Laura Barasa

Laura Barasa
University of Nairobi | UON · School of Economics

PhD in Economics

About

19
Publications
3,267
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461
Citations

Publications

Publications (19)
Article
Full-text available
This study investigates how changes in prices caused by the adoption of the East African Community Common External Tariff affected the labor incomes of households in Kenya. Households in rural, urban, and fully urban areas are analyzed. Workers are classified as skilled versus unskilled, formal versus informal, and agricultural versus non-agricultu...
Article
Full-text available
This study offers an empirical micro-level analysis of the pass-through effects of the East African Community Common External Tariff on consumer prices in Kenya. Using data from the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Surveys conducted in 2005 and 2015, this research employs a fixed-effects model to estimate pass-through equations. The analysis focus...
Article
Full-text available
This study offers an empirical microlevel analysis of the pass-through effects of the East African Community Common External Tariff on consumer prices in Kenya. Using data from the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Surveys conducted in 2005 and 2015, this research employs a fixed-effects model to estimate pass-through equations. The analysis focuse...
Chapter
Full-text available
Youth unemployment remains disproportionately high in Africa. However, a growing digital economy, supported by improvements in information and communications technology, including access to the Internet, provides an opportunity for addressing youth unemployment. Still, Africa suffers a digital infrastructure and a skills gaps. These gaps are likely...
Article
Full-text available
This study investigates the levels and determinants of regional innovation catch-up, frontier shift, and productivity growth of African national innovation systems from 2010 to 2018. The study relied on the World Development Indicators data for 28 African countries. Non-radial non-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and bootstrapped truncated...
Article
This study investigates the impact of firm-level research and innovation on the productivity of Sub-Saharan African firms in 2014–2018. This study utilizes World Bank Enterprise Surveys on 2,867 manufacturing and service firms conducted in SSA in 2018/19. Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) was used as the primary estimation methodology. The resu...
Article
This study analyzes panel data from the Tanzania Living Standards Measurement Study‐Integrated Surveys on Agriculture by the World Bank to investigate the impact of nonfarm entrepreneurship as a nonfarm activity on the value of crop output and household welfare, and to explore the potential transmission channels among rural farm households. Using a...
Article
This study explored the predictors of smoking initiation among the youth by focusing at 116,637 youths aged 12-34 years in Kiambaa Sub-County. A sample size of 384 youths was calculated using Fishers Formula. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the youth. Logit model was used to evaluate association between the smoking pre...
Article
This study investigates the mechanisms accounting for the two-way relationship between innovation and exporting in sub-Saharan Africa. We hypothesise that the relation between innovation and subsequent exporting is mediated by market investment. We also hypothesise that customer feedback mediates the relation between exporting and subsequent innova...
Article
This study examines the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement in Mathematics among Grade 4 pupils located in 91 urban primary schools and 181 rural primary schools in Kenya. We hypothesise that teacher quality indicators including teacher characteristics, teacher qualification comprising initial teacher education and teacher...
Chapter
The guiding framework for policymaking in Kenya embodies both a national and international outlook. On the one hand is the Kenya Vision 2030 while on the other are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Coincidentally, both frameworks emphasise social inclusion, or what is commonly known as inclusive growth. While day-to-day policies must be loc...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how specialised capabilities including absorptive capacity and marketing capabilities influence innovation commercialisation in manufacturing and service firms in Nigeria. The authors hypothesise that absorptive capacity measures including openness and formal training for innovation, and marketing...
Presentation
Full-text available
Superior innovation performance involves the commercialisation of new products that create new markets and new revenue streams for firms. Accordingly, commercialisation referring to the introduction and market entry of new or significantly improved goods and services is a defining stage of the innovation process because it is at this stage that the...
Article
This paper examines the relationship between corruption, transaction costs as measured by asset specificity, and innovation in Africa. We hypothesize that in the context of developing countries in Africa, corruption is positively associated with innovation. In addition, we hypothesize that this relationship is mediated by physical asset specificity...
Article
Purpose Countries in Africa have a common goal policy of industrialisation that is expected to be driven by investing in innovation that yields efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the technical efficiency effects arising from innovation inputs including internal R&D, human capital development (HCD), and foreign technology adopti...
Article
Full-text available
This study examines how firm-level resources interact with regional institutional quality to explain innovation in East Africa. We hypothesize that the institutional environment within which the firm operates moderates the effect of firm-level resources on innovative output. We examine the moderating role of institutions with regards to the transfo...
Chapter
Education remains the key to sustainable development in Africa. In particular, it is crucial for females to be exposed to internationalisation of higher education (IHE) opportunities in order to enhance their skills. Higher education has been found to contribute to economic growth through public and private channels (Klasen, 2002; Fonkeng & Ntembe,...

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