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Project
Evaluation of the Common External Tariff (CET) of the East African Community (EAC) from Uganda and Rwanda's perspective in 2017
Regional trade integration is a pillar of East African Community partner states’ trade policies, including Uganda and Rwanda. The Customs Union, a first milestone in the regional integration process, was adopted in 2005, committing member states (initially Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania) to the adoption of a Common External Tariff (CET). Uganda has now had twelve years of...
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Project
Functional and expenditure assignments in Myanmar
Decentralisation of fiscal power and responsibilities to sub-national governments is essential to achieve the emergence of a united federal democratic union as well as to achieve the government’s key policy objective of creating favourable economic conditions for balanced economic development across the States and Regions. Recent decentralisation reforms have empowered...
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Using a decision support model to identify export opportunities for Rwanda
Expanding exports has become an urgent government priority in Rwanda in order to reduce a growing trade imbalance, ensure non-farm job creation, and improve economic growth. This is also reflected in Rwanda’s strategic plans, with the national export strategy for 2015-18 proposing a 20% annual rate of export growth (MINICOM, 2015). The main objective of this project is to...
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Project
Impact of traffic infrastructure on urban land use in Dhaka
Dhaka is infamous for its severe traffic congestion. Road traffic is almost the only transportation mode available in the city as of 2015, and the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) is planned to open in 2019. Previous studies have noted that such traffic congestion constraints the economic activity of the city. For example, Muzzini and Aparicio (2013) document that traffic...
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Project
Religion and politics in India
Religious inequality and discrimination targeting religious groups is a particularly important issue in many developing countries such as India. Unequal access to resources may translate into resentment and fuel conflict. Similarly, religious identity and inequality may perpetuate discrimination acting as a harbinger for future violence. Religious identity may also...
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Project
IGC India Central synthesis papers
Since its inception in 2009, the IGC has funded more than 200 economic research projects in India on a wide variety of policy relevant topics. The vast knowledge generated through these projects has been synthesised in three recent IGC working papers on health, governance and public service delivery, and financial inclusion which can be downloaded below.
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Project
Local economic development in Yangon: Demand side survey
As Yangon develops and expands, ensuring a suitable supply of jobs and economic opportunities will be important for inclusive growth. In addition, interventions and policies aimed at addressing the main barriers preventing individuals from acquiring decent work can go a long way in solving Yangon’s urban poverty challenge. To date, however, little is known about the main...
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Role of ICT technologies in combating malnutrition: Increasing transparency in India’s mid‐day meal programme
Social welfare programmes in developing countries are infamous for poor administration and leakages from the distribution networks. Large swathes of benefits often do not reach the intended beneficiaries. This project focuses on a state-driven, technology-enabled reform and shows that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be harnessed to improve existing...
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Project
Yes to peace: Preventing election violence in Liberia
In 2017, Liberia will be conducting its third general election after its civil conflict. Liberia is among a handful of African countries that could experience election violence during elections this year. In fact, security officials speculate that electoral violence in the forthcoming general elections is perhaps of a greater likelihood than at any time since 2005 given...
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Project
Tax, lies, and red tape
Weak institutional environments in poor countries may lead to lower tax compliance by firms. This may be especially true for family firms, whose owners have higher stakes in the firm and longer horizons, increasing their incentives for evasion, as well as access to local networks and information, increasing their opportunities for evasion. This project uses firm-level...
Project
The real effects of electronic wage payments: An experiment with salaried factory workers in Bangladesh
Preliminary results suggest that treatments -- introducing employee payroll accounts and electronic wage payments -- “worked” to stimulate the use of formal financial products. Detectable increases in savings were found in both bank treatments. The mobile money treatments did not have very strong long-run impacts on total savings accumulation,...