In 2012, with support from the UK Department for International Development (UK Aid/DFID) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, PEP launched a new initiative to support research and build local capacities in“Policy Analysis on Growth and Employment” (PAGE) in developing countries. Below are the main features and outcomes of the program, completed by the end of 2016.
The high success and impact of the initiative has led both donors to provide support for a new series of projects between 2016 and 2020 (PAGE II - find out more)
Some of the PAGE impact/uptake stories have been published as part of the PEP impact brief series (more to follow).
Moreover, as of April 2019, 22 (1 in 3) of there projects have resulted in the publication of a scientific journal article, including 12 in high-ranking journals and 8 from projects led in low-income economies and/or fragile/conflict situations.
The main outcomes and impact of the PAGE initiative, including theme-based summaries of findings from different regions and coutnries, are also described in the following: PAGE I brief 2017.
Other outcomes of the PAGE initiative include:
Dissemination
- 39 national policy conferences organized by PEP-PAGE researchers (in 24 countries) to share findings with national stakeholders
27 projects presented in high-level international conferences- 55% projects with findings reported in national news media
Publications
- 81 PEP working papers
- 56 PEP policy briefs
- 10 PEP impact briefs (more to follow)
- 22 scientific journal articles
Summary of findings per theme
PEP is currently publishing a series of articles to summarize and compare the key findings from projects focused on similar themes but from different countries and regions. Follow the links below to find those summaries published to date.
- Female entrepreneurship hindered more by social and cultural contraints than access to finance
- Why youth become entrepreneurs
- Introducing a minimum wage can improve well-being
- How migration and remittances affect welfare and employment at home
- Managing the mining industry to help reduce poverty
- How cash transfers support vulnerable populations
- How informal sector workers protect themselves without access to social assistance
ABOUT PAGE |
To build and promote research capacities in developing countries
In accordance to PEP’s core mission, the PAGE initiative includes an important “capacity building” component - all selected teams benefitted from the unique and manifold “PEP research support program” for the conduct of both high quality and policy-engaged research projects.
One particular feature of this program is that priority was given to 
researchers from and based in low-income countries, fragile and/or conflict states (LFCs) - see list of targeted countries. 46% of all PAGE projects were led in LFCs.
PAGE calls for proposals
PAGE research teams were selected through a series of (three) open and competitive calls for proposals, launched annually in 2012, 2013 and 2014. A total of 420 project proposals were submitted under the three PAGE calls for proposals, by applicant research teams in developing countries, of which 36% (152) were from LFCs.
All PEP-PAGE projects are carefully selected after a long review process and several rounds of evaluation, which cumulate with their presentation/discussion with an audience of peers and PEP-affiliated international experts during one of the PEP general meetings.
The project teams selected for support under the PAGE program participated in the PEP annual meetings held in Cape Town, South Africa (2013), in Santa Cruz, Bolivia (2014) and in Nairobi, Kenya (2015).
For the analysis of specific and country-relevant policy issues
Under the broad theme of inclusive growth and employment, a different list of priority issues was identified as especially relevant to address specific knowledge gaps and policy needs in terms of evidence base for each of the annual PAGE calls for proposals. Below is the combined list of priority issues identified for projects selected through the three rounds of PAGE funding:
- Providing social protection to the informal sector
- Safety net complementarities
- Youth employment and entrepreneurship
- Employment intensity of non-agricultural growth
- China’s growth: opportunities and challenges for developing countries
- Entrepreneurial risk tolerance by gender
- Discrimination in credit access for women at the SME level
- Improving the targeting of public expenditures and social assistance
- Design of minimum wage policies and impact on youth and female workers
- The inclusiveness of growth: the role of labor markets
- Natural resources and employment
- Micro and small enterprises for economic empowerment and poverty reduction
From a variety of methodological approaches
Building on fifteen years of experience and the knowledge of a large pool of world-renowned experts in the field, PEP offers unique expertise in the application of cutting-edge methodologies and analytical techniques in economics and development research within the specific context of developing countries.
