Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, dear colleagues, we cordially invite you to our online research seminar on Wed, 15th of December, 2021, 4pm: Ameet Morjaria (Kellogg School of Management), https://sites.google.com/site/ameetmorjaria/ "Acquisitions, Management and Efficiency in Rwanda’s Coffee Industry" Abstract: Markets in low-income countries often display long tails of inefficient firms and significant misallocation. This paper studies Rwandan coffee mills, an industry initially characterized by widespread inefficiencies that has recently seen a process of consolidation in which exporters have acquired control of a significant number of mills giving rise to multi-mill groups. We combine administrative data with original surveys of both mills and acquirers to understand the consequences of this consolidation. Results suggest that, controlling for mill and year fixed effects, a mill acquired by a foreign group, but not by a domestic group, improves utilization and reduces costs of operation. The difference in performance is not accompanied by changes in mill technology or differential access to working capital finance. Upon acquisition, both foreign and domestic group change mills' managers. Foreign groups, however, recruit younger, more educated and higher ability managers, pay these managers a higher salary (even conditional on manager and mill characteristics) and grant them more autonomy. These “better” managers explain about half of the better performance associated with foreign ownership. The difference in performance reflects superior implementation, rather than management knowledge: following an acquisition, managers in domestic and foreign groups try to implement the same management changes but managers in domestic groups report significantly higher resistance from both workers and farmers and fail to implement the changes. The results have implications for our understanding of organizational change and for fostering market development in emerging markets. Ameet Morjaria is Associate Professor at the Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. His research interests are in development economics, organizations and political economy across several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda). His current research focuses on understanding the role of commodity exchanges, changes in firm performance due to aquisitions, industrial policy in emerging markets, the impact of electoral conflict on firm operations, and the political economy of resource management in weak institutionalized economies. Selected publications: * The Value of Democracy: Evidence from Road Building in Kenya, joint with Robin Burgess, Remi Jedwab, Edward Miguel, and Gerard Padro i Miquel American Economic Review, 2015 * The Value of Relationships: Evidence from a Supply Shock to Kenyan Rose Exports, joint with Rocco Macchiavello, American Ecnomic Review, 2015 * Competition and Relational Contracts in the Rwanda Coffee Chain, jjoint with Rocco Macchiavello, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2021 https://www.jku.at/institut-fuer-volkswirtschaftslehre/forschung/veranstaltu... for the zoom link. With best regards, René Böheim Follow us on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jku.econ/ <https://www.facebook.com/jku.econ/> ) or twitter (https://twitter.com/jku_econ <https://twitter.com/jku_econ> ) — PD René Böheim, PhD Department of Economics JOHANNES KEPLER UNIVERSITÄT LINZ Altenberger Straße 69 4040 Linz, Österreich P +43-732-2468-7369