International Growth Centre
Encyclopedia
The International Growth Centre (IGC) is a research institute based jointly at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Oxford University that provides advice on economic growth to governments of developing countries. The IGC is initiated and funded by the Department for International Development
and launched in March 2008.
The IGC has country programmes in Bangladesh
, Ethiopia, Ghana
, India, Pakistan
, Sierra Leone, Tanzania
, Mozambique, Zambia
and Rwanda
and supports over seventy individual research projects on issues of governance
, human capital
, agriculture, climate change
and natural resources
, infrastructure
, trade, firm capabilities, state capacity, macroeconomics
and political economy
. The IGC is directed by Gobind Nankani, who is an economic advisor to the Government of Ghana
. Dr Nankani was President of the Global Development Network
and a former Vice President for Africa at the World Bank
, where he was also Vice-President of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network (PREM).
The IGC is directed by a Steering Group comprising Gobind Nankani, Paul Collier
, Tim Besley
, Stefan Dercon
, Chang-Tai Tsieh, Ines Garcia and Mark Henstridge. The IGC spans a London hub, country offices in partner countries, a group of 10 research programmes with participation from academics, a network of policy stakeholders in the developing world and a range of public, civil society and private sector partners.
The IGC has delivered policy research to a number of developing countries. Peter Blair Henry contributed to shaping the macroeconomic framework for Ghana’s 2010 budget, and Anthony Venables
has contributed to oil revenue legislation management in Ghana. Christopher Adam, Pantaleo Kessy, Johnson Nyella and Stephen A. O’Connell provided a new money demand model which contributed to the development of inflation-targeting by the Bank of Tanzania
. In a study part-funded by IGC, Nick Bloom, Benn Eifert, Aprajit Mahajan, David McKenzie and John Roberts examined the impact of the quality of management on firm productivity in India. John Sutton
has produced a detailed mapping of industry in Ethiopia.
IGC scholars include Esther Duflo
, Michael Kremer
, Nicholas Stern
, Torsten Persson
, Nick Bloom, Chris Blattman, Mark R. Rosenzweig, John Van Reenen, James D. Fearon, Daron Acemoğlu
, Dilip Mukherjee, Taryn Dinkleman, Raj Chetty
, Andres Rodriguez-Clare and Eswar Prasad
.
The Bangladesh programme is formulating a strategy to respond to long-standing policy questions, such as governance, non-traditional export prospects beyond garments, rationalisation of the tax system, poverty alleviation (including the impact of microcredit), and improvements in social indicators. The program is also looking at short- to medium-term work on climate change, urbanisation under intense population density and skill formation in a rapidly expanding labour force. The IGC-Bangladesh office is hosted by the Economic Research Group in Dhaka
.
The Ethiopia programme addresses agricultural innovation, the functioning of rural input and output markets, the structure of the rural finance system, the interaction of the agriculture sector with the rest of the economy, industrial policy and other areas. The IGC-Ethiopia office is housed at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI), which is directed by the Chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister. In June 2010, the IGC-Ethiopia Programme held an event in Ethiopia, led by John Sutton and Mans Soderbom, to disseminate its work on industries. Professor John Sutton has written a book, "An Enterprise Map of Ethiopia", on industrial capacity to be published in December 2010.
The Ghana programme focuses on macroeconomic stability, agriculture sector restructuring, private sector development, education and skills acquisition, and natural resource management. Specific policy questions include management of inflation, agricultural finance and credit constraints, and the returns to education. The IGC-Ghana office is hosted by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER).The IGC-Ghana programme works in collaboration with the Economic Advisory
Council, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, the Bank of Ghana
, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and the National Development Planning Commission.
The India Central programme was launched with a conference in Delhi in April 2010 that brought together government officials and legislators, academics and NGO representatives. The programme is identifying and funding research projects on a few specific topics that government officials expressed particular interest in.