The PEP research support program spans four distinct thematic research groups (TRGs), each focused on a different set of methodological approaches. Each group involves experts from around the world who are assigned as mentors to the research project teams upon selection as grant recipient. Projects supported under the PAGE initiative followed either of the following approaches:
- Community-based monitoring systems (CBMS)
- Macro-micro policy simulations (MPIA)
- Impact evaluations (PIERI) - including randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and field experiments
- Microeconomic measurement and analysis (PMMA) - including non-experimental impact evaluations
The table below presents the list of all projects supported under PAGE I
Click on the links in the left column to find each project's description and publications - links in bold include a video interview of the researchers:
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Project code (link) |
Project title |
Country |
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Macro-micro policy simulations – MPIA |
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Assessing the impact of China’s economic and trade expansion on poverty in Burkina Faso (in French) |
Burkina Faso |
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Impacts of macroeconomic policies on growth, employment and poverty: A CGE analysis for Cambodia |
Cambodia |
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China’s growth; an opportunity for the economy of the Central African Republic? (in French) |
Central African Republic |
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Impact of oil and mining sectors’ boom on labour market and economic development in Niger (in French) |
Niger |
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Socioeconomic analysis of informal employment in Cameroon (French) |
Cameroon |
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Trade liberalisation and employment effects in Indian manufacturing: An empirical assessment |
India |
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Macroeconomic implications of female entrepreneurs facing financial frictions to access credit |
Cameroon |
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Dutch disease, informality, and employment intensity in Colombia |
Colombia |
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A static CGE model of the Mongolian economy |
Mongolia |
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Development of extractive industries and public spending policies in Niger: A dynamic CGE approach (in French) |
Niger |
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Expansion of the mining sector and economic development in Burkina Faso : a dynamic CGE analysis (in French) |
Burkina Faso |
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Impact of public education spending on labour market and households’ welfares in Cambodia: A CGE approach |
Cambodia |
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Macro-economic impact of MGNREGA in India: An analysis in CGE modeling framework |
India |
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The effects of minimum wages on the labour market and income distribution in Kenya: A CGE analysis |
Kenya |
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The role of micro and small enterprises in reducing unemployment and poverty in Ethiopia |
Ethiopia |
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Impacts of agricultural incentive policies on socioeconomic and environmental variables in Guatemala |
Guatemala |
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L’impact des réformes commerciales sur la croissance économique, l’emploi et la pauvreté dans les pays de la CEDEAO : le cas du Sénégal |
Senegal |
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| MPIA-12872 | The impact of wage policy on poverty, informality and growth | Bolivia |
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Experimental impact evaluations using randomized controlled trials (RCTs) - PIERI |
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The Impacts of vocational training programs on the duration of youth unemployment in Mongolia |
Mongolia |
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Randomized evaluation of an unconditional cash transfer scheme for the elderly in Ekiti State, Nigeria |
Nigeria |
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Beyond technical skills training: the impact of credit counselling on entrepreneurial behavior of Ugandan youth |
Uganda |
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Enhancing productive firm assets: A RCT on an innovative savings-loan product for female entrepreneurs |
Ghana |
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The relationship between intra-household bargaining and program participation in rural India |
India |
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Barriers limiting access to financial services for micro and small entrepreneurs in Bolivia: A randomized field experiment on institutional ethnic discriminatory practices |
Bolivia |
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Microeconomic measurement and analysis – PMMA + non-experimental impact evaluations – PIERI |
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Education language choice and youth entrepreneurship in Chad |
Chad |
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Social protection to the informal sector: the role of minimum wage and income transfer policies |
Argentina |
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Labour migration in Cambodia: causes and impact on poverty, inequality, and productivity |
Cambodia |
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Is there discrimination against women entrepreneurs in formal credit markets in Nigeria? |
Nigeria |
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Risk tolerance, gender, and entrepreneurship: the case of the occupied Palestinian territory |
