Girum Abebe is a Principal Economist at the Development Impact Measurement Department in the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Prior to joining IFC, Girum held the position of Senior Economist at the World Bank’s Africa Region Gender Innovation Lab (GIL).  He also served as a thematic lead for the unit’s Private Sector Development and Entrepreneurship thematic area. Girum’s research portfolio spans a diverse array of topics on private sector development, including entrepreneurship development, labor market policies and social protection programs. Girum employs impact evaluation tools to explore innovative and scalable approaches for improving markets and social programs for the private sector, and marginalized communities, including youth and women. He has co-authored research papers published in the American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, and Journal of Development Economics, among others. Girum is one of the managing editors of the Journal of African Economies and a peer reviewer in several academic journals.

Featured publications

The selection of talent: experimental and structural evidence from Ethiopia.

Anonymity or Distance? Job Search and Labour Market Exclusion in a Growing African City 

Foreign Direct Investment and Knowledge Diffusion in Poor Locations: Evidence from Ethiopia 

Do Factory Jobs Improve Welfare? Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia  

Urban Public Works in Spatial Equilibrium: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia

How Well do Worker Cooperatives Perform in Manufacturing? Evidence from a Large Low-Income Country 

Girum Abebe is a Principal Economist at the Development Impact Measurement Department in the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Prior to joining IFC, Girum held the position of Senior Economist at the World Bank’s Africa Region Gender Innovation Lab (GIL).  He also served as a thematic lead for the unit’s Private Sector Development and Entrepreneurship thematic area. Girum’s research portfolio spans a diverse array of topics on private sector development, including entrepreneurship development, labor market policies and social protection programs. Girum employs impact evaluation tools to explore innovative and scalable approaches for improving markets and social programs for the private sector, and marginalized communities, including youth and women. He has co-authored research papers published in the American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, and Journal of Development Economics, among others. Girum is one of the managing editors of the Journal of African Economies and a peer reviewer in several academic journals.

Featured publications

The selection of talent: experimental and structural evidence from Ethiopia.

Anonymity or Distance? Job Search and Labour Market Exclusion in a Growing African City 

Foreign Direct Investment and Knowledge Diffusion in Poor Locations: Evidence from Ethiopia 

Do Factory Jobs Improve Welfare? Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia  

Urban Public Works in Spatial Equilibrium: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia

How Well do Worker Cooperatives Perform in Manufacturing? Evidence from a Large Low-Income Country