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University of Cape Town (UCT)

Policies promoting access to credit

on Mon, 12/09/2016 - 14:51

Many factors influence the rate at which firms are created and the rate at which they expand. These factors include technological developments, institutional factors (such as the regulatory environment) and the functioning of credit markets. Much of the existing literature comes from the industrialized countries but there is a burgeoning interest in the role of increasing access to credit on the entry of new (especially small) firms and the post-entry growth of successful young businesses in developing countries.

Asset-based poverty traps in Africa

on Mon, 12/09/2016 - 14:26

This project builds on a relatively new literature which uses panel data to investigate the dynamics of poverty. The key questions is whether there is some asset threshold below which a household is unable to exit poverty. For example, Carter and Barret (2006) distinguish between deep-rooted, persistent structural poverty and poverty that passes naturally with time due to systematic growth processes. This project will draw on the economic theory of poverty traps to develop feasible estimation strategies.