Development Economist with a special interest in agriculture, trade and labor economics
Habtamu Fuje
PhD, Columbia University
Habtamu.Fuje@columbia.edu
Currently, I am an Economist at the World Bank Group.
I am a Development Economist with a special interest in agriculture, trade and labor economics.
Issues of poverty, social protection, job creation and youth employment, market integration, commodity value-chain, distributional implication of policy reforms, and impacts of climate change induced shocks are some of the specific topics I am passionate about.
RESEARCH
Job Market Paper
Abstract:In light of climate change and tight fiscal conditions after the 2008 crises, fuel subsidy reform has become a popular policy. The G20 leaders, in their Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania meeting in 2009, committed to phase out inefficient fuel subsidies. However, little is known about the implications of removing subsidies on food prices and welfare. I study the welfare effects of such reforms through their impacts on the spatial dispersion of food prices using a “natural experiment” from Ethiopia. I employ time-regression discontinuity design using a highly disaggregated monthly grain price data (1996–2013) from 300 locations. I find the following: (a) the reform substantially increased grain price dispersion; (b) there are notable spatial heterogeneities in the treatment effect; (c) even if the reform has had no impact on overall price levels, it increased cross-sectional spatial price differences; and (d) net-sellers of grain in remote districts and some urban households experienced welfare losses.Keyword: Fuel subsidy, price dispersion, RD design, sDID, welfare.
Publications
Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reforms, Spatial Market Integration, and Welfare: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Ethiopia, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 101(1) 270-290, 2018
When do in-service teacher training and books improve student achievement? Experimental evidence from Mongolia (with Prateek Tandon), Review of Development Economics, 22 (3) 1360-1383, 2018
The Cost of Inaction: Case Studies from Rwanda and Angola Harvard University Press, ISBN: 0674065581 (with Sudhir Anand, Chris Desmond, and Nadejda Marques), 2012
Role of Governance in Explaining Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa Harvard African Policy Journal, Vol. IV, 2008
Working Papers
Recent Welfare Dynamics and Drought in Ethiopia, 2018, CSAE Conference, University of Oxford
World Bank Policy Reports (Contribution)
Methodology for Poverty Measurement in Malawi, 2018
Ethiopia: Priorities for Ending Extreme Poverty and Promoting Shared Prosperity: Systematic Country Diagnostic, 2016
The Uganda Poverty Assessment Report 2016- Farms, Cities and Good Fortune: Assessing Poverty Reduction in Uganda from 2006 to 2013, 2016
Educating the Next Generation: Improving Teacher Quality in Cambodia, 2015
USAID Policy Reports (Contribution)
Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Honey Value Chain in Ethiopia, 2012
Eroded Coffee Traceability and Its Impact on Export Coffee Prices for Ethiopia, 2014
Education
- PhD in Sustainable Development, 2016
- MPhil in Sustainable Development, 2014
- MA in Sustainable Development, 2014
- MPA in International Development (MPA/ID), 2010
- MSc in Economics, 2007
- BA in Economics (Honor), 2005
TEACHING
Courses: Macroeconomic Policy Management, Analysis of Large-Scale Data (with Matt Neidell) , and Challenges of Sustainable Development (with Jeff Sachs)
Courses: Microeconomic Analysis, and Econometrics (wth Alberto Abadie)
Courses: Microeconomics, and Principles of Economics
Contact me
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