Firms and Innovation Initiative
The Firms and Innovation Initiative is motivated by the view that one of the best anti-poverty programs is a steady job at a wage sufficient to support the basic needs of a household. Such jobs are more likely to be available when an economy’s industrial sector is thriving, when firms are growing and investing in their workforces. Innovation – understood broadly to mean all types of learning: how to produce new products, how to reduce costs, how to upgrade quality, how to manage an organization – is a key driver of industrial development. Why are some firms able to innovate and some not? Why are some industries and regions populated by dynamic, innovative firms and some not? What role can public policy play in overcoming market failures and stimulating innovation and industrial development? These are core questions for the initiative.
The Firms and Innovation Initiative is led by CDEP Co-Director Eric Verhoogen.
Current Projects
Barriers to Social Learning Among Smallholder Farms
Investigators: CDEP Affiliate Jack Willis and Raissa Fabregas
Land Rental Markets: Experimental Evidence from Kenya
Investigators: CDEP Affiliate Jack Willis, Michelle Acampora, and Lorenzo Casaburi
Evaluating Contract Farming
Investigators: CDEP Affiliate Jack Willis and Lorenzo Casaburi
How Do Managers' Beliefs About New Technologies Evolve?
Investigators: CDEP Co-Director Eric Verhoogen, Ritam Chaurey, Siddharth Sharma, and Gaurav Nayyar
Can Enforcement Interventions by Multinationals Help Improve Labor Standards in Developing Countries
Investigator: CDEP Affiliate Laura Boudreau
Promoting High Impact Entrepreneurship in Mexico: A Randomized Evaluation
Investigator: CDEP Co-Director Eric Verhoogen
COMPLETED PROJECTS
Firm-Level Upgrading in Developing Countries
Investigator: CDEP Co-Director Eric Verhoogen
Spillovers from Special Economic Zones: Evidence from Myanmar
Investigators: Amit Khandelwal, Rocco Machiavello, and Matthieu Teachout
Exclusionary Hiring or Assortative Matching? The Impact of Hiring and Pay Policies on Racial Wage Differences in Brazil
Investigators: François Gerard, David Card, Lorenzo Lagos, and Edson Severnini
Market Based Emissions Policies
Investigators: CDEP Affiliate Douglas Almond and Shuang Zhang
Unraveling the Market Structure Behind International Migration
Investigators: CDEP Affiliate Suresh Naidu, Shing-Yi Wang, and Yaw Nyarko
Ethnic Divisions and Production in Firms
Investigator: Jonas Hjort
Barriers to Trade: Contracting Failures in Irrigation Markets
Investigators: CDEP Affiliate Supreet Kaur and Ryan Bubb .
The Real Effects of Elecronic Wage Payments: A Field Experiment with Salaried Factory Workers in Bangladesh
Investigators: Emily Breza, Martin Kanz, and Leora Klapper
Enlisting Workers in Improving Payroll-Tax Compliance: Evidence from Mexico
Investigators: Todd Kumler, CDEP Co-Director Eric Verhoogen, and Judith Frías
North-South Displacement Effects of Environmental Regulation: The Case of Battery Recycling
Investigators: Shinsuke Tanaka, Kensuke Teshima, and CDEP Co-Director Eric Verhoogen
Time vs. State in Insurance: Experimental Evidence from Contract Farming in Kenya
Investigator: CDEP Affiliate Jack Willis
Tax Systems and Inter-Firm Trade: Evidence from the VAT in Brazil
Investigators: François Gerard, Joana Naritomi, and Arthur Seibold
The Arrival of Fast Internet and Skilled Job Creation in Africa
Investigators: Jonas Hjort and Jonas Poulsen
Electricity Cost and Firm Performance: Evidence from India
Investigator: Ama Baafra Abeberese
Self Control at Work
Investigators: Supreet Kaur, Michael Kremer, and Sendhil Mullainathan
Ethiopia: More Sweatshops for Africa?
Investigators: Chris Blattman and Stefan Dercon
Exports and Wage Premia: Evidence from Mexican Employer-Employee Data
Investigators: CDEP Co-Director Eric Verhoogen, David Kaplan, Judith Frías, and David Alfaro-Serrano
Organizational Barriers to Technology Adoption: Evidence from Soccer-Ball Producers in Pakistan
Investigators: Amit Khandelwal, CDEP Co-Director Eric Verhoogen, David Atkin, Azam Chaudhry, and Shamyla Chaudry