Projects
Technology, value chains, and development: Evidence from Ethiopia. KU Leuven
The four chapters in this dissertation rely on unique data from a large-scale survey of the different value chain actors in Ethiopia for teff and coffee-arguably the most important crops in Ethiopia. While teff is the most widely grown cereal -accounting for about 24% of total crop area by itself (CSA, 2017/18), coffee is by far the most important single export item - accounting for about 30% of total export over last decade (NBE, ...
Essays in Development Economics: Evidence from East Africa KU Leuven
This dissertation is divided into four chapters, each built around a different research paper that falls under the broad field of `development economics'. The analysis in all chapters is mostly empirical, relying on primary data collected in recent years from East Africa. Of course, theory plays a key role in directing the analysis. Chapters 1 and 2 study different aspects of female empowerment and household decisions in Tanzania. Chapters 3 ...
Agricultural development, technology and value chains in developing and transition countries. KU Leuven
This thesis is about agricultural development, technology adoption and value chains in developing countries. It first focuses on the transition economies of Central Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe before exploring the dairy market in India. Though they display great heterogeneity, what joins these two regions is a strong dependency on their respective agricultural sectors to alleviate poverty and maintain food security.
The first ...
User-centric design of automatic lameness detection in dairy cattle KU Leuven
Lameness is an important health problem causing severe welfare deteriorations and economic losses up to € 53 per cow per year in dairy cattle. Timely detection and treatment can help to minimize economic losses and preserve cow welfare. Current visual detection methods are labor intensive and subjective, and require training to allow detection of subtle changes in a cow’s gait. As a result, the problem is underestimated in practice, and ...
Discovery of Antiseizure Compounds in Zebrafish Models for the Treatment of Drug-Resistant Epilepsy KU Leuven
With 70 million people affected worldwide is epilepsy one of the most common neurological diseases characterized by unpredictable, unprovoked, recurrent seizures. Moreover, the disease is often accompanied by psychiatric and cognitive comorbidities, affecting dramatically the quality of life of patients. So far, pharmacological intervention is the first-line treatment for epilepsy. Unfortunately, about 30% of patients experience seizures that ...
On track? A study on the effects of tracks in secondary education KU Leuven
Tracking is the grouping of students with similar abilities in the same classroom or school during secondary education. For each group, a tailored educational program is provided, which is called a ‘track’. Many education systems use this practice, based on the assumption that fitting educational environments to more homogeneous student groups will result in more efficient education. Tracking also allows for the development of specialized ...
Transport infrastructure and regional development in China during the Maoist era KU Leuven
1. Introduction
This project aims to investigate the link between transport infrastructure and regional economic development in China during the Mao era. Economists argue that public investments have a positive impact on economic growth for a number of reasons. As we will elaborate in what follows, the Chinese story contains many unique and intriguing elements which complicate this statement. A thorough investigation of the topic will ...
Professional Roles and Employability of Future EngineeRs KU Leuven
The PREFER project (Professional Roles and Employability of Future EngineeRs) aims to reduce the skills mismatch in the field of engineering: new engineering graduates frequently display a lack of transversal skills required by the labour market. Enterprises observe a lack of self-awareness among new engineering graduates of who they are as an engineer and what their strengths are. Despite appropriate levels of technical skills, enterprises ...