Moussa Blimpo
Assistant Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
Moussa Blimpo is an assistant professor of economic inequality and societies at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. He holds a PhD in economics and a master's degree in political science from New York University and a BSc in mathematics from the University of Pau, France. He was also a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University's Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).
Before joining the University of Toronto, Moussa served as an assistant professor of economics and international studies at the University of Oklahoma and as a senior economist in the World Bank's Chief Economist Office for Africa. He is affiliated with the Clean Air Task Force's Africa program on Energy and Climate Innovation, the Energy for Growth Hub, and was the founding director of the Center for Research and Opinion Polls (CROP), a think tank in Togo that he led between 2011 and 2015.
Moussa's research addresses various issues, including education and labour economics, infrastructure, and taxation in developing economies, with a focus on Africa. His work on the economics of education examines how demand-side features drive education quality and skills acquisition, particularly the incentives and involvement of students and parents in the educational system.
Moussa also led research programs on electricity access and digital development in Africa, publishing key reports such as Electricity Access in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2019 and Technological Transformation for Jobs in Africa (forthcoming). His work on these issues emphasizes the role of political economy and access for productive use. In recent works, he explores the issue of taxation, especially in the informal sector, and the nexus between economic development and climate implications in African economies.
His work has appeared in leading academic journals such as 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.