Casual observation suggests that intra-national trade costs remain high in low- and middle-income countries. Precisely estimating them is crucial for guiding policies aimed at optimizing economic efficiency within a country's borders. This paper estimates intra-national trade costs for six low-...

Consumption data from household surveys continue to be the main source for poverty and inequality statistics in low- and middle-income countries. Although recent research has demonstrated that the choice of diary- versus recall-based methods for consumption data collection can directly impact...

Cote d'Ivoire, the largest economy in the West African Economic and Monetary Union, was hit by COVID-19, which claimed many lives. This paper estimates COVID-19 mortality costs over time using the value of a statistical life. Using a more conservative estimate of the value of a statistical life...

This paper investigates whether the expansion of fast internet networks complements or substitutes for the development of roads to improve market access and create more and higher-skilled jobs in Africa. The paper combines the geographic locations of households and firms with the locations of...

The Global Compact on Refugees recognizes the importance of responsibility sharing for hosting, protecting, and assisting refugees, while emphasizing the potential of economic participation to reduce the cost of humanitarian assistance. This note explores the relative importance of aid in caring...

How did the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic impact poor households in Sub-Saharan Africa This paper tackles this question by combining 73 High-Frequency Phone Surveys collected by national governments in 14 countries with older nationally representative surveys containing...

Unequal access to economic opportunity for individuals with different innate characteristics, such as ethnicity or parents' socioeconomic status, is often seen as both morally undesirable and bad for economic growth. This paper estimates inequality of opportunity, or the share of inequality...

This study uses a cluster-randomized controlled trial to investigate the effects of a large-scale women and girls empowerment program on sexual and reproductive health and empowerment outcomes in Cote d'Ivoire. The study assesses and compares the impact of diverse strategies aimed at equipping...

Although access to reliable electricity enables manufacturing companies to increase their output, there have been few studies of the distribution of output growth between export and domestic markets. Although some papers have examined the impact of electricity reliability on exports (in volume...

Accurate poverty measurement relies on household consumption data, but such data are often inadequate, outdated or display inconsistencies over time in poorer countries. To address these data challenges, we employ survey-to-survey imputation to produce estimates for several poverty indicators...