Amanda Awadey’s research explores questions on human capital development and entrepreneurship in a developing country context, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Her work on human capital development focuses on understanding the factors that impact students’ performance at high school and their higher education choices. She is also exploring ways to improve learning in settings characterized by relatively scarce inputs with persistently low learning despite enrollment gains. She does this by analyzing large administrative datasets using applied microeconomics methods and exploiting natural experiments created by education reforms. Her work in entrepreneurship investigates firms’ growth constraints and aims to identify and harness relevant information to target high-growth firms using randomized control trials. She looks to expand her work here by interrogating the interplay of mobile money and firm productivity. At Mount Holyoke, Awadey will be teaching Introductory Economics and a seminar course on Development Economics with the spotlight on Africa.
Areas of Expertise
Education and Entrepreneurship within Development Economics