The Bihar
programme focuses on state capacity, structural transformation and flood management in the context of the growth experience in Bihar. Specific contributions include work on fiscal consolidation and debt management, accountability of local government service delivery, and streamlining the investment process to improve the business climate. To understand the high rates of growth recently observed, studies have been planned to first understand the growth experience and to analyse the determinants of growth in the state. The IGC-Bihar team will also contribute policy options on the targeting of flood relief and a study on the effects of floods on growth, as well as convening an interdisciplinary group of flood management experts. The IGC- Bihar office is hosted by the Asian Development Research Institute
(ADRI). IGC-Bihar’s work on the growth experience and flood management analysis was also undertaken on the advice of the Chief Minister and senior functionaries like the Development Commissioner and Finance Secretary. Outputs of the IGC programme in Bihar are expected to be inputs to the fiscal and macroeconomic strategy to be adopted by the Government of Bihar to address resource mobilisation and sustainable growth.
The Sierra Leone programme focuses on private sector development and export diversification, the financial sector, and agriculture. Specific areas of policy advice include improving the investment climate, intervention policies for export promotion, technical and vocational education and training reform, fostering effective cooperation among private sector firms, developing a coherent approach to nurturing a national innovation system, strategy to encourage commercial farming, and risk management in banking sector supervision. The IGC-Sierra Leone office will be hosted by the Government of Sierra Leone.
The Pakistan programme is focused on sustainable growth, and currently comprises three broad areas: new growth initiatives, state capabilities and social services. Current projects include designing incentive and audit schemes for tax collectors and studies on implementation of a General Salex Tax in Pakistan, mapping political conflict and local government reform, and evaluating skills-transfer programmes for the poor.
TheTanzania programme is focused on macroeconomic management, public finance, poverty reduction, regional trade and infrastructure, firm capabilities, and agriculture. Specific research and analytical work covers fiscal policy issues, the challenge of jobless growth, money demand, food and fuel prices and inflation dynamics, dollarization, spatial price dispersion and market integration, and other areas. The IGC-Tanzania office is hosted by the Bank of Tanzania
and the programme has published studies including work by Anthony Atkinson and Maria Anna Lugo (Oxford University) on growth, poverty and income distribution in Tanzania, a report on differences between sources of government expenditure on education and health by Maria Anna Lugo, money demand by Christopher S. Adam (Oxford University), Pantaleo J. Kessy (Bank of Tanzania), Johnson J. Nyella (Bank of Tanzania) and Stephen A. O'Connell (Swarthmore College
), and fiscal policy, by David Bevan.
The IGC has held initial talks with the Government of Rwanda, which identified five provisional areas of engagement: agriculture, services (including trade and human resources); infrastructure; finance; and private sector development. A focus on local governance and participation will be maintained across these five areas. The IGC has also held talks with the governments of Mozambique and Zambia.
78 research projects have been funded through 4 research awards, with £4.3m committed. Most projects involve in-country research work.
The agriculture programme, led by Christopher Udry (Yale University
) and Tavneet Suri (Massachusetts Institute of Technology
) is investigating four interlinked forces affecting the spatial distribution of agricultural production and its growth potential. Trade policy, such as protectionist measures related to biofuels, is one. Climate change and the shift in comparative advantage towards high latitude areas is another. The returns to technological development and its beneficiaries will be also critical, as will issues regarding the general market environment such as determinants of input and output prices and relevant labour market implications.
The climate change, environment and natural resources programme, led by Douglas Almond (Columbia University
) and Michael
Greenstone (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), investigates the trade-off between growth and environmental protection, and attempts to set a novel agenda for stimulating low-carbon growth. Managing natural resources including oil and mineral deposits is one policy priority. Research is also needed on how to best to draw developing countries into a global system aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At the national level, designing optimal environmental tax and subsidy policies is critical. Furthermore, the programme supports research on how to mitigate the effects of climate changes.
The finance programme, led by Greg Fischer (LSE) and Colin Mayer (Oxford University)investigates financial markets and resource allocation in developing countries. Household risk management, and the impact of financial access for the poor, are other areas, along with micro-finance and the implications of its various designs. A large fraction of the research makes use of the growing expertise in randomised interventions.
