Moussa Blimpo

Assistant Professor
Headshot of Moussa Blimpo

Areas of interest

  • Development and developing economies
  • Africa
  • Taxation
  • Infrastructure
  • Digital development
  • Education and labor economics

Biography

Main Bio

Dr. Moussa Blimpo is an Assistant Professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.

He formerly served as a Senior Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist for the Africa Region at the World Bank. Prior to that, he was an Assistant Professor of Economics and International Studies at the University of Oklahoma (2012-2015), following a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University’s Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). His research addresses a range of issues, including education, infrastructure, and taxation in developing economies, focusing on African countries. His work on the economics of education examines how critical demand-side features drive education quality and skills acquisition, particularly the incentives and involvement of students and parents in the educational system. Moussa is also a member of the Intellectual Leadership Team of the Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) Programme, which seeks to understand how education systems in developing countries can raise learning outcomes.

During his time at the World Bank, Moussa led research programs on electricity access and digital development in Africa, publishing several papers and reports including “Electricity Access in Sub-Saharan Africa: Uptake, Reliability, and Complementary Factors for Economic Impact” and “Digital Africa for inclusive growth: Technological transformation for jobs,” (forthcoming). His work on these issues emphasizes the role of political economy, access for productive use, and a better understanding of complementarities as key for improving infrastructure for economic impact.

Moussa holds a Ph.D. in Economics and MA in Political Science from New York University and a B.Sc. (Mathematics) from the University of Pau and the Adour Region (France). His work has appeared in several peer-reviewed academic journals, including the Journal of Development Economics; American Economic Journal: Applied Economics; World Bank Economic Review; World Development; Economic Development and Cultural Change; the Journal of African Economies.  Moussa also served as an advisor in the African School of Economics’s transition team; he is an advisor for the Energy for Growth Hub; and a non-resident senior fellow at the Clean Air Task Force’s (CATF) program on Energy, Development, and Climate in Africa.

Moussa was born and raised in Dapaong, Togo. He founded and led between 2011 and 2015, the Center for Research and Opinion Polls (CROP), a think tank in Togo, which was ranked as one of the top 10 new think tanks in the world by the 2013 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, University of Pennsylvania.

Courses

GLA1014H
Global Development
PPG2002H
Applied Economics (Inequality and Public Policy)
PCJ362H
Service Learning