Stefan Dercon
Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department, and a Fellow of Jesus College, at the University of Oxford. He is also Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies.
Between 2011 and 2017, he was Chief Economist of the Department of International Development (DFID), the government department in charge with the UK’s aid policy and spending. In this position, he provided strategic advice, and was responsible for ensuring the use of evidence in decision making.
Before joining the University of Oxford, he held positions at the University of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), the Catholic University of Leuven, and WIDER (Helsinki), part of the United Nations University.
Content by Stefan Dercon
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Project
Industrialisation and urbanisation
Ethiopia is a fast-growing low-income country with an expanding manufacturing sector. A key policy objective of the government of Ethiopia is to accelerate industrialisation through the creation of several industrial parks across the country. The parks are designed to offer high-quality government services and infrastructure (including a reliable energy supply), access to a...
29 Nov 2019 | Antonio Caria, Stefan Dercon, Girum Abebe, Nicolas Lippolis
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Publication - Policy paper
Can Africa learn from the Chinese urbanisation story?
This paper provides a framework to understand the similarities and differences between Africa’s current urbanisation pathway and the path China has taken over the last 30 years. A major difference is that Africa’s urbanisation to date has not been associated with anywhere near the same gains in productivity and poverty reduction that have been seen in China. Instead,...
28 Oct 2019 | Stefan Dercon, Astrid Haas, Sebastian Kriticos, Nicolas Lippolis
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Data Item
Data: Economic impact of urban property rights in Tanzania: The role of infrastructure
While multiple studies have shown that a woman’s control over land is positively associated with bargaining power outcomes, few have succeeded in highlighting successful methods for increasing this control. We report on a policy experiment in an unplanned settlement in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that provided access to formal land titles to informal settlers at randomized...
28 Feb 2019
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Project
Understanding Industrial Parks
Ethiopia has recently launched an ambitious programme of industrialisation. The government of this fast-growing, densely populated country hopes to attract foreign investment in its brand-new industrial parks by offering a large workforce, competitive wages, cheap electricity and good infrastructure. Several garment factories have already started production in the...
18 Jan 2018 | Stefano Caria, Simon Quinn, Stefan Dercon
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Project
A study of the constraints to civil servant productivity in Ethiopia
Our understanding of the drivers of productivity in the public sector is limited, despite a high proportion of national income being spent through the state in many developing countries. Researchers surveyed civil servants across different levels of government in Ethiopia to assess the link between incentives and productivity in the country’s public sector. They...
13 Oct 2017 | Ravi Somani, Stefan Dercon, Daniel Rogger
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Project
Impact of property rights in urban Tanzania: the role of infrastructure
Formalising land rights is one market-based tool to alleviate poverty, thought to reduce expropriation risk, encourage investment and, by enabling the collateral value of land, giving property owners increased access to credit. Despite these assumptions, few studies have examined the impact of property rights interventions in urban areas, particularly in Sub-Saharan...
10 Oct 2014 | Stefan Dercon, Andrew Zeitlin, Klaus Deininger
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Project
Economic Impact of Urban Property Rights in Tanzania: The Role of Infrastructure
Formalising land rights is thought to reduce expropriation risk, encourage investment and, by enabling the collateral value of land, giving property owners increased access to credit. Despite these assumptions, few studies have examined the impact of property rights interventions in urban areas, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, while formal land titling is...
10 Oct 2014 | Christopher Adam, Stefan Dercon, Andrew Zeitlin, Justin Sandefur, Daniel Ayalew Ali
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Project
Drought and informal insurance groups: A randomised intervention of index-based rainfall insurance in rural Ethiopia
The Ethiopian economy is still predominantly dependent on rain-fed agriculture. Drought is a common occurrence, and financial markets, especially those offering insurance, are underdeveloped. The costs of such uninsured risk are high, from immediate welfare losses for farmers to the discouragement of innovation and investment in modern technologies. Crop insurance is one...
4 Sep 2014 | Stefan Dercon, Ingo Outes-Leon, Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, Tassew Woldehanna, Daniel Clarke, Ruth Vargas Hill
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Publication - Policy Brief
Is land titling feasible in Tanzania's low-income urban areas? (Policy Brief)
4 Dec 2012 | Daniel Ayalew Ali, Matthew Collin, Klaus Deininger, Stefan Dercon, Justin Sandefur, Andrew Zeitlin
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Publication - Working Paper
Slum-Upgrading in Tanzania: Public Infrastructure and Private Property Rights (Working Paper)
4 Dec 2012 | Matthew Collin, Stefan Dercon, Simone Lombardini, Justin Sandefur, Andrew Zeitlin
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Publication - Working Paper
The price of empowerment (Working Paper)
1 Mar 2012 | Daniel Ayalew Ali, Matthew Collin, Klaus Deininger, Stefan Dercon, Justin Sandefur, Andrew Zeitlin
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Publication - Policy Brief
The price of empowerment: can land titling programmes be gender-inclusive? (Policy Brief)
1 Mar 2012 | Daniel Ayalew Ali, Matthew Collin, Klaus Deininger, Stefan Dercon, Justin Sandefur, Andrew Zeitlin
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Publication - Working Paper
More Sweatshops for Africa? Pilot Results from an Experimental Study of Industrial Labor in Ethiopia (Working Paper)
1 Mar 2012 | Chris Blattman, Stefan Dercon
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Publication - Policy Brief
More Sweatshops for Africa? Pilot Results from an Experimental Study of Industrial Labor in Ethiopia (Policy Brief)
1 Mar 2012 | Chris Blattman, Stefan Dercon
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Publication - Policy Brief
Offering rainfall insurance to informal insurance groups: evidence from a field experiment in Ethiopia (Policy Brief)
1 Nov 2011 | Stefan Dercon, Ruth Vargas Hill, Ingo Outes-Leon, Daniel Clarke, Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, Guush Berhanu
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Publication - Working Paper
Offering rainfall insurance to informal insurance groups: evidence from a field experiment in Ethiopia (Working Paper)
1 Nov 2011 | Stefan Dercon, Ruth Vargas Hill, Ingo Outes-Leon, Daniel Clarke, Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse
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Project
An experimental study of pro-poor growth: factories and wage work versus self-employment
Industrial development is clearly growth-promoting, but is this growth “pro-poor”? Given the absence of industrial development from the aid and policy agenda (namely achievement of the Millennium Development Goals), many governments and aid agencies seem to implicitly believe that industrial work is not pro-poor. This belief constrains policy innovation in industrial...
1 Feb 2011 | Chris Blattman, Stefan Dercon
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Project
Agricultural Productivity Trends in Tanzania: A View from National Household and Farm Survey Data
The role of agriculture in economic growth and the wider structural transformation of Tanzania is a key concern for policy-makers. This paper tries to understand time trends in agricultural productivity. The main finding is that the most important source of consumption growth in Tanzania between 1991 and 2007 has been structural change, i.e. people moving out of...
1 Oct 2010 | Justin Sandefur, Razack Lokina, Måns Nerman, Stefan Dercon
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Project
Agricultural Productivity and Rural-Urban Migration in Tanzania
The role of agriculture in economic growth and the wider structural transformation of Tanzania is a key concern for policy makers. Understanding whether the main driver of rural income growth lies in productivity growth within agriculture itself or through the growth of off-farm activities is particularly important in countries like Tanzania, where 80% of its residents...
1 Jun 2010 | Martina Kirchberger, Fulgence Mishili, Stefan Dercon