Person:
Mukim, Megha
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Urban Development,
Private Sector Development
Degrees
ORCID
External Links
Departments
Social, Urban, Rural and Resilence Global Practice
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Megha Mukim is a senior economist, team lead for Competitive Cities, and author of the flagship report “Competitive Cities for Jobs and Growth” at the World Bank Group. She works on issues of urban development and competitiveness, and has experience working in high and middle-income (Malaysia, Mauritius, South Africa, China), low-income (Ethiopia, Kenya, India, Philippines, Rwanda Tanzania), and fragile and conflict-affected (Burundi, South Sudan, Sudan) countries. She has several years of research and professional experience in the field of trade, economic geography, industrial development, and poverty. She has taught topics in development at the School of Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C., and at Columbia University in New York. She has a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, and her graduate degrees are from the universities of London and Cambridge. Her professional experience has been accumulated at the U.S. International Trade Commission, World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, and at Yale and Columbia University.
Publication Search Results
1 - 8 of 8
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Publication
Geography and Exporting Behavior : Evidence from India
( 2012-02-01)This paper examines locational factors that increase the odds of a firm's entry into export markets and affect the intensity of its participation. It differentiates between two different sources of spillovers: clustering of general economic activity and that of export-oriented activity. It also focuses on the effect of the business environment and that of institutions at the spatial unit of districts in India. The study disentangles the within-industry effect from the within-firm effect. A simple logit specification is used to model the probability of entry. The analysis is based on a panel of manufacturing firms in India, which allows for the introduction of firm-specific controls and a battery of fixed effects. The findings suggest that exporter-specific clustering, general economic agglomeration, and institutional factors affect firms' export behavior. -
Publication
A Comprehensive Analysis of Poverty in India
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-12)This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of poverty in India. It shows that no matter which of the two official poverty lines is used, poverty has declined steadily in all states and for all social and religious groups. Accelerated growth between fiscal years 2004-2005 and 2009-2010 led to an accelerated decline in poverty rates. Moreover, the decline in poverty rates during these years was sharper for the socially disadvantaged groups relative to upper caste groups, so that a narrowing of the gap in the poverty rates is observed between the two sets of social groups. The paper also provides a discussion of the recent controversies in India regarding the choice of poverty lines. -
Publication
Empowering Cities : Good for Growth? Evidence from China
(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2015-02)This paper utilizes a countrywide, county-to-city upgrade in the 1990s to identify whether extending the powers of urban local governments leads to better firm outcomes. The paper hypothesizes that since local leaders in newly-promoted cities have an incentive to utilize their new administrative remit to maximize gross domestic product and employment growth, there should be improvements in economic outcomes. The analysis finds that aggregate firm-level outcomes do not necessarily improve after county-to-city graduation. However, it does find that state-owned enterprises perform better post-graduation, with increased access to credit through state-owned banks as a possible explanation for the improvement in performance. The most important finding is that newly-promoted cities with high capacity generally produce better aggregate firm outcomes compared with newly-promoted cities with low capacity. The conclusions are twofold. First, in terms of access to credit, the paper provides evidence that relaxing credit constraints for firms could lead to large increases in firm operation and employment. Second, increasing local government's administrative remit is not enough to lead to better firm and economic outcomes; local capacity is of paramount importance. -
Publication
How Do Cities in Ethiopia Create Jobs?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-10)This paper reviews city-based industrialization across Ethiopia to understand (a) its importance in driving net job creation, and (b) the factors that determine the success of high-growth industries and cities. The focus of the analysis is on firms, industries, and cities in Ethiopia that create and sustain jobs. The analysis finds that much of new job creation is found in emerging cities, although capital intensity in production is also increasing. As in other countries, 97 percent of new jobs are created by large firms, and it is incumbents and not new entrants that contribute to initial and sustained increases in employment. Agglomeration economies, better business environment, and access to better infrastructure are factors that matter, albeit differently, depending on firms' size, life-cycle, and rate of growth. -
Publication
Decentralization in Ethiopia--Who Benefits?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-12-01)This paper shows that greater autonomy to cities in Ethiopia through a process of city proclamations, led to better economic outcomes at the city level, lowering regional spatial inequalities. In addition, the newly-empowered cities did not seem to misuse their new powers by favoring particular firms over others. We investigate the effect of a nation-wide introduction of VAT in Ethiopia – and show that the intended recipients of the reform, i.e. importing firms performed better (in terms of employment and sales) only after the VAT introduction in decentralized cities with greater autonomy than in non-decentralized cities. This is suggestive evidence that increasing administrative powers (or the mayor’s wedge) played an important role in making Ethiopian cities more competitive, and allowed mayor’s to transmit more efficiently the effect of national-level reforms. -
Publication
Manufacturing Export Competitiveness in Kenya : A Policy Note on Revitalizing and Diversifying Kenya's Manufacturing Sector
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-12-04)This note is a background study to assess policy options to improve competitiveness of Kenya's manufacturing sector, with a specific focus on exports. The focus is on export performance in the manufacturing sector overall and drawing on analysis of four specific manufacturing sectors - apparel, wood furniture, chemicals, and agriculture industries-which are used as examples from which to generalize about wider competitiveness issues in Kenya's manufacturing sector. Kenya's Vision 2030 aspires to achieve middle income status by 2030, which will require sustaining an annual average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 10 percent. Restarting the export sector growth engine will be imperative to achieve these targets. In particular, manufacturing exports will be critical because of their impact on growth, employment and economy-wide linkages. Kenya's manufacturing sector exhibits several strengths. Its global share in exports increased over the last 20 years, and it enjoys a strong position with regard to exports to the regional EAC market, particularly in some high value sectors like chemicals and pharmaceuticals. This background note aims to provide the new Government with policy focus and tools to tackle the constraints keeping Kenya from reaching its potential in manufacturing export competitiveness. This note has a specific focus on export performance; it also looks more broadly at the manufacturing sector, including domestic production and sales, where such data is available. As a result, it uses a mix of analytical approaches in the study. -
Publication
Thriving : Making Cities Green, Resilient, and Inclusive in a Changing Climate
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2023-05-18)Globally, 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions emanate from cities. At the same time, cities are being hit increasingly by climate change related shocks and stresses, ranging from more frequent extreme weather events to inflows of climate migrants. This report analyzes how these shocks and stresses are interacting with other urban stresses to determine the greenness, resilience, and inclusiveness of urban and national development. It provides policymakers with a compass for designing tailored policies that can help cities and countries take effective action to mitigate and adapt to climate change. -
Publication
Coagglomeration of Formal and Informal Industry : Evidence from India
(World Bank, Washington DC, 2013-09-26)A large and growing informal sector is a major feature of developing countries. This paper analyzes coagglomeration patterns between formal and informal manufacturing enterprises in India. It studies (a) the causes underlying these patterns and (b) the positive externalities, if any, on the entry of new firms. The analysis finds that buyer-supplier and technology linkages explain much of formal-informal coagglomeration. Also, within-industry coagglomeration matters mostly to small- and medium-sized formal firm births. Traditional measures of agglomeration remain important in explaining new industrial activity, whether in the formal or the informal sector.