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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...
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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...
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Publication - Working Paper
Productivity, shocks, and management practices
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Publication - Policy Brief
Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on coffee exports in Uganda
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has come at an overwhelming cost to the Ugandan economy. However, Uganda’s coffee sector appears to have been relatively resilient to the recent crisis to date. As a ‘necessity’ product based on futures contracts, commercial coffee is likely to be less subject to huge demand shocks in the short run. At the same time, the onset of...
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Publication - Policy Brief
The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on SMEs and employment relationships in Uganda
During 2020, governments in many developing countries introduced severe restrictions on economic activity and mobility to curb the spread of COVID-19. In Uganda, public transport and non-essential businesses were closed from early April to June 2020. This policy brief reports on the results from a phone survey of a representative sample of SMEs and their workers...
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Publication - Policy Brief
SMEs in Uganda: Profits and labour force shrink during COVID-19
While the strict lockdown measures implemented in many developing countries aim to prevent the spread of COVID-19, they also risk increasing poverty and vulnerability by lowering economic activity. Uganda experienced some of the toughest lockdowns in the world. This policy brief presents key findings from a panel of over 1,600 smal and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)...
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Publication - Project Report
Prioritising agriculture-related research and innovation for growth and poverty reduction in Rwanda
Agricultural research and development (R&D) has been found to be a powerful engine for poverty reduction worldwide. Based on experience in other countries, it seems likely that raising investment in agricultural from around 0.44 percent of agricultural GDP to the African Union target of 1 percent of agricultural GDP might increase agricultural productivity by around 50...