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Project
An analysis of the East African Community’s (EAC) supply chain trade
One of the goals of the East African Community (EAC) is to support the growth of regional value chains. This project will give an overview of the current state of its supply chain trade. It will then look at intra-EAC trade within four priority value chains for the EAC- Leather, Cotton, Iron and Steel and Wood and would conclude with a case study of Uganda’s integration...
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Project
Electric mobility and transport leapfrogging in Kigali, Rwanda
Rapid advances in technology, seen in fast-charging electric buses, electric motorbikes with replaceable batteries, dock less bicycles and scooters, and a host of other innovations, may have led to a greater change to way we think about urban transport over the last 5 years than over the previous 50. Whether these technologies succeed in helping address climate change,...
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Project
Complementarities in the provision of public services: Evidence from Zambia
How can limited resources be employed most efficiently for the sake of development? In its National Development Plan, the Government of Zambia strives to establish an integrated approach to national development that coordinates development across sectors. This, however, requires understanding synergies in the provision of public services across sectors. While the effects...
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Project
Determinants of global air pollution exposure
Air pollution is harmful to health and growing literature suggests it is also harmful to productivity. This project aims to understand the determinants of exposure, that is, concentrations of people living in polluted places. We plan to assess the reduction in exposure that follows from policy interventions affecting urbanisation, power generation, transportation,...
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Project
Compliance, accountability, and the social contract: Studying the impacts of property tax reform in Sierra Leone
Since the 1980s, growing interest in the potential benefits of decentralisation in the developing world reflect the potential to increase the efficiency and accountability of government operations. Yet, while there has been much attention to the potential benefits of decentralisation, results in practice have been much more mixed. A largely overlooked explanation is that...
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Project
The design of anti-poverty interventions for the ultra-poor: Asset transfers or cash transfers?
A major challenge faced by governments in low-income countries is to permanently alleviate households from poverty. Recent evidence suggests that the “Targeting the Ultrapoor” (TUP) program pioneered by BRAC in Bangladesh has proven effective and portable across settings (Banerjee et al., 2015; Bandiera et al., 2017). As a result, there has been growing interest in the...
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Project
The key to building cheap houses? The economics of building materials in Rwanda
There is a considerable analysis gap regarding the housing building materials sector in Rwanda despite interest from Rwanda’s Ministry of Infrastructure and two of the Ministry’s housing sector groups. Rwanda’s formal housing construction and materials industry are unable to meet the needs of the population because of a combination of high costs, insufficient supply,...
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Project
Fragility and instability in Liberia: Understanding the root causes and potential implications
Following the end of the civil war in 2003, the Liberian government focused on rebuilding state institutions, provision of basic services and infrastructure, ensuring good governance and rule of law, and reviving the economy among others. The economy had grown to 8.7% before it plummeted to 0.7% in 2014 due to the twin shocks of the fall in commodity prices and the...
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Project
Judicial access and development: Evidence from Pakistan
Effective justice systems can improve the living conditions of populations by addressing violations of political rights, promoting peaceful dispute resolutions, and supporting economic governance for development. Yet, three challenges affect the Judiciary in most developing countries, and specifically in Pakistan: poor access, especially for vulnerable populations;...
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Project
Vocational training, on-the-job training, and resilience to COVID-19: Evidence from Uganda
Throughout 2020, governments around the world put in place restrictions to economic activity to curb the spread of COVID-19. In Uganda, the Government implemented one of Africa’s strictest lockdowns, which lasted for two months from late March. As a result, economic activity halted throughout the country. In this project, we study how the labour market outcomes of...
Project
Female politicians and economic growth: Evidence from state elections in India
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS7YtrR2yjU&feature=emb_logo The project studies close elections between men and women for election to India's state legislative assemblies. It finds significantly higher growth in economic activity in constituencies that elect women. Given average GDP growth in India of about 7% per year (during the study period), the researchers...