Job Market Paper

"The Impact of Port Containerization on Structural Transformation in Africa"

This paper studies how a large reduction in international trade costs shaped structural transformation in Africa. Exploiting the staggered adoption of containerization across African ports between 1970 and 2010, I find that containerization is associated with an increase in net manufacturing imports, especially in labor- and resource-intensive industries, while leaving net agricultural imports unchanged. I then combine port-adoption records with geocoded household surveys and instrument containerization with historical port depth. I find that the in port areas, containerization lowered employment probability by 12.6 percentage points; manufacturing lost roughly three and a half times its proportional share of jobs, while services gained jobs despite the fall in overall employment, especially among women. Farther inland, the manufacturing share of employment was higher closer to a containerized port, while agriculture and services contracted in line with overall employment. These effects operate through income effects as containerization raises income near ports, and thus local demand for services, but produces no comparable income gains inland. It also increases migration into port areas, helping explain the decline in local employment rates. These results show that lower trade costs can induce deindustrialization while generating sharply different patterns of structural transformation across space.

Work in Progress

"Firm-Worker Matching Dynamics During a Natural Gas Boom in Senegal,” with Francesco Amodio and Yaya Diallo.

"Trade Integration and Domestic Innovation in Developing Countries".