This workshop, hosted by Competitiveness Policy Lab (ComPEL) and Development Impact Evaluation (DIME), gathers a significant number of practitioners and management, clients, researchers, and partners, with the following objectives:
Agenda for Impact Evaluation Workshop
Athens, September 9th to 12th 2019
Monday, September 9 | |
8:00-8:45 Main Room | Breakfast and Registration
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8:45-9:00 | Denis Medvedev, Practice Manager, Firms, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation.
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9:00-9:30 | Knowledge Exercise
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9:30-11:00 | Impact Evaluation for Achieving Impact Arianna Legovini, Adviser, Development Impact Evaluation, World Bank Group. Denis Medvedev, Practice Manager, Firms, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation.
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11:00-11:30 | COFFEE BREAK |
11:30-12:30 Breakout Rms
| Methods: Non-Experimental English – Caio Piza, Economist, World Bank Group. French – Guigonan Serge Adjognon, Economist, World Bank Group.
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12:30-1:30
| Methods: Case Study on Non-Experimental Methods English – Caio Piza, Economist, World Bank Group. French – Guigonan Serge Adjognon, Economist, World Bank Group.
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1:30-2:30 | LUNCH |
2:30-3:15 Main Room | Methods: Ideas for Measuring Firm Outcomes David McKenzie, Lead Economist, World Bank Group.
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3:15-3:30
| Intro to Clinics: Integrating Impact Evaluation into the Design of Projects Ana Goicoechea, Senior Economist, World Bank Group. |
3:30-6:00 Breakout Rms
| Clinic 1: Objective and Theory of Change Teams will define their project objectives and theory of change. They will identify which constraints their programs aim to address, and which other potential binding constraints might remain. Discussion will be submitted to their facilitator using a PowerPoint template.
Coffee and snacks available in the rooms |
Tuesday, September 10 | |
9:00-10:00 Main Room
| Aidan Coville, Senior Economist, World Bank Group.
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10:00-10:45 | Methods: Case Study for Experimental Methods English – Caio Piza, Economist, World Bank Group. French – Guigonan Serge Adjognon, Economist, World Bank Group.
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10:45-11:00 | COFFEE BREAK |
11:00-11:45 | Policy Session: Improving Access to SME Finance Bilal Zia, Senior Economist, World Bank Group.
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11:45-12:30 | Ignite Session: Experiments on Improving Access to SME Finance (15 min per case, 15 min Q&A)
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12:30-1:30 | LUNCH |
1:30-2:15 Main Room | Policy Session: Technology Adoption Eric Verhoogen, Associate Professor, Columbia University.
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2:15-3:15
| Ignite Session: Experiments on Technology Adoption (15 min per case, 15 min Q&A)
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3:15-3:30 | COFFEE BREAK |
3:30-4:30 Breakout Rms
| Clinic 2: Research Questions, Outcome Measures, and Data Teams determine the research questions to be answered by the impact evaluation and the corresponding outcome indicators and data. The results will be recorded in the PowerPoint template.
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4:30-6:00
| Clinic 3: IE Methods and Implications in Roll out Plans Teams will work on designing an impact evaluation strategy to answer the questions they have identified. The proposed design will be recorded in the project's PowerPoint template.
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7:00 | Networking Dinner
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Wednesday, September 11 | |
9:00-9:45 Main Room | Aidan Coville, Senior Economist, World Bank Group.
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9:45-10:45 | Debrief from Project Teams: Research Questions and Knowledge Gaps Senior researchers will provide feedback to teams.
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10:45-11:00 | COFFEE BREAK |
11:00-11:45
| Christopher Woodruff, Professor of Economics, Oxford University.
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11:45-12:30
| Ignite Session: Experiments on Connecting Business to Improve Market Access (15 min per case, 15 min Q&A)
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12:30-1:30 | LUNCH |
1:30-2:15 | Policy Session: Cross Cutting Issues in Firm Impact Evaluations David McKenzie, Lead Economist, Development Economics Research Group, World Bank Group.
