The Seventeenth International Conference on the Ethiopian Economy was organized by the Ethiopian Economics Association (EEA) on July 18-20, 2019 in the organization’s Conference Hall, Addis Ababa Ethiopia. The conference was co-organized by the Ethiopian Strategy Support Program (ESSP II) of the International Food Policy Research Institute. The conference was able to attract 500, 320, and 250 participants from different organizations both from within and outside Ethiopia during the three days of the conference, respectively. H.E. Dr. Eyob Tekalgn Tolina, State Minister, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development was the guest of honor who gave the official opening remarks. Dr. Abebe Aemro Selassie, International Monetary Fund Africa Director make presidential address following the opening remark. More than 80 papers were presented regarding the Ethiopian Economy focusing mainly on the agricultural, industrial and service sectors. Some of the specific topics discussed on the conference were issues related to macro-policy, agricultural growth and poverty reduction in Ethiopia: maintaining the momentum of past success, trade mis-invoicing and capital flight revisited, government expenditure, revenue and fiscal deficits in Ethiopia, impact of credit constraints and climate variability on agricultural productivity in rural Ethiopia, The transforming dairy sector in Ethiopia, natural resource endowment and sustainable development linkage in Ethiopia,
market, industrialization and urbanization in Ethiopia, women empowerment and child labour consequences of family law reform in Ethiopia, youth economic empowerment for sustainable development in Ethiopia, The spillover effect of foreign direct investment on the productivity of domestic firms in Ethiopian’s manufacturing firms, and others.
The Oxford Handbook of the Ethiopian Economy book launch was also part of the conference. In addition, the Association honored two institutions of International Food Policy Research Institute and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Ethiopia office in recognition of their dependable partnership and longstanding contributions to EEA’s advancement.
