzetzki
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Project
Rural electrification, migration and structural transformation: Evidence from Ethiopia
Electrification and industrialisation of developing economies are closely linked. This study assessed whether electrification of rural areas can help to induce structural economic transformation, and whether it has an effect on in-country migration patterns. We found that Ethiopia’s rural electrification policies led to structural transformation of village...
4 Sep 2015 | David Lagakos, Stephie Fried
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Publication - Working Paper
The Agricultural Productivity Gap in Developing Countries (Working Paper)
1 Feb 2011 | Douglas Gollin, David Lagakos, Michael Waugh
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Publication - Policy Brief
The Agricultural Productivity Gap in Developing Countries (Policy Brief)
1 Feb 2011 | Douglas Gollin, David Lagakos, Michael Waugh
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Project
The Agricultural Productivity Gap in Developing Countries
This study seeks to understand why, in most developing countries, measured value added per worker is so much lower in agriculture than in other sectors of the economy. Simple two-sector models predict that value added per worker should be equal in agriculture and “non-agriculture,” and yet in the average developing country, national accounts data show that value added...
1 Jan 2011 | Douglas Gollin, David Lagakos, Michael Waugh, Sarah Saeed