Objectives:
Goal: Economic growth and poverty reduction in developing countries (particularly LICs).
Purpose: High quality evidence on growth generated and incorporated into policy by developing countries (particularly LICs).
Background:
This programme of research on economic growth will focus on questions of agriculture, finance and productivity in low income countries (LICs), delivered in partnership with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
The programme reflects DFID’s desire to do more on economic growth as the single most important driver of poverty reduction in LICs. Doing more on wealth creation and private sector development are two (of six) key policy priorities for the UK Government. Finance and agriculture are two critical sectors that can contribute to growth in LICs in ways that can have significant poverty reduction benefits. But there are significant gaps in the research, eg. limited knowledge on the role and importance of agriculture in the growth process, and limited understanding of how governance of financial markets can be improved in ways that benefit poor people in LICs.
Intended Outputs:
Under Growth and Financial Sector Development, the project will develop evidence on:
- what regulations best support financial sector development?
- what works best in terms of supervision of financial markets?
- what works best in terms of financial structure, and how this evolves with economic development?
Under Growth and Agriculture, the project will develop evidence on:
- the role of agriculture in the growth process;
- what determines productivity growth in agriculture;
Under Innovation and Growth, the project will develop evidence on:
- barriers to the process of innovation and the diffusion of technology
- the role of finance for innovation
- what education/skills policies are most suitable to increase innovation/adaptation
- what the links are between industrial policy and technological diffusion
- the role of international intellectual property rights to the diffusion of technology
Progress and Impact:
From the first call, 18 major research grants have been awarded and are operational. Details are available via the ESRC website. Initial outputs from these grants are starting to emerge – these will be available via R4D in due course.
The second call for research proposals has now closed and bids are being evaluated. DFID and ESRC expect to award up to 30 grants from this call in early 2014.
ESRC and DFID have appointed the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) to lead the project’s work on research uptake.
General Notes:
Funded by the Growth Research Team.
See all projects funded under this programme
Total cost with joint financiers is: £20,900,000.