Manufacturing & informal enterprises. For the past several years, I have built and led one of Mozambique’s most detailed enterprise research projects. Working closely with national partners, I coordinated five survey waves, incl. two RCTs, with manufacturing firms, tracing how small businesses are affected by and adapt to shocks, navigate the path toward formality, interact with government, and how they access finance.
Youth skills and employment. This study assesses youth’s numeracy, literacy, logical reasoning, and team-work skills to examine how skills certificates affect job-search behaviour and employment (see PAP). The baseline round has been collected, and we are now planning the follow-up with NGO MUVA who collected the baseline data.
Social pension. Upon request of the Mozambican government, this project evaluates the Mozambican flagship social pension programme (PSSB). Academic studies are:
1) How implementation inefficiencies in the delivery of the pension affect beneficiaries behavior and well-being,
2) From routine to shock-ready: Assessing whether Mozambique’s core social protection system provides a credible basis for adding shock-responsive design elements
3) Are pension beneficiaries the poorest and most vulnerable?
4) Intergenerational mobility: Does the pension improve grandchildren’s health and education outcomes?
Mangroves. I am co-PI of a study quantifying how urbanisation affects mangrove loss in Mozambique; supported by seed funding from the International Growth Center (IGC).
Hanna Berkel | Applied Microeconomist | Evidence for Policy 