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Showing all content in Asia
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Blog post
Why COVID-19 offers the perfect opportunity to remove fuel subsidies
April 2020 recorded the lowest oil price ( USD 21/barrel of oil) in 18 years. This was driven by a lack of demand due to low economic activity worldwide. This temporary season of low oil prices presents an opportune moment for countries to remove inefficient fuel subsidies and reduce the knock-on effect to citizens. This reform also provides developing country governments...
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Publication - Policy Brief
Low oil prices during COVID-19 and the case for removing fuel subsidies
Global oil prices have decreased due to a fall in demand resulting from COVID-19 containment measures. This presents a timely opportunity for removing fuel subsidies, in turn lowering the knock-on impact on citizens. The revenue gained from removing fuel subsidies could provide additional resources for governments to respond with immediate interventions to address...
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Blog post
Rethinking regulations: Informal settlements in the time of COVID-19
Informal settlements, given their high densities and lacking water and sanitation infrastructure, are potential hotspots for the spread of pandemics like COVID-19. To remedy this, upgrading informal settlements will be essential. However, for long term resilience, we need to tackle the regulatory challenges that keep formal housing prices unattainable for the urban...
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Blog post
Ideas Matter: Why does democracy matter for growth?
According to Freedom House, some African nations, such as Ethiopia and Angola, made important strides toward becoming democracies in 2019, but overall progress on the continent was offset by increasing restrictions elsewhere. Why does this matter for growth and development? The reasons are complicated and manifold, but evidence suggests that the increased accountability...
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Event
IGC-Stanford University conference on firms, trade and development
The International Growth Centre (IGC) and the Stanford King Center on Global Development will be hosting a two-day virtual conference on the theme of 'firms, trade and development'. The event will be organised by David Atkin (MIT), Dave Donaldson (MIT), Cecile Gaubert (Berkeley), Pete Klenow (Stanford), Imran Rasul (UCL), Meredith Startz (Stanford), Eric Verhoogen...
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Person
Cecile Gaubert
Cecile Gaubert is Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests are spatial distribution of economic activity, firms and cities, and firms and trade.
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Project
Harnessing the power of electronic fiscal devices
Low tax compliance is a major challenge in most developing countries, including Zambia. Many governments have adopted a Value Added Tax (VAT) to increase tax revenues and VAT is now responsible for up to a quarter of total revenues in developing countries (Keen, 2016). The key benefit of VAT is that it is self-enforcing along the supply chain. Firms have a financial...
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Person
Brian Dillon
Brian Dillon is the Assistant Professor of Development Economics and Applied Econometrics in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University. Dillon's research focuses on agricultural development, seasonality, market integration, labor, and the emergence of new markets. He works primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, though he has lived and worked in...
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Project
Short and long-term impacts of the lockdown on young rural migrants from Bihar and Jharkhand
India’s national COVID-19 lockdown has had a tremendous effect on the economy. Labour migrants are among the most affected, usually employed in informal, low-paid jobs, many of them are now without work with no social protection, no assistance from previous employers, and no network to fall back to in their 'host’ states. This project will provide unique evidence on...
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Project
Zambian youth unemployment in industries without smokestacks
Zambia has high rates of unemployment and is overly dependent on mining for growth and foreign exchange. In 2018, the unemployment rate was 12.6 percent and the youth unemployment rate was 17.4 percent. With a growing population, this issue will only become worse without intervention and growth in labour-absorbing sectors of the economy. This study researches...