This study collects time-use data for entrepreneurs and their workers in over 1,000 manufacturing firms in urban Uganda. The authors document limited labour specialization within the firm for establishments of all sizes and argue that this is likely due to the prevalence of product customization. The authors then develop a general equilibrium model of task assignment within the firm, estimate it with the data, and find large barriers to labour specialization. This setting is close, in terms of aggregate productivity and firm scale, to an extreme benchmark in which each firm is just a collection of self-employed individuals sharing a production space. Given how firms are organized internally, the benefits from alleviating other frictions that constrain firm growth are muted: most African firms resemble artisanal workshops whose business model is not easily scalable.
All results
Dear All,
The changing seasons saw the closing and opening of many STEG opportunities. For researchers in the South, we hope that the new season has arrived and brought with it optimism for the remainder of 2023. For researchers in the North, we hope that beginning of term time, teaching or 'fall' has been fruitful.
September saw the closing of the Fourth call for Large Research Grant call as well as the the call for papers for our Annual Conference week in January. We received a hearty number of applications for both opportunities and are in the throws of the evaluation process.
If you missed these calls, we're pleased to let you know that our Seventh Small Research Grant Call and Sixth PhD Grant Call have just opened! You can find more information on these calls below.
Since our last newsletter we have featured research on the effects of Global Value Chain (GVC) integration on job creation in sub-Saharan Africa, the effects of global mineral prices on urbanisation and industry structure in 76 countries, the effects of job search platforms on female labour outcomes in developing countries, and much much more! Find these new papers below and browse our growing publications library.
Another September happening included an insightful keynote address from STEG Theme 2 Leader, Rachel Ngai, on "Women at Work in the course of Structural Transformation" at the Annual Central Bank Conference on Development Economics in MENA. Find the full details below.
Cheerfully,
The STEG Team
Seventh Small Research (SRG) Grant Call and Sixth PhD Research Grant Call
DEADLINE: Monday, 6th November 2023
STEG invites applications to the Seventh SRG and Sixth PhD Grant calls. These will be the final SRG and PhD calls under the current STEG programme.
SRGs of between £10,000 and £25,000 can fund research assistance, data collection and/or purchase, and potentially research stipends/teaching buyouts. Grants also support travel to field sites, even when secondary data is utilised. We view this kind of travel (with the possibilities for field visits and conversations with policymakers) as particularly important for researchers who lack prior experience in the countries that they intend to study.
While PhD students are eligible to apply to our SRG calls, we also issue a special call exclusively for PhD students alongside our SRG calls in order to encourage broader participation in the programme. PhD Research Grants up to £15,000 are essentially equivalent to SRGs and fund similar activities.
🔎Research may focus on broad systemic patterns and processes of structural transformation and growth for low-income countries, in a comparative sense across time or space, or more narrowly defined topics related to one or more of the STEG themes.
🌍 We are particularly interested in research on sub-Saharan Africa, but research in middle-income countries will be considered if it informs growth processes or policies in low-income countries.
💡We strongly recommend that prospective applicants read the SRG documentation about eligibility, country criteria, preparing an application, how to apply online and the SRG Frequently Asked Questions before applying.
You can find more information on the STEG Website. The deadline for applications is Monday, 6 November 2023!
STEG Working Paper Series: NEW PAPERS
Below are three new papers have been published under the STEG Working Paper Series! Check them out below:
- WP073: Global Value Chains, Job Creation, and Job Destruction among Firms in South Africa from Gideon Ndubuisi and Solomon Owusu
- WP074: Resource Rents, Urbanization, and Structural Transformation from Qing Huang, Victoria Wenxin Xie, Wei You
- WP075: Hunting Talents and Nurturing Entrepreneurship in Low-Income CountriesQuasi- Experimental Evidence from Business Plan Competition in Ethiopia from Abebe Ambachew Ayana
We also had two updated working papers to share with the STEG Audience:
- WP033: Technology Adoption and Late Industrialization from Jaedo Choi and Younghun Shim
- WP044: Social Networks, Gender Norms and Women’s Labor Supply: Experimental Evidence Using a Job Search Platform from Farzana Afridi, Amrita Dhillon, Sanchari Roy, Nikita Sangwan
If you would like to submit your paper to the STEG Working Paper Series, please contact the STEG Team at [email protected]. Working papers that have been produced through STEG-funded projects are included in the series and we welcome papers from researchers directly affiliated with STEG as well as researchers' papers that have been presented at STEG-funded events including our Annual Conference and Theme Workshops.
The series is circulated widely through STEG’s network of researchers and policymakers in order that the results of the research receive thorough professional scrutiny and reach the hands of policymakers more quickly.
We look forward to collating more high-quality research under the STEG Working Paper Series as the STEG programme, and the research field more widely, progresses.
New STEG Project Policy Briefs
Here are two new STEG Policy Project Briefs from PhD Grant 798 and 527:
- PB005: Hunting Talents and Nurturing Entrepreneurship in Low-Income Countries: Quasi- Experimental Evidence from Business Plan Competition in Ethiopia from Abebe Ambachew Ayana based on PhD Grant 527
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PB006: Bringing Work Home: Internet-Mediated Gig Work and Women’s Employment from Lisa Ho, Anahita Karandikar, Suhani Jalota based on PhD Grant 798
STEG Policy Briefs distil results and lessons from STEG-funded projects and longer synthesis papers into shorter non-technical articles that are easily accessible and quickly digested. Policy briefs will be circulated widely through STEG’s network of policymakers and other stakeholders in order that the results and lessons from STEG-funded research can be incorporated into policymaking decisions more quickly.
Talk by Rachel Ngai
On day two of the Annual Central Bank Conference on Development Economics in the Middle East and North Africa Rachel Ngai (Imperial College London and LSE) gave Keynote Lecture III: Women at Work in the course of Structural Transformation. Rachel is one of our STEG research Theme 2 leaders.
🎥 Find the recorded talk here:
Bank Al-Maghrib/The World Bank: Annual Central Bank conference - YouTube (from 00:09:30 to 01:26:00 in the video)
📚 Programme, slides and papers here
Read more about STG Research theme 2 here
Revisiting Research
We invite you to revisit this STEG synthesis paper by Mary Hallward-Driemeier as a useful synthesis of recent structural transformation and economic growth literature and its application to Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the post-COVID world.
Important Dates
Calls Accepting Applications
- Seventh Small Research Grant Call - closing 6 November
- Sixth PhD Research Grants Call - closing 6 November
Calls Under Evaluation
- Fourth Large Research Grant Call - decisions expected in December
- STEG Annual Conference and Theme Workshops Call - selected applicants to be informed in mid-October
Future Call Timeline
- Fifth Ideas for Transformation Call - opening mid-October - closing early-December
Upcoming Events
- 2024 STEG Annual Conference and Theme Workshops - 10th - 17th January 2024.
If you have any questions, please contact the STEG Team at [email protected].
