Three IGM research papers presented at AFES 2023

On 1-3 June, the Africa Economic Research Consortium organized a three-day conference in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference, entitled ‘The 2023 Africa Meeting of the Econometric Society’, took place at Radisson Blu Upper Hill, in Nairobi, and gathered a prestigious academic audience, including prominent figures such as Nobel Prize winner Prof. Esther Duflo, Prof. James Robinson, Prof. Daron Acemoglu and. Prof. Leonard Wantchekon.

The event programme included three research papers produced under the Inclusive growth in Mozambique (IGM) programme, covering topics ranging from behavioural economics to measuring trends in inequality. The first one, entitled ‘Character or context: What explains behavioural dishonesty in low-income countries’ (WIDER Working Paper 98/2020), was presented by Ines Ferreira, UCPH-DERG Assistant Professor and IGM Non-Resident Advisor, on Thursday 1 June in a session on Governance. In her presentation, Ines Ferreira discussed various factors associated with behavioral dishonesty.

The two other IGM papers were presented on Saturday 3 June in a session dedicated to the topics of poverty, labour markets and inequality. Hanna Berkel, UNU-WIDER Research Fellow and IGM Resident Advisor, gave a presentation on a study on the formalization of firms, entitled ‘The costs and benefits of formalization for firms: A mixed-methods study on Mozambique’ (WIDER Working Paper 159/2018), and Giulia Barletta, UCPH-DERG Resident Advisor, presented a paper describing the evolution of inequality in Mozambique (‘The evolution of inequality in Mozambique: 1996/97–2019/20’, WIDER Working Paper 151/2022).

A key point argued by Hanna Berkel was that larger companies tend to reap the benefits of becoming formal and that smaller companies face more challenges in the process, leading to them being unable to benefit from formalizing themselves. In her presentation, Giulia Barletta discussed the growth in inequality in Mozambique during the last ten years.