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2:30-6:00 Breakout Rms | Clinic 4: Implementation Plan and Presentation Teams will work on practical implementation plan of the IE (including budget, timeline, and staffing) and polish their PowerPoint presentation. |
Thursday, September 12 | |
8:45 – 10:30 Main Room | Clinic 5: Teams’ presentations 15 min per team (5 min presentation, 10 min discussion) |
10:30-10:45 | COFFEE BREAK |
10:45 – 12:30
| Clinic 5: Teams’ presentations 15 min per team (5 min presentation, 10 min discussion) |
12:30-1:30 | LUNCH |
1:30-2:30 | Knowledge Exercise and Closing Ceremony
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Teams for Clinics
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Technology Adoption
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Improving Access to SME Finance
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Targeting Firms with High Growth Potential
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Connecting Business to Improve Market Access
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Support Staff at the Workshop:
Programme Préliminaire pour Atelier d’Evaluation d’Impact
Athènes, 9-12 Septembre 2019
Lundi, 9 Septembre | |
8:00-8:45 Hall Principal (Main Room) | Petit déjeuner et enregistrement
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8:45-9:00 | Remarques de Bienvenue Denis Medvedev, Practice Manager, Firms, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation.
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9:00-9:30 | Exercice de Connaissances
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9:30-11:00 | Evaluation d'Impact pour Atteindre l'Impact Arianna Legovini, Adviser, Development Impact Evaluation, Groupe de la banque mondiale. Denis Medvedev, Practice Manager, Firms, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation.
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11:00-11:30 | PAUSE CAFÉ |
11:30-12:30 Halls Secondaires (Breakout Rooms)
| Les méthodes: Non-Expérimental Anglais – Caio Piza, Économiste, Groupe de la banque mondiale. Français – Guigonan Serge Adjognon, Économiste, Groupe de la banque mondiale.
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12:30-1:30
| Les méthodes: Étude de Cas sur Les Méthodes Non-Expérimental Anglais – Caio Piza, Économiste, Groupe de la banque mondiale. Français – Guigonan Serge Adjognon, Économiste, Groupe de la banque mondiale.
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1:30-2:30
| DÉJEUNER |
2:30-3:15 Hall Principal (Main Room) | Les méthodes: Idées pour Mesurer les Résultats de l'Entreprise David McKenzie, Lead Économiste, Groupe de la banque mondiale.
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3:15-3:30
| Introduction aux Cliniques: Intégration de l’Évaluation d’Impact dans la Conception de Projets Ana Goicoechea, Senior Économiste, Groupe de la banque mondiale. |
3:30-6:00 Halls Secondaires (Breakout Rooms)
| Clinique 1: Objectif et Théorie du Changement Les équipes définiront les objectifs de leurs projets et la théorie du changement. Ils identifieront les contraintes que leurs programmes visent à résoudre. La discussion sera soumise à leur facilitateur en utilisant un modèle PowerPoint.
Café et collations disponibles dans les salles |
Mardi, Septembre 10 | |
9:00-10:00 Hall Principal (Main Room)
| Les méthodes: Expérimental Aidan Coville, Senior Économiste, Groupe de la banque mondiale.
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10:00-10:45 | Les méthodes: Étude de Cas sur Les Méthodes Expérimental Anglais – Caio Piza, Économiste, Groupe de la banque mondiale. Français – Guigonan Serge Adjognon, Économiste, Groupe de la banque mondiale.
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10:45-11:00 | PAUSE CAFÉ |
11:00-11:45 | Session Politique sur l’Amélioration de l'Accès au Financement des PME Bilal Zia, Senior Économiste, Groupe de la banque mondiale.
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11:45-12:30 | Session Ignite: Expérimentes sur l’Amélioration de l'Accès au Financement des PME (15 in par cas, 15 min Q&A)
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12:30-1:30
| DÉJEUNER |
1:30-2:15 Hall Principal (Main Room) | Session Politique sur: l’Adoption des Technologies Eric Verhoogen, Professeur Associé, Columbia Université.