The firm capabilities programme, led by Chris Woodruff (Warwick University) and Luis Garicano (LSE), investigates
the existence of and reasons for heterogeneity in productivity between different firms in different countries, to understand the causes of the productivity shortfall of some firms in developing countries and to find ways of boosting competitiveness in the manufacturing sector. The programme will create a new repository of data on the role of firms in economic development, and
will support novel research into the sources of heterogeneity in performance between firms in different countries. Work published by this programme including a study
by Nicholas Bloom at Stanford University on how management affects firm productivity in a sample if Indian textile firms.
The political economy programme, led by Eliana La Ferrara (Bocconi University
) and Gerard Padro i Miquel (LSE)investigates economic performance under different political regimes in developing countries. A large volume of research
deals with corruption and illicit behaviour. Conflict and post-conflict management also significant attention.
The human capital programme, led by Steve Machin and Imran Rasul (University College London
) focuses on investments in human capital, measurement of the private and social returns to investments in human capital, the accumulation of human capital over the life cycle, and the organisation of health and education systems. Published outputs include a study on how infant foods certification can imporive child nutrition in Ghana, by William Masters at Tufts University.
The infrastructure and urbanisation programme, led by Enrico Moretti (University of California, Berkeley
) looks
at how large-scale investments in physical capital drive growth. Agglomeration economies are key to explaining the spatial distribution of production and living. Urban areas tend to have the highest per-worker productivity and generate most economic output. While this is partly explained by the presence of natural advantages that constrain specific production to specific locations, it is clear that natural advantages alone cannot account for the observed degree of agglomeration. A better sense
of agglomeration economies and their underlying mechanisms will allow researchers to provide estimates of the extent to which the current spatial distribution of economic activity in a given country could be modified.
The macroeconomics programme, led by Silvana Tenreyro (LSE), evaluates the impact of monetary and fiscal policy on economic growth to identify the sources and propagation mechanisms of economic fluctuations in developing economies and to propose policy responses to mitigate their effects. By understanding the sources of economic volatility and its economic effects, this programme is developing suitable policy responses to short-term fluctuations.
The state capabilities programme, led by Oriana Bandiera and Henrik Kleven (LSE), contributes to the strengthening of public sector capacity through the design of policy measures to improve revenue collection, the creation of incentives for public sector employees, and the delivery of public goods and services. Research on taxation will focus on individuals, family firms, and multinationals. Some research involves randomised interventions in collaboration with local tax authorities.
The trade programme, led by Andres Rodriguez-Clare (Penn State) and Eric Verhoogen (Columbia University) researches the relationships between international integration, learning and innovation in order to inform policies to help developing countries derive maximum benefit from their engagement with the world economy. Theories of trade emphasise reallocations of resources in response to changes in trade costs, but trade also appears to affect growth through dynamic mechanisms other than static resource
reallocation. An alternative possibility is that international trade affects growth primarily through its impact on the accumulation of knowledge about how to produce existing products at lower cost or higher quality, how to produce new products,
what a country is good at producing, where to find suppliers or buyers, or about what customers want. The programme aims to support research investigating such mechanisms and help to develop a coherent understanding of the dynamic learning effects of trade.
The IGC has also convened workshops on state-building and hosted the public announcement of the new DFID private sector strategy by Andrew Mitchell
at LSE on October 2010
, Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development, Centre for Economic Policy Research
, European Development Research Network, Global Development Network
, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
, Microeconomics of Growth Network and the South Asia Network of Economic research Institutes (SANEI).
Department for International Development
The Department For International Development is a United Kingdom government department with a Cabinet Minister in charge. It was separated from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1997. The goal of the department is "to promote sustainable development and eliminate world poverty". The current...
and launched in March 2008.
The IGC has country programmes in Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Ethiopia, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, India, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Sierra Leone, Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, Mozambique, Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
and Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
and supports over seventy individual research projects on issues of governance
Governance
Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes...
, human capital
Human capital
Human capitalis the stock of competencies, knowledge and personality attributes embodied in the ability to perform labor so as to produce economic value. It is the attributes gained by a worker through education and experience...
