Eric Verhoogen
Eric Verhoogen is a Research Programme Director for the IGC’s Firms research programme.
Eric Verhoogen is Professor of International and Public Affairs and Economics at Columbia University. His main research area is industrial development – applied microeconomic research on firms in developing countries. This area overlaps with the fields of development economics, international trade, labour economics, and industrial organization. A recurrent theme in his work is the process of quality upgrading in the manufacturing sectors of developing countries – its causes, consequences, and broader implications.
Content by Eric Verhoogen
-
Publication - Evidence Paper
IGC evidence paper - Firms, trade, and productivity
Productivity growth is the driving force behind economic development. A large development accounting literature has shown that much of the difference in income per capita across countries can be explained by differences in total factor productivity (TFP) (see, e.g., Hall and Jones 1999, Caselli 2005). On top of its “direct” effect on output, TFP growth can have positive...
-
Publication - Growth Brief
Beyond borders: Making transport work for African trade
Africa has seen massive trade liberalisation in the last three decades. But the success of translating reduced tariffs into increased international trade has been limited and geographically unbalanced. One of the main reasons for this is the high cost of moving goods within countries. While the rest of the developing world has been tapping into global value chains and...
-
Publications Reader Item
Beyond borders: Making transport work for African trade
-
Multimedia Item - Video
Growth Week 2016: Barriers to Growth
World-leading researchers and policymakers (including Richard Newfarmer, Herbert M'cleod, Mohammad Qayoumi, Mbui Wagacha, Chinmaya Kumar, Eric Verhoogen, Irfan Qureshi, Ijaz Nabi, Tony Addison, Peter Biar Ajak, Nana Dwamena) outline what the major barriers to growth are in developing countries. Filmed at #GrowthWeek 2016. Produced by Econ Films.
-
Project
Comments on the draft Investment Incentives Law
The investment incentives law is pivotal to the Rwandan government’s aims of boosting FDI The IGC was asked to comment on the draft investment incentives law to ensure it was well aligned with international best practice The researchers found that the law was strong although some key amendments were suggested The comments were read and received by...
-
Project
Evidence from a randomised experiment in Pakistan
Spillovers between firms, and in particular technology spillovers, play a central role in many theories of economic growth and provide the economic rationale for many industrial policies. Despite the centrality of such in theoretical and policy discussions of the growth process, the empirical evidence for their existence is weak. Our research aims to provide rigorous,...
-
Multimedia Item - Video
Video: Footballs, Pakistan and innovation
-
Multimedia Item - Video
Footballs in Pakistan: An innovation story
Pakistan's football-making industry is benefiting from a new technology which allows balls to be made more efficiently, thanks to research funded by the IGC.
-
Project
Spillovers in technology adoption: Evidence from a randomised experiment in Pakistan
Spillovers between firms, and in particular technology spillovers, play a central role in many theories of economic growth. Such spillovers are thought to be a key mechanism generating increasing returns and they also provide the primary economic rationale for industrial policies to increase investment in innovation. In the presence of spillovers, such interventions may be...
-
Publication - Evidence Paper
IGC Evidence Paper - Firms
The IGC Firm Capabilities Research Programme pulls economists with a common interest in firm capabilities together to focus on three core questions: (i) what are the key proximate determinants of firm productivity? (ii) Where does the productive capacity of firms originate? (iii) What are the barriers that prevent resources from moving from unproductive firms and...
-
Multimedia Item - Video
Footballs in Pakistan: An Innovation Story
-
Publication - Policy Brief
Organisational barriers to technology adoption: Evidence from soccer-ball producers in Pakistan (Policy Brief)
Spillovers between firms are key to generating economic benefit according to some theories of economic growth. It is often thought interventions such as further investment and industrial policy are needed to reach the socially optimum amount of investment and overcome coordination failures. However, empirical evidence for technology spillovers is weak. Research...
-
Publication - Working Paper
Organizational Barriers to Technology Adoption: Evidence from Soccer-Ball Producers in Pakistan (Working Paper)
-
Blog post
Growth through exports: should governments intervene?
"A thriving export sector is, as the Commission on Growth and Development states, “a critical ingredient of high growth, especially in the early stages.” [1] There is microeconomic evidence to support this claim: recent research suggests that increases in exports lead firms to produce higher-quality products, pay higher wages, and adopt more advanced technologies.[2]...
-
Multimedia Item - Video
Video YouTube: Football, Pakistan and Innovation