Sort by:
Showing all content in Trade
-
Event
Call for papers: IGC-Stanford conference on firms, trade and development
IGC and the Stanford King Center on Global Development are hosting a two-day conference on November 4 and 5 on the theme of “Firms, Trade and Development.”This event is organized by David Atkin (MIT), Matilde Bombardini (Berkeley), Dave Donaldson (MIT), Pete Klenow (Stanford), Imran Rasul (UCL), Meredith Startz (Dartmouth), Eric Verhoogen (Columbia), and Chris...
-
Project
Improving labour market efficiency in Ghana: A field experiment
The labour market in Ghana is largely characterised by informal recruitment practices. While these practices are not inherently bad, the scale at which they occur reduces the information flow and competitiveness in the recruitment process, obstructing the efficiency of the labour market in matching vacancies to more suitable candidates. According to the World Economic...
-
Project
Tracking multi-sectoral firm performance and responses through the COVID-19 pandemic
COVID-19 is estimated to cut Ghana’s GDP growth by at least 5.3% in 2020 bringing the country’s expected GDP growth to about 1.5%. The Ghanaian economy is highly exposed to global shocks with trade accounting for over 71% of the country’s GDP in 2018. However, very little is known about exactly how the pandemic and the measures to contain the spread of the virus...
-
Publication - Policy Brief
Tracking prices during COVID-19 in Kenya and Uganda
This project serves as a proof of concept exploring whether it is possible to collect high-quality, high-frequency price data at scale through a crowd-sourcing approach. We collected over 39,000 price quotes of essential food items in Kenya and Uganda between April 2020 and mid-March 2021, featuring a wide geographic coverage. The findings suggest that prices were...
-
Project
Gender discrimination in access to capital: Experimental evidence from Ethiopian SGBs
Access to capital is widely considered a key accelerator for business productivity and growth. Gender discrimination against entrepreneurs, who form the largest sector of the labor force in sub-Saharan Africa, may drive gender gaps in access to capital and subsequently reduce the performance of female-owned businesses. This raises concerns about both gender equity and...
-
Publication - Working Paper
Which jobs are lost during a lockdown? Evidence from vacancy postings in India
-
Publication - Working Paper
Branch management and firm credit: Evidence from Ethiopia
In order to understand the functioning of banks and firm credit in low-income countries, we collect novel datasets on the management practices and credit conditions from the universe of bank branches in Ethiopia. Our preliminary findings indicate that branches with strong practices operate over longer geographic distances and supply more local credit. We also observe that...
-
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 - 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...