Challenges and resilience of borderland communities in Africa
Funding Institution: UNDP- Africa Borderland Center (ABC)
Partner: University of Milano Bicocca
Start/End date: 2021 – 2022
LdA Researchers: Mariapia Mendola, Stefano Tarroni
Goals: The project’s aim is to shed light, through rigorous evidence, on the nature and magnitude of Strengths and vulnerabilities of borderland communities in Africa. Detailed consultancy to a recent UNDP report cats light on current challenges of rising forced displacement, intensified climate change, increased violence and conflicts among rural communities living in Africa’s borderland regions.
Innovation, Social Networks and Development
Partner: Université Paris-Sud, Paris School of Economics, University of Bern
Start/End date: 2019 – 2021
LdA Researchers: Mariapia Mendola, Margherita Comola, Carla Inguaggiato
Goals: In this project, we study the role of social learning in the diffusion of cash crops in a resettled village economy in Northeast of Brazil. We combine geo-localized data on farming plots with dyadic first-hand data on social ties among settlers, and we leverage natural exogenous variation in the network formation induced by the land occupation movement and agrarian reform. By using longitudinal data on farming decisions over 16 years we find consistent evidence of learning through network lines in the adoption decision of new cash fruits (soursop, pineapple and passion fruit). Our results point to the innovative element of Brazilian agrarian reform, which does not only provide access to land but especially the mobilization of people with different background from different parts of the country and the links among them.
Multinational Corporations and Development in Africa
Partners: University of Bologna, University of Milano Bicocca.
Start/End date: 2020-2021
LdA Researchers: Mariapia Mendola, Giovanni Prarolo, Tommaso Sonno
Goal: In this project, we use fine grained data on the location and ownership structure of national- and foreign-owned plants existing in Sub-Saharan Africa in the period 2007-2018, together with DHS surveys, to shed light on the micro-development of individuals and families. We leverage on the exact location of plants and their decade-long dynamics and on the quasi-exact location (<5 Km precision) of surveyed individuals to assess several dimensions of socio-economic development induced by the availability of productive installments. The core analysis will be a micro-level investigation exploiting both the spatial and temporal dimension of plants location and families interviewed in the DHS survey. Thanks to the spatial dimension, i.e. the precise distances between families and plants, we can cleanly estimate localized spillovers, possibly heterogeneous across sector and nationality of owners, of the location of the latter on the former, for example on labor condition (self-employed vs employee) or on fertility and educational choices and on the spatial extent of such spillovers. The temporal dimension of the location of plants will be further exploited to study, for example, the within-family investment in educational patterns among children.
Knowledge Heterogeneity: Experimental Evidence on Information Barriers to Agricultural Technology Adoption in Uganda
Official website: http://www.3ieimpact.org/en/evidence/impact-evaluations/details/5600/
Funding Institution: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)
Partner: IFAD (Rome), University of Makerere (Uganda), ILRI (Kenya), Oklahoma State University (US), Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries of Uganda.
Start/End date: 2015 – 2020
LdA Researchers: Mariapia Mendola, Jacopo Bonan, William Ekere, Federico Maggio, Harounan Kazianga, Alessio Romarri, Franklin Simtowe
Goals: The project’s aim is to shed light, through rigorous evidence, on the nature and magnitude of the frictions that slow down agricultural technology adoption in low-income contexts. For this purpose, the project is evaluating the impact of a large-scale IFAD-supported agricultural development project by employing an experimental design, which encompasses the randomization of the extension services provision across rural geographical districts in Eastern and Northern Uganda.
Subjective Expectations, Labour Market Choices and Migration among University Students in Mozambique
Official website: http://www.theigc.org/project/subjective-expectations-labour-market-choices-and-migration-among-university-students-in-mozambique/
Funding Institution: International Growth Centre (IGC)
Partner: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Eduardo MondlaneUniversity (Maputo)
Start/End date: September 2016 – March 2018
LdA Researchers: Mariapia Mendola (Principal Investigator), Luigi Minale (Co-PI), Ines Raimundo (Co-I, local partner), Alessio Romarri
Goals: This project aims at investigating the role of subjective expectations about employment and earnings in influencing occupational and migration choices of university students in Mozambique. To do so, the project includes an original and detailed survey data collection in two major universities in Mozambique, namely the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) and the Universidade Politecnica, both in Maputo. The final objective of this research is to shed new light on the determinants of the skill-mismatch in the youth labour market in Mozambique (similarly to other African countries) and the decision of many high-skilled young people to migrate abroad.
Towards a Sustainable Migration: Interventions in the Countries of Origin
Funding Institution: Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (Rome)
Partners: ICID-University of Tor Vergata (Rome), Coordinator
Start/End date: 2016-2017
LdA Researchers: Mariapia Mendola, Alessio Romarri
Goal: The Report, prepared by a team led by Furio C. Rosati (ICID), has been developed within the framework of the Migration Compact, the document of the Government of Italy that calls for systematic and scaled-up efforts in the management of international migration flows, in close partnership with countries of origin. The Report presents and discusses an array of policies that can be implemented in the countries of origin to help turn the challenge of migration into an opportunity for source and destination countries alike.
