Scaling up Research into Policy

Strong export performance is often seen as key to unleashing firm productivity and spurring economic growth, both for the exporting firms themselves and for the broader economy. Given these perceived benefits, middle and low-income country (LMIC) governments commonly implement export promotion policies that aim to alleviate market failures hindering export growth.

This project proposes a field experiment in which the researchers create variation in financial contract form and access to charging infrastructure to evaluate the barriers to electric two-wheelers adoption in Kenya.

In this project, the research team proposes investigating how to shift the energy use behavior of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Tanzania by distributing affordable solar boilers and measuring their impact on charcoal consumption and its corresponding effects on deforestation and CO2 emission, PM2.5 concentration, and profitability of enterprises.

This project leverages a randomised control trial in a large-scale business support program in Ghana to explore whether the networks of entrepreneurs who own small firm, including peers and other stakeholders such as suppliers, can help predict entrepreneurs' marginal returns to the program and future business performance.

This project investigates the impact of digital lending on reducing the gender gap in the credit markets and the performance of small businesses in Kisumu City, Kenya.

This project studies the cost imposed by tax enforcement measures on firms in Uganda.

This project assesses medium-term economic impacts of improved electricity reliability by leveraging persistent discontinuities in electricity reliability across nearby areas in Kenya that are serviced by different feeder lines.

This project employs a randomised controlled trial and the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak mechanism to examine the impact of a solar light subsidy on small firm owners' firm and household outcomes with different exposure to blackout risks in Nakuru, Kenya.

This project analyses data from two major policy events that occurred in Togo in 2019: the scattered rollout of a subsidy program for solar home systems and a sudden expansion of mobile money agents.

This project assesses the impact of in-situ rice straw incorporation using a rotavator on improving soil health, specifically through enhanced soil organic carbon (SOC) levels. Smallholder farmers in Odisha, India, heavily rely on kharif-season (rainfed) paddy cultivation. This intervention evaluates how straw incorporation into the soil after harvest can improve soil health and enhance carbon sequestration over multiple growing seasons.