Elizabeth Asiedu

Elizabeth Asiedu is a professor of economics at Howard University and a former professor at the University of Kansas. She has facilitated research that is centered around foreign aid, foreign directed investment (FDI), and gender. She is a founder of the Association for the Advancement of African Women (AAAWE), as well as the current president of the organization. Asiedu is an editor of the Journal of African Development.

Education Asiedu received her first degree, a B.S. (Hons) in computer science and mathematics from the University of Ghana in 1988. She then went on to receive an M.S. in mathematics (1992), an M.S. in economics (1994), and a PhD in economics (1998) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Career Since 2021, Asiedu has been a professor of economics at Howard University, where she teaches both undergraduate and graduate economics. From 2012 to 2021, Asiedu was a professor of economics at the University of Kansas. Asiedu was also the associate chair and the director of graduate studies of the economics department at the University of Kansas from 2007 to 2009. She sits on the board of the African Finance Economic Association (AFEA), was president of the organization between 2011 and 2013, and was the vice president between 2007 and 2010. Distinguished External Reference Group, The African Capacity Building Foundation, Zimbabwe, April 2012 – