The dynamics of SMEs: informality and entrepreneurship

Jackboots and Bootstraps: The Effect of Bribery on Entrepreneurship

This project tries to understand bribery’s effect on entrepreneurship, which could help policymakers design interventions to aid the development of new enterprises, thus fostering growth and alleviating poverty.

Research Project
20 Nov 2017

Can Intermediary Incentives Improve Product Quality? Supply Chains and Fertilizer Quality in Sub-Saharan Africa

This project seeks to investigate how and why fertilizers’ quality degrades as it makes its way from urban ports to rural farmers.

Research Project
29 Sep 2017

Skin in the Game: Microequity and Mentorship for Online Freelancing-based Microentrepreneurs in Bangladesh

This project considers an innovative new microfinance product, based on the principles of equity financing, in which promising potential entrepreneurs are provided with capital, training and mentorship to help them become online freelancers.

Research Project
18 Sep 2017

The Impact of Business Linkages and Knowledge Spillovers on Manufacturing Growth

The project explores whether business can be encouraged to form horizontal linkages and collaborate on higher quality production through the offer of an opportunity to be part of a vertical linkage in Zambia.

Research Project
8 Sep 2017

Baseline for an Information Intervention in the Agro-inputs Market in Kenya

This project investigates the existence of a ‘market for lemons’, i.e. markets sell only low quality products since sellers are not able to signal high quality products to consumers, for agro-inputs in rural Kenya.

Research Project
2 Mar 2017

The Role of Loss Aversion in Take-up and Repayment of Financing Contracts

This project uses a randomized controlled experiment to test the role of behavioural factors in the high take-up rates and subsequent high repayments for asset-collateralized loans.

Research Project
2 Mar 2017

The Political Determinants of Economic Exchange

How do citizens react to political connections when the rule of law is weak? This project estimates the impact of political connections on trust in economic exchange in Senegal and, when exchange occurs, it explores whether buyers prefer formal or informal contracts.

Research Project
28 Feb 2017

Do Worker Non-cognitive Skills Affect Firm Outcomes?

This work will shed light on how much employers value cognitive (e.g. IQ) and non-cognitive (e.g. motivation, perseverance etc.) skills and the extent to which these skills are predictive of future productivity.

Research Project
27 Feb 2017

Mitigating Market Frictions by Monitoring Employees in SMEs: A Field Experiment in Kenya's Public Transport Sector (Stage Two)

This project expands a previous intervention that implemented a fleet management system in Kenya’s semi-formal public transport system along three margins: possible negative effects of the tracking system, role of cash incentives in enhancing safety and increasing duration and participation to the pilot.

Research Project
13 Jan 2017

The Cream of the Crop: Identifying High Ability Entrepreneurs through Community Information

This project attempts to utilise community information to identify high-potential entrepreneurs who can transition their micro-enterprises into SMEs. 

Research Project
22 Dec 2016

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