ERG Research Grant Programme in LICs

Existing research suggests that the private sector in LICs faces a multitude of constraints that act upon each other. What is needed is research that allows them to understand how these constraints interact.

Objectives

• The objective of PEDL is to fund cutting-edge, policy-oriented research that could be published in leading academic journals and be relevant to the policy dialogue in LICs. It will promote research related to private enterprises of all sizes and invites applications in any aspect of private sector development, with a particular emphasis on PEDL’s three priority research areas:
  • Innovation, Organizations and Markets.
  • Climate and Environment.
  • Finance and Entrepreneurship.

Cross-Cutting Themes

• Gender in Africa and south Asia, women are more likely to own businesses than to be wage workers, while the opposite is true for men. At a global level, gender employment and wage gaps have closed somewhat over the past several decades. But reviewing evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa, Hallward-Driemeier (2011) notes that female entrepreneurs are “disproportionately found in smaller firms, in the informal sector, and in lower-value-added industries”. The explanations for this are both numerous and varied. Differences in human capital, disproportionate shares of household responsibilities, access to capital, land rights, and access to formal institutions such as courts all play a role in some settings, but some part of the gap appears to come from differences in policies related to access to formal institutions.
• Fragile and conflict-affected states an increasing share of the world’s poor are found in fragile or conflict-affected states. Many of the largest low income but stable countries have experienced rapid growth in the past two decades, lifting them to lower-middle income status. But private sector development is particularly challenging where the state is fragile or conflict is common. But private sector development is particularly challenging where the state is fragile or conflict is common. Trust between potential trading partners is particularly difficult to maintain, as formal enforcement of agreements is undermined by the weak state, and the ability to honor agreements is compromised by unpredictable outbreaks of violence.
• Scaling up Research into Policy they encourage projects to consider how the results of the research affect policy discussions. This starts with designs that incorporate the views of relevant public- or private-sector policymakers and continues to the design of how information is gathered and presented. Scaling up also implies careful consideration of how local context affects the interpretation of the results. Adjusting results for context, for example through careful integration of theory and empirics, will allow those results to translate across countries.

Funding Information

• ERGs are grants of between £10,000 and £40,000. These grants will fund research assistance, data collection and new surveys in LICs, and (if necessary) teaching buyouts for the principal investigator. Please note that cost effectiveness and value for money are important evaluation criteria.

Eligibility Criteria

• ERGs are designed to allow researchers to:
  • Explore new approaches to the study of firms in LICs; and
  • To develop new (or build on) existing sources of data on firms in LICs.

For more information, visit PEDL.