-
Publication - Policy Brief
Making privatisation work for Ethiopia
Ethiopia has embarked on a major programme to privatise some of its key state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as part of a broader effort to reform the economy and expand the role of the private sector. The country is attracting large volumes of foreign direct investment, being one of the top 10 recipients in the African continent (UNCTAD, 2019). This brief is based on a...
-
Publication - Policy Brief
The rental market in an industrialising city
A key policy objective of the Ethiopian government is to accelerate industrialisation through the creation of several industrial parks across the country. An ongoing IGC project in Hawassa Industrial Park shows the role of housing shortages and rental prices in triggering worker absenteeism and turnover. We conduct quantitative surveys to explore the housing market...
-
Publication - Policy Brief
Incentives to support agriculture in the East African Community: Lessons for Rwanda
As one of the potential drivers of Rwanda’s economic growth, agro-processing industries are supported with measures including tax incentives, import tariff protection, and supporting infrastructure. Analysis of Rwanda’s agricultural market shows substantial policy weight is assigned to staple cereal crops such as rice, maize, and wheat – translating into price...
-
Publication - Project Report
Vocational training, on-the-job training, and resilience to the COVID-19 shock
In this final report, we use data from a phone survey with young workers tracked regularly since 2012 as part of an RCT on active labour market policies (Alfonsi et al. 2020) to document how they were impacted by the COVID-19 related lockdown. We targeted 1,700 young workers and successfully traced and interviewed 74% of them. The survey was conducted between October and...
-
Publication - Working Paper
Productivity, shocks, and management practices
-
Publication - Policy Brief
Understanding gender barriers in the Pakistani labour market: A deep dive in the job search process
The emerging reasons behind low female labour force participation rates in developing countries are a lack of access to safe transport, social norms, and the burden of household responsibilities. However, one area which has received less attention is the job search process itself. We use data from a job search platform in Lahore, Pakistan, to discuss the differences...
-
Publication - Policy Brief
Management practices and banking: The case of Ethiopia
This study investigates whether management practices allow Ethiopian bank branches to improve their credit provision. Researchers surveyed over 1,900 branches affiliated with 16 Ethiopian banks to score management practices across various dimensions and collect information on day-to-day operations. Ethiopian bank branches that adopt stronger management practices...
-
Publication - Policy Brief
Economic activity and living standards during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from rural Kenya
Detailed quantitative evidence on the evolution of economic outcomes during the COVID-19 health crisis in low-income countries remains scarce. This study examines the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns using phone surveys from a representative sample of 11,000 households and 5,000 businesses in one of the poorest regions in Kenya. Surveys started early in the pandemic,...
-
Publication - Project Report
Understanding economic effects and resilience to COVID-19: Evidence from a cash transfer project in Kenya
-
Publication - Policy Brief
Productivity, shocks, and management practices in Ethiopia and Uganda
Ethiopia and Uganda are two land-locked economies dependent on imported inputs for a small but growing manufacturing sector. They have contrasting exchange rate regimes affecting the cost of imports in different ways. Ethiopia uses a crawling peg exchange rate regime while Uganda has a floating exchange rate regime. Currency fluctuations are associated with the...
Publication - Policy paper
Scaling energy investments in fragile states
Expanding energy access in fragile contexts is critical for these settings to recover from COVID-19 and escape fragility. This policy paper accompanies the call to action issued by the Council on State Fragility and g7+ on ‘Powering up energy investments in fragile states’, which calls for a new approach for scaling energy access in fragile contexts.