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2:15-3:15
| Session Ignite: Expérimentes sur l’Adoption des Technologies (15 min par cas, 15 min Q&A)
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3:15-3:30 | PAUSE CAFÉ |
3:30-4:30 Halls Secondaires (Breakout Rooms)
| Clinique 2: Questions de Recherche, Mesures de Résultats et Données Les équipes déterminent les questions de recherche auxquelles l'évaluation d'impact doit répondre, ainsi que les indicateurs de résultats et les données correspondants. Les résultats seront enregistrés dans le modèle PowerPoint. |
4:30-6:00
| Clinique 3: Méthodes EI et les Implications dans les Plans de Déploiement Les équipes travailleront à la conception d’une stratégie d’évaluation de l’impact pour répondre aux questions qu’elles ont identifiées. La conception proposée sera enregistrée dans le modèle PowerPoint du projet. |
7:00 | Dîner de réseautage |
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9:00-9:45 Hall Principal (Main Room) | Les méthodes: Échantillonnage Aidan Coville, Senior Économiste, Groupe de la banque mondiale.
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9:45-10:45 | Compte Rendu des Équipes de Projet: Questions de Recherche et Lacune de Connaissances Les chercheurs expérimentés donneront feedback aux équipes.
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10:45-11:00 | PAUSE CAFÉ |
11:00-11:45
| Session Politique sur Connecter les Entreprises pour Améliorer l'Accès au Marché - Tendances de la Recherche et Opportunités d'Évaluation d'Impact Christopher Woodruff, Professeur of Economiques, Oxford Université.
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11:45-12:30
| Session Ignite: Expérimentes sur Connecter les Entreprises pour Améliorer l'Accès au Marché (15 min par cas, 15 min Q&A)
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12:30-1:30 | DÉJEUNER |
1:30-2:15 | Session Politique sur: Questions Transversales dans les Évaluations d'Impact sur les Entreprises David McKenzie, Lead Économiste, Development Economics Research Group, Groupe de la banque mondiale.
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2:30-6:00 Halls Secondaires (Breakout Rooms) | Clinique 4: Plan de mise en Œuvre et Préparations de Présentation Les équipes travailleront sur le plan de mise en œuvre pratique de l'EI (y compris le budget, le calendrier et la dotation en personnel) et prépareront leur présentation PowerPoint. |
Jeudi, Septembre 12 | |
8:45 – 10:30 Hall Principal (Main Room) | Clinique 5: Présentations des Équipes 15 min par équipe (5 min présentation, 10 min discussion) |
10:30-10:45 | PAUSE CAFÉ |
10:45 – 12:30
| Clinique 5: Présentations des Équipes 15 min par équipe (5 min présentation, 10 min discussion) |
12:30-1:30 | DÉJEUNER |
1:30-2:30 | Exercice de connaissances and Cérémonie de Clôture
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Equipes pour les Cliniques |
L’Adoption des Technologies · Egypt (P154650) – Overcoming Digital Advertising Adoption Barriers · Lebanon-Tunisia (P168392, we-fi) – E-Commerce and Women-Led SMEs |
L’Amélioration de l'Accès au Financement des PME · Burkina Faso (P164786) – Credit Guarantees for Entrepreneurs · Egypt (P162835) – Financing and Behavioral Economics for MSMEs · Nigeria (P168390, we-fi) – Innovative Lending Products for Women-led SMEs · Uzbekistan (P166305) – Ferghana Valley Rural Enterprise Development Project |
Cibler les Entreprises avec Haut Potentiel de croissance · Ghana (P166539) – Accelerating Entrepreneurship and SME growth Project · Senegal (P160708) – Business Competition in Renewable Energy Market
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Connecter les Entreprises pour Améliorer l'Accès au Marché · Cote d'Ivoire (P168393, we-fi) – Women-Led Cooperatives' Access to Markets and Financial Products and Services · Mozambique (P168391, we-fi) – Training Program for Women-Led SMEs · Senegal- (P168394, we-fi) – Connecting National Procurement Needs with Women-Owned SMEs · Rwanda (P164520) – Last Mile Market-Access Agriculture Program |
Guigonan Serge Adjognon is an Agricultural Economist in the Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) Team of the World Bank. His research interest lies at the intersection of agriculture, climate change, and food security. He is involved in several DIME-led IE projects investigating topics such as smallholders' market access in a context of transforming agri-food systems; agricultural technology adoption in the face of climate change; food security impacts of climate change interventions. Serge holds a PhD degree from Michigan State University, and a MSc degree from McGill University, both in Agricultural economics. Prior to joining the World Bank, Serge was a Graduate Research Assistant with the Food Security Group at Michigan State University.
