This study focuses on innovation in a cluster of informal shoemaking firms in Ethiopia - namely the Mercato footwear cluster. It examines how differently those firms are embedded in networks and how heterogeneous they are in absorptive capacity, and how this heterogeneity affects their...

This paper provides empirical evidence on the effect of irreversibility and non-convexities in adjustment costs on firm investment decision based on 1996-2002 firm level data from the Ethiopian manufacturing. It relies on a rich census based panel data set that gives the advantage of...

This paper addresses two prominent issues on the development of small enterprises in Africa. Which factors inhibit or foster innovation activities in small enterprises? Do innovators create more jobs? We use a large set of microenterprises survey data from Ethiopia that comprise 1000...

This study examines the relationships between firm growth and firm size, age, and labor productivity, using annual census–based panel data on Ethiopian manufacturing firms. The study explicitly addresses the ongoing statistical concerns in firm growth models such as sample censoring,...