Household Wealth and Special Economic Zones in Africa — Cecília Hornok

Speaker

Cecília Hornok (Kiel Institute)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), a place-based development policy, on household wealth in Africa. We exploit time and district-level variation in exposure to SEZs across 10 African countries using spatially merged detailed household and SEZs data. Using difference-in-differences estimation strategy, we find that the average wealth of households increased in treated districts after an SEZ was established. Most of the increase occurs between the 60th and 80th percentiles of the wealth distribution, while the effect is statistically zero in the lower part of the distribution.

Authors

Matthew Amalitinga Abagna (UC Dublin) – Cecília Hornok (Kiel Institute) – Alina Mulyukova (Kiel Institute)

Room

Virtually via Zoom and in Medienraum (A-211) (limited capacity) at the Kiel Institute

If interested, please send an Email to kcg-office@ifw-kiel.de to receive a Zoom-Link for the seminar