Salman Alibhai leads World Bank lending operations and impact evaluations and in the area of finance and entrepreneurship, with a focus on access to finance for SMEs and women entrepreneurs. A focus of his work and research is on leveraging financial technology (fintech) such as psychometric testing and data-driven credit scoring to surmount collateral constraints for lending for SMEs. He is the Team Leader of the Women Entrepreneurship Development Program (WEDP, P122764), a flagship World Bank lending operation providing a line of credit to lend to ‘missing middle’ women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia. He holds an MSc from Oxford University and a BA from Carleton University, and has lived and worked in South Sudan, Rwanda, and Ethiopia
Laura Boudreau is a postdoctoral research scholar at the Economics Division and at the Chazen Institute for Global Business at Columbia Business School. In July 2020, she will join the Economics Division at Columbia Business School as an assistant professor. Her research primarily focuses on working conditions, labor rights, and firm productivity in developing countries. She is particularly interested in multinational companies’ efforts to influence conditions upstream in their supply chains.
Aidan Coville is a Senior Economist in the Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) team within the World Bank Development Economics Research Group and coordinator of DIME’s climate change program. After completing his MSc in Statistics at University College London and MSc in Economics for Development at the University of Oxford, he joined DIME in South Africa, exploring the effects of a large-scale slum upgrading project implemented across the country. Since then his work has focused on understanding and overcoming critical constraints to small business development and unpacking the determinants of use and resulting impacts of government-led water, sanitation and hygiene programs.
Patricio Dalton is an Associate Professor of Economics at Tilburg University. His research examines how biological, psychological and social factors influence decision-making, and how decisions affect welfare and economic development. Dalton’s theoretical work addresses the implications of bounded rationality for welfare economics and the link between aspirations and poverty. His experimental research has focused on the effect of poverty on productivity, preferences, cognitive functions and rationality. He has also studied the effect of goal setting on productivity and of unemployment benefits on labor supply. Most recently, he has designed and conducted field experiments to understand the determinants of small-firm growth funded by a DFID Grant. In Kenya, he studies the effect of mobile money on firm performance. In Indonesia, he investigates how business skills can be learned from successful peers and in Ghana how goal setting can become an effective low-cost tool to help small-businesses grow. Dalton holds a PhD in Economics from Warwick University.
Elwyn Davies is a Young Professional and Economist in the Firms, Entrepreneurship and Innovation unit of the Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation (FCI) Global Practice, working on firm capabilities, productivity and innovation in a wide range of countries, currently mostly in Africa and Europe. Elwyn’s research studies constraints to firm growth and productivity as well as the behavioral processes behind running and managing a business, including how managers use incentives to influence productivity. For his research he uses a mixture of methodologies, varying from running (behavioral) lab experiments, conducting firm-level surveys and analyzing administrative data. He holds a DPhil (PhD) degree in Economics from the University of Oxford.
Clara Delavallade is an economist at the World Bank’s Africa Gender Innovation Lab. She has worked on gender and human capital formation over the past 15 years, both with implementing NGOs and research institutions. She has lived and worked in West and South Africa, as well as in India about half of that time. She is currently based in Dakar (Senegal) and leads the Gender Innovation Lab’s research agenda on socio-emotional skills, occupational segregation and women’s economic empowerment. Her research also delves into risk management and technology adoption among poor farmers, as well as performance-based incentives and monitoring as tools for improving service delivery.
