Welcome! I am an economist and Assistant Professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. I earned my PhD from Northwestern University (Kellogg) in June 2024. Before graduate school, I worked with the International Growth Centre in Uganda and the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources in Rwanda as an ODI Fellow.
I study topics at the intersection of organizational and development economics. Typically, I examine how production works in practice using surveys and personnel data to formulate hypotheses about how firms and workers make decisions. Whenever possible, I partner with organizations—ranging from firms to non-profits and government agencies—to test these hypotheses empirically.
Currently, my research focuses on the role of knowledge, communication, and coordination in production processes. I am also exploring ways to enhance the effectiveness of development policies that target firm (and farm) productivity, particularly by examining the organization of production and policy implementation. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to discuss research!
Publications
Publication Ungated Version Supplemental Appendix Microeconomic Insights Voxdev Slides
Projects
Supervision at Work: Evidence from a Field Experiment (Revised draft forthcoming)
[Working Paper]
[Economics that Really Matters Blog]
[VoxDev]
Self-Employment Within the Firm (Completely revised draft: May 2025)
with Vittorio Bassi, Jung Hyuk Lee, Alessandra Peter, Tommaso Porzio & Esau Tugume.
[Working Paper]
[Supplemental Appendix]
[IFC Coverage]
[VoxDev Blog]
[Slides]
Seeding Innovation through Reality TV (Analysis underway)
with Eliana La Ferrara & Christopher Udry.
[Project Summary]
Professional Experience
Organization: International Growth Centre (IGC)
- Position: Country Economist
- Duration: Oct 2016 - July 2018
- Location: Kampala, Uganda
- Responsibilities: Managed the Uganda country research portfolio on agriculture, trade, and private sector development.
Organization: Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI)
- Position: Overseas Development Institute Fellow & Lead Economist
- Duration: Oct 2014 - Sept 2016
- Location: Kigali, Rwanda
- Responsibilities: Led aid coordination, planning and budgeting, and M&E. Served as Coordinator of the National Agricultural Sector Working Group.
Policy
Recovery from the COVID-19 shock and the informal labour market in urban Uganda
with V. Bassi, J.H. Lee, A. Peter, T. Porzio, and E. Tugume, June 2022.
[IGC Policy Brief]
Understanding productivity dispersion - Evidence from a new survey of manufacturing firms in Uganda
with V. Bassi, R. Muoio, J. Mutambi T. Porzio, and E. Tugume, January 2020.
[IGC Policy Brief]
Reform of the EAC Common External Tariff - Evidence from Trade Costs
with J. de Melo and B. Shepherd, November 2017.
[IGC Policy Brief]
Increasing Vertical Spillovers from FDI: Ideas from Rwanda
with V. Steenbergen, August 2017.
[Columbia FDI Perspectives]
Extending the Growth Benefits of Tourism in East Africa
with V. Steenbergen, February 2017.
[ODI SET Essays]
Agricultural Transformation and Urbanization in Uganda
with D. Gollin & A. Mugyenyi, January 2017.
[IGC Policy Brief]
Maximizing the Impact of FDI on Domestic Industrial Capabilities & Job Creation
with S. Logan, December 2016.
[IGC Policy Brief]
What do empirical studies say about economic growth and job creation in developing countries?
with Y. Basnett, September 2013.
[ODI Report]
Contact
- ritwika.sen@econ.lmu.de
- Seminar für Organisationsökonomik, Kaulbachstr. 45/EG, München, 80539