, agriculture, climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
and natural resources
Natural Resources
Natural Resources is a soul album released by Motown girl group Martha Reeves and the Vandellas in 1970 on the Gordy label. The album is significant for the Vietnam War ballad "I Should Be Proud" and the slow jam, "Love Guess Who"...
, infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
, trade, firm capabilities, state capacity, macroeconomics
Macroeconomics
Macroeconomics is a branch of economics dealing with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of the whole economy. This includes a national, regional, or global economy...
and political economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
. The IGC is directed by Gobind Nankani, who is an economic advisor to the Government of Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
. Dr Nankani was President of the Global Development Network
Global Development Network
The idea of a Global Development Network was conceived at a meeting organized by The World Bank in Washington in May 1997. Participants included the heads of GDN's regional network partners and representatives of various bilateral and multilateral organizations and academic associations including...
and a former Vice President for Africa at the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, where he was also Vice-President of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network (PREM).
The IGC is directed by a Steering Group comprising Gobind Nankani, Paul Collier
Paul Collier
Paul Collier, CBE is a Professor of Economics, Director for the Centre for the Study of African Economies at The University of Oxford and Fellow of St Antony's College. From 1998 – 2003 he was the director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank.-Life:Collier is a specialist in...
, Tim Besley
Tim Besley
Timothy John Besley, CBE served on the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee from September 2006 to August 2009 and is Kuwait professor of economics and political science at the London School of Economics, Director of the Suntory-Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related...
, Stefan Dercon
Stefan Dercon
Stefan Dercon is a notable Micro-Development Economist who has, since 2004, been a Professor of Development Economics at Oxford University and a Fellow of Wolfson College. Between 2000 and 2002 he was Programme Director at the World Institute of Development Economics , United Nations University...
, Chang-Tai Tsieh, Ines Garcia and Mark Henstridge. The IGC spans a London hub, country offices in partner countries, a group of 10 research programmes with participation from academics, a network of policy stakeholders in the developing world and a range of public, civil society and private sector partners.
The IGC has delivered policy research to a number of developing countries. Peter Blair Henry contributed to shaping the macroeconomic framework for Ghana’s 2010 budget, and Anthony Venables
Anthony Venables
Anthony J. Venables, CBE, born April 25, 1953, is a British economist and the BP Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford.Venables is known as one of the pioneers of New Economic Geography...
has contributed to oil revenue legislation management in Ghana. Christopher Adam, Pantaleo Kessy, Johnson Nyella and Stephen A. O’Connell provided a new money demand model which contributed to the development of inflation-targeting by the Bank of Tanzania
Bank of Tanzania
The Bank of Tanzania is the central bank of the United Republic of Tanzania. It is responsible for issuing the national currency, the Tanzanian shilling....
. In a study part-funded by IGC, Nick Bloom, Benn Eifert, Aprajit Mahajan, David McKenzie and John Roberts examined the impact of the quality of management on firm productivity in India. John Sutton
John Sutton
John Sutton is an Australian professional rugby league footballer for the South Sydney Rabbitohs of the National Rugby League competition. He primarily played at lock or centre but is now a five eighth....
has produced a detailed mapping of industry in Ethiopia.
IGC scholars include Esther Duflo
Esther Duflo
Esther Duflo is a French economist, currently the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also co-founder and the Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab...
, Michael Kremer
Michael Kremer
Michael Robert Kremer is a development economist and is currently the Gates Professor of Developing Societies at Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and a Presidential Faculty Fellowship, and was named a Young Global...
, Nicholas Stern
Nicholas Stern
Nicholas Herbert Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford, Kt, FBA is a British economist and academic. He is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics , and 2010 Professor of Collège de...
, Torsten Persson
Torsten Persson
Torsten Persson is a Swedish economist and the director of the Institute for International Economic Studies at Stockholm University. He has also taught in England, the United States, and Israel...
, Nick Bloom, Chris Blattman, Mark R. Rosenzweig, John Van Reenen, James D. Fearon, Daron Acemoğlu
Daron Acemoglu
Kamer Daron Acemoğlu is a Turkish-American economist of Armenian origin. He is currently the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and winner of the 2005 John Bates Clark Medal. He is among the in the world according to IDEAS/RePEc...