Aletheia Donald is an Economist working at the Gender Innovation Lab, within the World Bank’s Africa Chief Economist Office. Her current research focuses on identifying and addressing gender-based constraints through the analysis of development project impacts and improving the measurement of their outcomes. Before joining the World Bank, Aletheia was a Research Fellow at Harvard’s Evidence for Policy Design and Head of Research for the NGO Empower Dalit Women of Nepal. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Yale University.
Ana Goicoechea is a Senior Economist in the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice of the World Bank. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Maryland. She leads the Competitiveness Policy Evaluation Lab (ComPEL), aiming at conducting impact evaluations to inform development policies and programs related to private sector development. In over 15 years at the World Bank, her impact evaluation and operational work have focused on understanding barriers to firm innovation and growth, as well as mechanisms to improve regulations and accountability to benefit firms.
Morgan Hardy is an Assistant Professor of Economics in the Social Science Division of New York University Abu Dhabi. Her research focuses broadly on private enterprise development and employment in low-income countries. Her research has employed a variety of experimental and applied methods, using originally collected data from Africa. She has active field projects in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Nigeria, on topics including combatting youth unemployment, improving small business profits, community-level impacts of industrialization, gender pay inequality, and the dynamics of small business owner networks.
Leonardo Iacovone is a Lead Economist of the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice, Financial and Private Sector Development Department at the World Bank. He is engaged in analytical, operational and impact evaluation work in the areas of microeconomic determinants of growth, related to innovation and entrepreneurship. His research has been published in various journals such as The Economic Journal, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of International Economics, World Development and Industrial and Corporate Change. Leonardo is currently working in various African countries (Guinea-Bissau, Togo, Senegal, Ethiopia) as well as various Latin American ones (Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay) and Russia. Leonardo was trained at Bocconi University of Milan, Italy, University Torquato di Tella of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and holds a PhD from University of Sussex.
Erin Kelley is currently completing the final year of her PhD program in Applied Economics at UC Berkeley and will join the World Bank (DIME) in 2019. In her research, Erin designs large-scale randomized experiments to study how technological innovations can be used to solve complex problems that affect households and firms in low-income countries. She has projects in Kenya, Bangladesh and India. The work in India investigates whether providing online skill assessments to job-applicants helps hiring managers identify candidates they may have traditionally overlooked. In Kenya, Erin's research examines how the use of GPS monitoring systems in mini-buses impacts business operations. Finally, her work in Bangladesh investigates the impact of providing work tasks to refugees on their psycho-social wellbeing.
Roshni Khincha is an Impact Evaluation Analyst in the Impact Evaluation Unit of Development Research Group (DIME). As part of the DIME Analytics team, she helps in training research and government personnel and supports researchers in employing best practices during primary data collection. She also works on project management, data quality assurance, and data analysis of agricultural impact evaluations in Rwanda. Previously, she has worked with Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and holds a Masters in Economics from London School of Economics (LSE).
Umut Kilinc is an economist at the World Bank, Turkey. He holds a M.Phil. degree from Tinbergen Institute, Erasmus University Rotterdam (2007) and a Ph.D. from Tinbergen Institute, VU University Amsterdam (2011). His professional interests cover broad topics in industrial economics, productivity growth, microeconomic restructuring and international trade.
Arianna Legovini built and leads the Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) group of the World Bank, which aims to use research to improve development practice and policy outcomes. Since joining the Bank in 2004, she has worked to understand and develop the institutions required to engage researchers, operational staff and policymakers in improving the quality in the design and implementation of development projects. It was a dual approach; use problem-based research to generate useful data and evidence and leverage the international assistance funds to test out solutions to development problems. This went into action in 2004-2008, with the creation of the Africa Impact Evaluation initiative. In 2009, she imported Africa-grown lessons, processes and programs into the global impact evaluation program. By 2013, with core funding from UK Aid, she designed i2i (impact evaluation to development impact) to support the expansion of the approach across institutional partners and under-evaluated sectors representing the majority of development aid. i2i was critical in developing Bank-wide governance structures. Arianna is currently responsible for a $145 million dollar research program, leveraging about $3 billion in WB, DFID and other partners lending, in 60 countries across the globe.
