Marco Sanfilippo - Research Projects

Wholesalers, Intermediation Frictions, and Trade Shock Transmission in Rwanda
STEG · 2026–2027 · PI

How wholesalers and intermediation frictions shape the pass-through of trade shocks to firms and consumers in Rwanda.

Estimates how far formal industrial investment generates informal manufacturing and service jobs around the plant.

How rules of origin shape domestic value added in preferential exports from Uganda and South Africa under the AfCFTA.

Weighs the investment, jobs and exports generated by firm-specific tax incentives against their cost in foregone revenue.

Maximizing Domestic Value-Added in Exports
International Growth Centre · 2023–2024 · co-PI (PI: M. Olarreaga, Geneva)

How Rwanda and Uganda can set input tariffs and rules of origin to maximise the domestic content of their exports.

Understanding the Drivers of Growth for Procurement Firms in Uganda
International Growth Centre · 2023–2024 · PI

Traces what happens to Ugandan firms that win government contracts, using administrative tax data and a survey of suppliers.

Supply Chains in Developing Countries: What is Next in the Agenda?
EUI–IHEID joint call · 2023 · PI

A research agenda on supply chain participation and upgrading in developing economies.

FDI, Labor Market Power, and Structural Transformation
STEG · 2022–2023 · co-PI (PI: F. Amodio, McGill)

How foreign investment affects employer wage-setting power and the pace of structural transformation.

Public Procurement as an Industrial Policy
International Growth Centre · 2021–2022 · PI

Whether government demand can be used as an instrument of industrial policy in low-income countries.

FDI, Value Chains and Economic Development in Africa
African Economic Research Consortium · 2021–2022 · PI

How foreign investment and value chain participation shape economic development across African economies.

The Local Effects of FDI
PEDL · 2021–2022 · PI

Builds geolocalised data on foreign investment to measure its effect on local labour markets and living conditions.

Services and Economic Development in Africa
International Growth Centre · 2020–2021 · co-PI (PI: B. Hoekman, EUI)

Maps services employment at sub-national level across African countries and tests how it relates to economic development.

Italian firms in GVCs. The Automotive Sector in Piedmont
Istituto Commercio Estero (ICE) · 2020–2021 · PI

How Piedmont’s automotive suppliers participate in global value chains, based on questionnaires with 23 firms and five case studies.

Uses the UNIDO African Investor Survey of 6,492 firms across 19 countries to test how government demand affects firm sales and productivity.

Whether road quality determines how far tariff reductions reach manufacturing firms in remote areas of Ethiopia.