Ethiopia

We study two interventions for poor and underemployed Ethiopian youth: a $300 grant to spur self-employment, and a job offer to an industrial firm.

We analyze matched employee-employer data from Ethiopia’s largest special economic zone during a period of downsizing pressure from the COVID-19 world import demand shock.

Following the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March 2020, the Ethiopia government imposed stringent measures to combat the spread of the virus including borderland control measures, travel restrictions, social distancing measures, and lockdowns.

What is the effect of exposing motivated youth to firm management in practice? To answer this question, we place young professionals for one month in established firms to shadow middle managers.

Recent growth accelerations in Africa are characterized by increasing productivity in agriculture, a declining share of the labor force employed in agriculture and declining productivity in modern sectors such as manufacturing.