, Dilip Mukherjee, Taryn Dinkleman, Raj Chetty
Raj Chetty
Raj Chetty is an Indian American economist. He is currently a professor of economics at Harvard University and was a former professor at the University of California, Berkeley...
, Andres Rodriguez-Clare and Eswar Prasad
Eswar Prasad
Eswar Prasad holds the New Century Chair in International Economics. He is the Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution....
.
Country Programmes
For each partner country, the IGC supports a team of resident and visiting economists who respond to specific policy demands from countries on issues of economic growth. This covers applied economic analysis, long-term research and policy engagement activities, as well as rapid responses to pressing policy questions. IGC country teams are often based in the offices of think tanks or government bodies.The Bangladesh programme is formulating a strategy to respond to long-standing policy questions, such as governance, non-traditional export prospects beyond garments, rationalisation of the tax system, poverty alleviation (including the impact of microcredit), and improvements in social indicators. The program is also looking at short- to medium-term work on climate change, urbanisation under intense population density and skill formation in a rapidly expanding labour force. The IGC-Bangladesh office is hosted by the Economic Research Group in Dhaka
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...
.
The Ethiopia programme addresses agricultural innovation, the functioning of rural input and output markets, the structure of the rural finance system, the interaction of the agriculture sector with the rest of the economy, industrial policy and other areas. The IGC-Ethiopia office is housed at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI), which is directed by the Chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister. In June 2010, the IGC-Ethiopia Programme held an event in Ethiopia, led by John Sutton and Mans Soderbom, to disseminate its work on industries. Professor John Sutton has written a book, "An Enterprise Map of Ethiopia", on industrial capacity to be published in December 2010.
The Ghana programme focuses on macroeconomic stability, agriculture sector restructuring, private sector development, education and skills acquisition, and natural resource management. Specific policy questions include management of inflation, agricultural finance and credit constraints, and the returns to education. The IGC-Ghana office is hosted by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER).The IGC-Ghana programme works in collaboration with the Economic Advisory
Council, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, the Bank of Ghana
Bank of Ghana
The Bank of Ghana is the central bank of Ghana. It is located in Accra and was formed in 1957. Its name is abbreviated to BOG.-Brief Historical Background:...
, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and the National Development Planning Commission.
The India Central programme was launched with a conference in Delhi in April 2010 that brought together government officials and legislators, academics and NGO representatives. The programme is identifying and funding research projects on a few specific topics that government officials expressed particular interest in.
The Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
programme focuses on state capacity, structural transformation and flood management in the context of the growth experience in Bihar. Specific contributions include work on fiscal consolidation and debt management, accountability of local government service delivery, and streamlining the investment process to improve the business climate. To understand the high rates of growth recently observed, studies have been planned to first understand the growth experience and to analyse the determinants of growth in the state. The IGC-Bihar team will also contribute policy options on the targeting of flood relief and a study on the effects of floods on growth, as well as convening an interdisciplinary group of flood management experts. The IGC- Bihar office is hosted by the Asian Development Research Institute
Asian Development Research Institute
-About the Institution:The Asian Development Research Institute was established and registered as a Society by a group of social scientists in 1991. It is a non-profit civil society organization, dedicated to social science research...
(ADRI). IGC-Bihar’s work on the growth experience and flood management analysis was also undertaken on the advice of the Chief Minister and senior functionaries like the Development Commissioner and Finance Secretary. Outputs of the IGC programme in Bihar are expected to be inputs to the fiscal and macroeconomic strategy to be adopted by the Government of Bihar to address resource mobilisation and sustainable growth.
The Sierra Leone programme focuses on private sector development and export diversification, the financial sector, and agriculture. Specific areas of policy advice include improving the investment climate, intervention policies for export promotion, technical and vocational education and training reform, fostering effective cooperation among private sector firms, developing a coherent approach to nurturing a national innovation system, strategy to encourage commercial farming, and risk management in banking sector supervision. The IGC-Sierra Leone office will be hosted by the Government of Sierra Leone.
