Person:
Benjamin, Nancy Claire

Poverty Reduct & Econ. Mgmt Dept, Middle East & North Africa Region, World Bank
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Public Sector; International Trade; Regulation
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Poverty Reduct & Econ. Mgmt Dept, Middle East & North Africa Region, World Bank
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Last updated: January 31, 2023
Biography
I am a native of California and received my PhD in economics from UC Berkeley. I worked as an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University, in the Asia Department of the IMF and in the Research Department of the US International Trade Commission. I have published widely on resource-rich countries, the impact of trade policy on productivity and growth, nontariff barriers, and on trade in services. Since joining the World Bank, I have worked on West African and Middle Eastern countries, focusing on public expenditures, growth and governance. I also worked on mutli-country projects in Africa and the regulation of multi-country infrastructure. My greatest pleasure is working closely with our client countries.
Citations 13 Scopus

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2012 - 20152
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    The Informal Sector in Francophone Africa : Firm Size, Productivity, and Institutions
    (Washington, DC: World Bank and Agence Française de Développement, 2012) Mbaye, Ahmadou Aly; Benjamin, Nancy; Diop, Ibrahima Thione; Golub, Stephen S.; Haughton, Dominique; Niang, Birahim Bouna
    This book is a major step towards improving the understanding of the complex reality of informal sector firms in francophone West Africa. It innovates by concentrating on informal firms rather than informal employment (as other studies do), and identifying 'large informal' sector firms whose sales rival those of large formal-sector firms but operate in ways that are similar to small informal operators. Not only is the regulatory environment facing these two types of informal firms distinct, but policies aimed at improving their productivity need to be differentiated. This study focuses on the urban informal sector in three capital cities: Dakar (Senegal), Cotonou (Benin), and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). The study also breaks new ground with an eclectic methodology and primary data collection. Quantitative and qualitative firm-level data were collected involving a unique and fruitful collaboration among academic researchers, government officials, the West African economic and monetary union commission, informal and formal sector business associations, and labor unions. This volume represents the culmination of a long collaboration between the Centre de Recherches Economiques Appliquees (CREA) at the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar and the World Bank.
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    Informality, Trade Policies and Smuggling in West Africa
    (Taylor and Francis, 2015-10-05) Benjamin, Nancy; Mbaye, Ahmadou Aly
    In West Africa, recorded intra-regional trade is small but informal cross-border trade (ICBT) is pervasive, despite regional integration schemes intended to promote official trade. We argue that ICBT must be understood in light of two features of West African national boundaries: divergent economic policies between neighboring countries and the ease with which informal operators can ship goods across borders. We focus on two ICBT clusters: Senegal–The Gambia and Nigeria–Benin–Togo. Nigeria and Senegal have protected their domestic industries with high import barriers, whereas Benin, Togo and The Gambia have maintained lower import taxation. These differential trade policies, together with high mobility of goods and people across borders, lead to widespread smuggling, with goods imported legally in low-tax countries and re-exported unofficially to countries with higher import duties.