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Project
A study of the constraints to civil servant productivity in Ethiopia
State institutions are fundamental drivers of economic growth (Besley and Persson, 2010), and in many developing countries, a high proportion of national income is spent through the state. In Ethiopia, around one-fifth of national income is directed towards public-expenditure (World Bank Public Expenditure Review, 2016). At the same time, our understanding of the drivers...
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Project
Preferences or possibility? Understanding the labour supply decision in an LIC context
The number of high-skilled workers in developing countries has been on the rise in recent years as spending on tertiary education expands, yet labour markets have not been able to create jobs to keep up with new skilled workers entering the labour market. The result has been a combination of underemployment and unemployment. Despite this pressing issue, we are not fully...
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Mapping informal financial flows in the artisanal mining sector: The cases of Sierra Leone and Liberia
In recent years, the economic importance and formalisation of artisanal gold mining has taken centre stage in policy discussions on rural economic development in West Africa. Research has shown that despite being associated with a host of environmental, health and safety and social concerns, the sector provides a livelihood for hundreds of thousands of poor people in the...
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Fishing for votes? Income shocks and the opportunity cost of voting
While economists have long argued that the opportunity cost of voting exceeds the private benefits – that is an individual vote is unlikely to affect the outcome of an election in a meaningful way – policies or events that affect the opportunity cost of voting at a more aggregate level have the potential to shape election and policy outcomes. This is especially the case...
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Project
Mapping the urban world: Integrating high-resolution satellite imagery and night light data
Tracking how an economy allocates resources across space and time is difficult. Reliable data sources, particularly from developing countries, are scarce. Those that do exist (e.g., population censuses) are typically measured at low frequencies, difficult to obtain, hard to compare across countries, and available only for coarse spatial units (e.g., districts or counties)....
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Collaboration on data analysis and field studies to strengthen BISP policy design, improve take-up, and build capacity on data analytics
Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) is one of the largest cash transfer programs in the world. It targets social protection, poverty reduction and economic growth by delivering unconditional cash transfers, conditional cash transfers, human capital development and income generation programs. It is thus central to the IGC thematic and Pakistan country programme agendas...
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Perceptions of Chinese investment in Myanmar
Research to date supports the idea that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is conducive for growth and poverty alleviation. Apart from economic benefits, the current literature argues that FDI and international market integration promote democratisation and reduce the incidence of armed conflicts in the long run. Such findings hold important implications for an increasingly...
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Project
Willingness or ability to pay? Expanding electricity access with cost sharing and financing
Access to electricity in Uganda remains low, and was estimated to be around 15% in 2012 (UBOS, 2013), with a stark rural-urban divide. Lack of access to electricity represents a large impediment to achieving higher income levels. The Government of Uganda has recognised this both in Vision 2040 and the National Development Plan, and set the goal of achieving universal...
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Promoting energy and water efficiency in irrigation through direct and indirect incentives
Groundwater irrigation has revolutionised agriculture in India, but in many areas, over-extraction is now worsening water quality, increasing poverty, and overloading the electric grid. Meanwhile, plenty of water- and energy-efficient techniques and technologies exist – such as micro-irrigation – but adoption remains low. What is the best way for governments, utilities,...
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African cities background: Kampala – a policy narrative
This policy narrative examines the urban development of Kampala from its pre-colonial past to the present day. It covers both the spatial development of the city as well as its economic development. Special emphasis is given to the historical development of the city’s structure of governance, land and housing markets, and transportation networks. The analysis uses a wide...
Project
The effectiveness of government bureaucracy: A study of the Ghanaian civil service
The effective functioning of the public sector is crucial for economic growth. This project, requested by the Head of Ghana’s Civil Service, assessed the link between management practices and productivity in the public sector to inform reforms. The study found that granting civil servants more autonomy is associated with more effective public organisations, but...