Contacts 
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printable versionDoctoral Programme in Economics and Management - Second Year Presentations
Venue:
School of Social Sciences - via Verdi 26 - Trento, Lab 4
February 13th, 2013
h. 9.00
- Svetlana Kovaleva: Counterfactual Impact Evaluation of Investment Subsidies: Micro-level Evidence from Italy
Abstract
During the last fifty years, the Italian government has spent a large amount of money on industrial policies that aim to promote the growth and development of particular industries or regions. However, even if the goals of this government intervention have been achieved, the costs can exceed the benefits, resulting in the waste of state funding. In order to avoid this issue and to improve policy design, a comprehensive evaluation of existing support programs should be undertaken.
The main objective of this research proposal is to estimate the effect of government subsidies given to Italian firms in 2005. The evaluation will be carried out by using a nonparametric approach. First, two treatment and control groups will be constructed by implementing the propensity score-matching technique. Then an estimate of the average impact of subsidies will be derived.
This research proposal will explore if an increase in an investment activity was solely due to government subsidies or whether these investments would still have been carried out in the absence of government incentives. Furthermore, the results derived from applying the nonparametric approach will also be compared with estimates obtained from a using self- assessed impact survey.
- Mukasa Ndungu Adamon: Food price shocks, welfare, and poverty dynamics: Micro-econometric evidence from Uganda
Abstract
International food and fuel price increases from 2006 to 2008 have generated renewed debates about their impact on households in developing countries that are predominantly agricultural and net food importers. The proposed study will examine the effects of domestic food price surges on Ugandan households using three waves of panel data collected by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics between 2005 and 2011.
Neo-classical models predict that food price increases lead inescapably to negative Slutsky’s effects and therefore to consumer welfare losses. Utilizing a multi-market partial equilibrium model that accounts for both expenditure endogeneity and censoring in consumption, the first paper will challenge this prediction by examining whether the distributional welfare effects of soaring food prices can be adequately assessed and estimated without taking into account the structure of household consumption and production.
Building upon the livelihood diversification approach, the second paper will analyze the extent to which food price shocks have affected the structure of income generating activities of households. It will estimate the determinants of both income and crop diversification by contrasting periods of low and high food price volatility. The last paper will focus on the potential links between poverty dynamics and household responses to food price shocks.
- Wassie Tewodros Ayenew: Trading Firms in Africa: Investments, Productivity, and Spillovers
Abstract
Many developing countries have opened their economies to trade, and often adopt export promotion policies. This is based on the belief that foreign market participation not only brings new technologies and market links that enhance the efficiency of trading firms, but also has external benefits to internationally inactive domestic firms. Although these claims are reasonable, empirical studies provide little support for the presumed benefits of exporting. Recent studies argue that the negative empirical results may simply derive from mis-specified econometric models. Studies also find that exporting firms undertake substantial investments while they enter foreign markets. Nevertheless, the implications of such investments in the trade–productivity analysis has remained an important open question.
Using firm–level data from selected sub-Saharan African countries, this thesis will investigate how and to what extent the trade status of firms—as exporter, importer, and two–way trader—correlated with their productivity. It will also examine whether the presence of exporters in an industry increase the productivity of non-exporting firms. Furthermore it will identify the effect of exporting on productivity by controlling for export–complementary productivity–enhancing activities. Besides its academic interest, this study will be important from policy perspectives, as export promotion is a central issue in the broader development agenda of developing countries.
Organized by:
Doctorate in Economics and Management 
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