occupied Palestinian territory |
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Youth self-employment in households receiving remittances in Macedonia |
Macedonia |
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Internal mobility and youth entrepreneurship in Democratic Republic of Congo (in French) |
Congo, D.R. |
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Access to credit and women entrepreneurship: evidence from Bangladesh |
Bangladesh |
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Land tenure policy and women’s off-farm employment in rural China |
China |
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Spill-overs from self-employment opportunities in rural Niger |
Niger |
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Employment intensity of non-farm growth: the case of Vietnam |
Vietnam |
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Migration, remittances, labor market and human capital in Senegal |
Senegal |
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Mismatch unemployment: the case of Macedonia – with special reference to young adults |
Macedonia |
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Remittances impact on youth labour supply: evidence from Kyrgyzstan |
Kyrgyzstan |
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A propensity-score matching evaluation of the social impacts of micro-financing on municipalities and households in Bolivia |
Bolivia |
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Voucher system for social protection of the socially vulnerable remittance receivers in Macedonia |
Macedonia |
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Female entrepreneurship, access to credit, and firms' productivity in Senegal |
Senegal |
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The impact of a rural microcredit and financial inclusion schemes targeting women on household vulnerability and economic empowerment: evidence from South West Nigeria |
Nigeria |
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The impact of child and youth labor on his/her performance in school |
Brazil |
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How does the exploitation of natural resources affect income disparities across population groups? |
Burkina Faso |
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Revisiting the unfinished agenda: Multiple-source borrowings, farm production and the use of fertilizer in rural Cambodia |
Cambodia |
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Wage ‘scarring’ when youth unemployment is extremely high: evidence from Macedonia |
Macedonia |
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Minimum wage policies: Wage, employment, and distributional impacts in Ecuador |
Ecuador |
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Non-wage benefits, union ‘facilitation effect’ and labour market outcomes in Ghana |
Ghana |
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Reduction of child poverty in Serbia: Balancing between improved cash-transfers and policies that pro |
Serbia |
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Measuring the effects of minimum wage in Bolivia’s dual economy |
Bolivia |
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Poverty, inequality and oil exploitation in Chad |
Chad |
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Community-based monitoring systems – info |
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Institutionalizing Local Level Poverty Monitoring System (LLPMS) |
Bangladesh |
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Toward a Community Based Monitoring System for Santa Cruz de la Sierra |
Bolivia |
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Developing a System of Communal Statistics in Two Municipalities of Haiti (in French) |
Haiti |
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Measuring the Impact of Economic Programs in Niger through a Mechanism of Poverty Monitoring at the Community Level (in French) |
Niger |
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CBMS Development Initiative to Reap the Demographic Dividend in the Helm of the 18th Amendment in Pakistan |
Pakistan |
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The Link between Youth Unemployment and Vulnerability in Tanzania: Case Study of Bukoba Urban District |
Tanzania |
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Strengthening the use of a "community-based poverty monitoring system" to provide evidence base for policies related to social protection and child welfare in the communities of Diebougou and Koper (in French) |
Burkina Faso |
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Expanding the Community-based Poverty Monitoring System in Argentina |
Argentina |
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Challenges and prospects of entrepreneurship and job creation for youth employment in two federal administered cities of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa). |
Ethiopia |
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Willingness of the Togolese informal sector workers to pay for access to social protection; The case study of the CNSS social protection |
Togo |
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An Examination of multidimensional poverty, youth unemployment and entrepreneurship in Limpopo Province |
South Africa |
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Entrepreneurship as a mechanism to address youth unemployment and poverty in Kenya: Case study of Murang'a County |
Kenya |
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Towards CBMS in Bolivia ("communidad-i") |
Bolivia |
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Enhancing the implementation of the community information system to inform youth employment strategy |
Uganda |
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Follow the links below to find out more about:
- PEP general meetings/annual conferences
- Or PEP general activities in terms of