In this paper published in the American Economic Review, Bustos, Caprettini and Ponticelli (2016) study the effects of the adoption of new agricultural technologies on structural transformation.
A significant amount of resources is spent every year on the improvement of transportation infrastructure in developing countries.In this paper, Asturias, Garcia-Santana, and Ramos (2018) investigate the effects of one such large project,the Golden Quadrilateral in India.
African agricultural markets are characterized by low farmer revenues and high consumer food prices. Many have worried that this wedge is partially driven by imperfect competition among intermediaries.
Alfonsi, Bandiera, Bassi, Burgess, Rasul, Sulaiman and Vitali (2019) design a labor market experiment to compare demand- and supply-side policies to tackle youth unemployment, a key issue in low-income countries.
In this paper, Kamutando (2019) examines the link between financial constraints, misallocation and firm growth in the informal manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe.
Property rights are important for economic exchange, but in much of the world they are not publicly guaranteed. Private market associations can fill this gap by providing an institutional structure to enforce agreements, but with this power comes the ability to extort from group members.
When contracting institutions are weak or exploitable, firms in developing countries rely on a mixture of social and formal heuristics to select business partners.
Economic growth requires confidence in the state's ability to enforce secure exchange. But when states selectively enforce rule of law, political considerations can moderate the trust that buyers have in sellers.
A commonly held and highly intuitive view is that intensified competition will improve the allocation of resources in an economy, by shifting resources to more productive firms.
Despite the importance of agglomeration externalities in theoretical work, evidence for their nature, scale, and scope remains elusive, particularly in developing countries.