Jeremy Majerovitz is a fourth-year PhD student at the MIT Economics Department. Before starting at MIT, he spent a year as a pre-doctoral fellow at the Harvard Lab for Economic Applications and Policy, where he worked for Raj Chetty, John Friedman, and Nathan Hendren on projects in public economics using big data. In his own research, he is interested in empirical work in macroeconomics and development.
David McKenzie is a Lead Economist in the Development Research Group, Finance and Private Sector Development Unit. He received his B.Com.(Hons)/B.A. from the University of Auckland, New Zealand and his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University. Prior to joining the World Bank, he spent four years as an assistant professor of Economics at Stanford University. He has published more than 100 articles in journals, is currently on the editorial boards of the Journal of Development Economics, the World Bank Economic Review, and Migration Studies, and is a co-founder of and regular contributor to the Development Impact blog. He has conducted a wide range of impact evaluations of firm interventions, including evaluating management improvements in India and Colombia, business training in Sri Lanka, Kenya, and Togo, formalization assistance in Brazil, Malawi, Benin and Sri Lanka, matching grants in Yemen, cash grants in Mexico, Sri Lanka and Ghana, a business plan competition in Nigeria, investment readiness in the Western Balkans, wage subsidies in Sri Lanka, value-chain shortening in Colombia, and many others.
Denis Medvedev manages the Firms, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation unit of the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice at the World Bank Group. The unit is a team of microeconomists and development practitioners working to provide cutting-edge, evidence-based advice to developing countries around the globe on policies to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, firm upgrading, technology adoption, and productivity. It accomplishes this by carrying out original research, contributing to lending and technical assistance engagements led by the World Bank Group regional units, and collaborating with multilateral institutions as well as bilateral partners and donors. Denis’ own research has recently focused on firm growth and productivity, while his earlier work explored economic growth, income distribution dynamics, international trade, and the Sustainable Development Goals. In his previous assignments at the World Bank, he was responsible for policy dialogue, lending operations, and analytical work across a range of countries in Africa, East and South Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America & the Caribbean, as well as developing forward-looking scenarios for the global economy in the Development Prospects group. He is an author of more than 30 peer-reviewed journal articles, books and book chapters, and World Bank reports. He holds a Ph.D. from the American University.
AbdelRahman Nagy is the JPAL/ AUC Initiative Director with J-PAL Egypt and is based in Cairo, Egypt. He is working on various research projects focusing on improving small and medium business’ access to export markets and market information, youth employment, adult literacy, microlending, and e-learning. In this role, he manages research projects and works to establish research and policy partnerships with governmental and non-governmental organizations. AbdelRahman also conducts outreach with policymakers to disseminate evidence from J-PAL evaluations. AbdelRahman has worked with various development organizations for almost fifteen years, including many international and local NGOs (Aid To Artisans, Infonex, Save the Children, and SPAN Consultancy). Most recently, he co-founded and served on the board of the Arab Foundation of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Quality, which works on accountability and advocacy, as well as the El Haya Erada Foundation, which supports marginalized women. Before joining J-PAL, AbdelRahman worked as an Educational Environment Department Manager with the Misr El Kheir Foundation where he was responsible for managing projects aimed at enhancing the life of school children by improving gender equality, advancing transparency, and advocating for a rights-based approach in enhancing education policy in Egypt. He also worked as a Research Manager with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) from 2009 to 2015. AbdelRahman holds a masters of quality and statistical control from Cairo University, masters in International and comparative education from the American University in Cairo, postgraduate diploma in public policy, child rights, and economics from Cairo University, and has received a Community Development Leaders fellowship from the State Department to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Sreelakshmi Papineni is an economist working at the Gender Innovation Lab, within the World Bank’s Africa Chief Economist Office. Her current research focuses on identifying and addressing gender-based constraints through the analysis of development project impacts primarily for entrepreneurship, social protection and agriculture projects. Before joining the World Bank, Sreelakshmi was a Research Fellow at Harvard’s Evidence for Policy Design, a field-based Research Analyst for Innovations for Poverty Action and an Equity Sales trader in London. She holds a Master’s degree from Yale University.