The Pakistan programme is focused on sustainable growth, and currently comprises three broad areas: new growth initiatives, state capabilities and social services. Current projects include designing incentive and audit schemes for tax collectors and studies on implementation of a General Salex Tax in Pakistan, mapping political conflict and local government reform, and evaluating skills-transfer programmes for the poor.
TheTanzania programme is focused on macroeconomic management, public finance, poverty reduction, regional trade and infrastructure, firm capabilities, and agriculture. Specific research and analytical work covers fiscal policy issues, the challenge of jobless growth, money demand, food and fuel prices and inflation dynamics, dollarization, spatial price dispersion and market integration, and other areas. The IGC-Tanzania office is hosted by the Bank of Tanzania
Bank of Tanzania
The Bank of Tanzania is the central bank of the United Republic of Tanzania. It is responsible for issuing the national currency, the Tanzanian shilling....
and the programme has published studies including work by Anthony Atkinson and Maria Anna Lugo (Oxford University) on growth, poverty and income distribution in Tanzania, a report on differences between sources of government expenditure on education and health by Maria Anna Lugo, money demand by Christopher S. Adam (Oxford University), Pantaleo J. Kessy (Bank of Tanzania), Johnson J. Nyella (Bank of Tanzania) and Stephen A. O'Connell (Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
), and fiscal policy, by David Bevan.
The IGC has held initial talks with the Government of Rwanda, which identified five provisional areas of engagement: agriculture, services (including trade and human resources); infrastructure; finance; and private sector development. A focus on local governance and participation will be maintained across these five areas. The IGC has also held talks with the governments of Mozambique and Zambia.
Research Programmes
The IGC has developed ten research programmes that respond to policy priorities in the world’s poorest countries: agriculture, climate change, environment and natural resources, finance, firm capabilities, human capital,infrastructure and urbanisation, macroeconomics, governance, accountability and political economy, state capabilities and trade.78 research projects have been funded through 4 research awards, with £4.3m committed. Most projects involve in-country research work.
The agriculture programme, led by Christopher Udry (Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
) and Tavneet Suri (Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
) is investigating four interlinked forces affecting the spatial distribution of agricultural production and its growth potential. Trade policy, such as protectionist measures related to biofuels, is one. Climate change and the shift in comparative advantage towards high latitude areas is another. The returns to technological development and its beneficiaries will be also critical, as will issues regarding the general market environment such as determinants of input and output prices and relevant labour market implications.
The climate change, environment and natural resources programme, led by Douglas Almond (Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
) and Michael
Greenstone (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), investigates the trade-off between growth and environmental protection, and attempts to set a novel agenda for stimulating low-carbon growth. Managing natural resources including oil and mineral deposits is one policy priority. Research is also needed on how to best to draw developing countries into a global system aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At the national level, designing optimal environmental tax and subsidy policies is critical. Furthermore, the programme supports research on how to mitigate the effects of climate changes.
The finance programme, led by Greg Fischer (LSE) and Colin Mayer (Oxford University)investigates financial markets and resource allocation in developing countries. Household risk management, and the impact of financial access for the poor, are other areas, along with micro-finance and the implications of its various designs. A large fraction of the research makes use of the growing expertise in randomised interventions.
The firm capabilities programme, led by Chris Woodruff (Warwick University) and Luis Garicano (LSE), investigates
the existence of and reasons for heterogeneity in productivity between different firms in different countries, to understand the causes of the productivity shortfall of some firms in developing countries and to find ways of boosting competitiveness in the manufacturing sector. The programme will create a new repository of data on the role of firms in economic development, and
will support novel research into the sources of heterogeneity in performance between firms in different countries. Work published by this programme including a study
by Nicholas Bloom at Stanford University on how management affects firm productivity in a sample if Indian textile firms.
The political economy programme, led by Eliana La Ferrara (Bocconi University
Bocconi University
Bocconi University is a private university located in central Milan, beside Parco Ravizza. Bocconi provides undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate education, in addition to a range of double degree programs, in the fields of economics, management, finance and law. According to many university...
