Olivia Wirth

I am a PhD student in Economics at the Chair of Development Economics (Prof. Michael Grimm) and part of the DFG Research Training Group 2720: “Digital Platform Ecosystems (DPE)”. My research explores the impact of digital technologies on development outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in the areas of agriculture, financial inclusion, and domestic revenue mobilization, and extending to issues of climate change adaptation among smallholder farmers.

During Fall 2024, I was a visiting PhD student at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, invited by Prof. Jenny C. Aker. I hold an MSc in Economics from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and have worked as a research assistant at the ifo Institute – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research.

Ongoing Field Projects

If you build it, will they come? Incentivizing the Adoption of Digital Financial Services in Niger
With Jenny C. Aker, Josué Awonon, Michael Grimm, and Christina Petrik

Unlocking Agricultural Potential through Bundled Services? Experimental Evidence from a Digital Platform in Ghana
With Edward Asiedu, Michael Grimm, Jann Lay, and Christina Petrik

Parched Prospects: Assessing Farmers’ Climate Adaptation Strategies in the Wake of a Drought in Northern Ghana
With Christina Petrik, Edward Asiedu, and Jann Lay

Working Paper

Marina Dodlova, Krisztina Kis-Katos, Anna Kochanova, and Olivia Wirth (2023). Mobile Technologies and Firm Formalization: Evidence from Uganda World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER), Working Paper No. 2023-99.

Publications

Vera Freundl, Elisabeth Grewenig, Franziska Kugler, Philipp Lergetporer, Ruth Schüler, Katharina Wedel, Katharina Werner, Olivia Wirth, and Ludger Wößmann (2023). The ifo Education Survey 2014–2021: A New Dataset on Public Preferences for Education Policy in Germany (2023). Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik / Journal of Economics and Statistics, 243(6), 699–710.

Henning Hermes, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter, Simon Wiederhold, Olivia Wirth, and Vera Freundl (2021). Bewerbungsunterstützung erhöht die Kita-Inanspruchnahme von Kindern aus bildungsferneren Familien (2021). ifo Schnelldienst, 74(9), 41–45.