Caio Piza is an Economist on the Development Impact Evaluation unit (DIME) at the World Bank where he currently leads the impact evaluations in private sector development. He is an economist, with a master degree in Economics from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, a master degree in Development Economics and a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex, UK. Before joining the World Bank he worked as a research fellow at the Inter-American Development Bank, and as an assistant professor of economics at Mackenzie University in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Aminur Rahman is a Lead Economist at the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region of the World Bank Group, currently based in World Bank Cairo Office. He has 15 years of operational and research experience on competitiveness and private sector development issues. He has advised the governments and policy makers of a range of countries in South Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa Regions, and has led a series of research initiatives. He has published in prominent economics and business journals and edited volumes published from the MIT Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge and the United Nations University Press. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from University College London, where he was a Royal Economic Society Junior Fellow and a British Chevening Scholar, and a MSc in Development Economics from Oxford University, where he was a Laila Hirani Memorial Scholar.
Tristan Reed is Economist in the Development Economics Research Group of the World Bank. He joined the World Bank Group at the International Finance Corporation, after starting his career as a consultant with McKinsey and Company in their Lagos, Nigeria office. He has worked on a number of flagship analytic reports for the Bank, and supported policy dialogue related to infrastructure lending operations in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. His research focuses on the industrial organization and political economy of low and lower-middle income countries, and has been supported by the International Growth Centre (IGC) and the National Bureau for Economic Research (NBER). Tristan holds a PhD in economics from Harvard University and a BA summa cum laude in economics from UCLA.
Gareth Roberts is an Economist in the Africa Region Gender Innovation Lab at the World Bank. Prior to joining the Bank, Gareth was a lecturer on impact evaluation at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has extensive experience working on a range of impact evaluations, including as a consultant for the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in South Africa. His research interests also include understanding the issues related to the generalizability of results from experiments to inform policy.
Eric Verhoogen is Professor of Economics and of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. His primary research area is industrial development – empirical microeconomic work on firms in developing countries. A common theme is the process of quality upgrading by manufacturing firms, both its causes and its consequences. His work has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the American Economic Review, the Review of Economic Studies, and other journals. He is currently serving as a Research Program Director of the International Growth Centre and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Bureau for Research in the Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD). He holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Christopher Woodruff is Professor of Development Economics and a Fellow at Wolfson College. He is the Scientific Coordinator for the DFID – CEPR joint research venture on Private Enterprise Development in Low Income Countries (PEDL) and directs the Firm Capabilities group at the International Growth Centre. In addition to his position at Oxford, Professor Woodruff is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and a Senior Fellow of the Bureau of Research on Economic Analysis and Development (BREAD), a Research Fellow at the Center for Competitive Advantage and the Global Economy (CAGE) and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). His research focuses on enterprises in low-income countries, with noted work on returns to capital investments in microenterprises and the effect of formal registration on enterprise performance. He is a pioneer in the use of field experiments in firms. He currently holds an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council for work measuring productivity in the readymade garment sector, with a particular focus on the challenges women face in moving into supervisory positions in the Bangladeshi garment sector.
Bilal Zia is a Senior Economist in the Finance and Private Sector Development Team of the Development Research Group at the World Bank in Washington, DC. He joined in July 2006 after completing a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research is focused on financial development at the household, firm, and bank levels, and his work has appeared in top academic journals such as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Management Science, and Journal of Development Economics. He uses both experimental and non-experimental methods and some of his recent work includes impact evaluations of financial and business education programs, testing innovative methods to improve financial access for households and firms, and applying insights from behavioral economics to development finance.