) and Gerard Padro i Miquel (LSE)investigates economic performance under different political regimes in developing countries. A large volume of research
deals with corruption and illicit behaviour. Conflict and post-conflict management also significant attention.
The human capital programme, led by Steve Machin and Imran Rasul (University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
) focuses on investments in human capital, measurement of the private and social returns to investments in human capital, the accumulation of human capital over the life cycle, and the organisation of health and education systems. Published outputs include a study on how infant foods certification can imporive child nutrition in Ghana, by William Masters at Tufts University.
The infrastructure and urbanisation programme, led by Enrico Moretti (University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
) looks
at how large-scale investments in physical capital drive growth. Agglomeration economies are key to explaining the spatial distribution of production and living. Urban areas tend to have the highest per-worker productivity and generate most economic output. While this is partly explained by the presence of natural advantages that constrain specific production to specific locations, it is clear that natural advantages alone cannot account for the observed degree of agglomeration. A better sense
of agglomeration economies and their underlying mechanisms will allow researchers to provide estimates of the extent to which the current spatial distribution of economic activity in a given country could be modified.
The macroeconomics programme, led by Silvana Tenreyro (LSE), evaluates the impact of monetary and fiscal policy on economic growth to identify the sources and propagation mechanisms of economic fluctuations in developing economies and to propose policy responses to mitigate their effects. By understanding the sources of economic volatility and its economic effects, this programme is developing suitable policy responses to short-term fluctuations.
The state capabilities programme, led by Oriana Bandiera and Henrik Kleven (LSE), contributes to the strengthening of public sector capacity through the design of policy measures to improve revenue collection, the creation of incentives for public sector employees, and the delivery of public goods and services. Research on taxation will focus on individuals, family firms, and multinationals. Some research involves randomised interventions in collaboration with local tax authorities.
The trade programme, led by Andres Rodriguez-Clare (Penn State) and Eric Verhoogen (Columbia University) researches the relationships between international integration, learning and innovation in order to inform policies to help developing countries derive maximum benefit from their engagement with the world economy. Theories of trade emphasise reallocations of resources in response to changes in trade costs, but trade also appears to affect growth through dynamic mechanisms other than static resource
reallocation. An alternative possibility is that international trade affects growth primarily through its impact on the accumulation of knowledge about how to produce existing products at lower cost or higher quality, how to produce new products,
what a country is good at producing, where to find suppliers or buyers, or about what customers want. The programme aims to support research investigating such mechanisms and help to develop a coherent understanding of the dynamic learning effects of trade.
Events
The IGC shares the findings of its research through events, workshops, seminars and published materials – in particular, at the annual Growth Week conference at LSE.The IGC has also convened workshops on state-building and hosted the public announcement of the new DFID private sector strategy by Andrew Mitchell
Andrew Mitchell
The Right Honourable Andrew John Bower Mitchell MP is a British Conservative Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sutton Coldfield...
at LSE on October 2010
Partners
The IGC has institutional partnerships with the African Economic Research Consortium, BRACBRAC (NGO)
BRAC, based in Bangladesh, is the world's largest non-governmental development organization. Established by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 soon after the independence of Bangladesh, BRAC is present in all 64 districts of Bangladesh, with over 7 million microfinance group members, 37,500 non-formal...
, Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development, Centre for Economic Policy Research
Centre for Economic Policy Research
The Centre for Economic Policy Research , a registered charity founded in 1983 by Richard Portes , FBA, CBE, is a network of over 700 researchers based mainly in universities throughout Europe, who collaborate through the centre in research and its dissemination...
, European Development Research Network, Global Development Network
Global Development Network
The idea of a Global Development Network was conceived at a meeting organized by The World Bank in Washington in May 1997. Participants included the heads of GDN's regional network partners and representatives of various bilateral and multilateral organizations and academic associations including...
, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab is an academic center located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Economics which is dedicated to evaluating the impact of anti-poverty programs through randomized controlled trials similar to those used in medical research...
, Microeconomics of Growth Network and the South Asia Network of Economic research Institutes (SANEI).