Success and Failure of African Exporters

Featuring
Leonardo Iacovone
Senior Economist, Financial and Private Sector Development Network
World Bank

With Discussant
Andrew Zeitlin
Post-doctoral Fellow, Center for Global Development
Assistant Professor of Economics, Georgetown Public Policy Institute

Join CGD for a MADS with Leonardo Iacovone where he will present his joint research on the determinants of export success for African firms. This work builds on a new, transaction-level database of exports collected by customs authorities in Malawi, Mali, Senegal, and Tanzania. Iacovone and co-authors find that the success of African exporters rises with the number of competitors in their home country, suggesting significant positive externalities across firms producing very similar goods for export, likely due to information spillovers.

*The Massachusetts Ave. Development Seminar (MADS) is a ten year-old research seminar series that brings some of the worlds leading development scholars to discuss their new research and ideas. The presentations meet an academic standard of quality and are at times technical, but retain a focus on a mixed audience of researchers and policymakers.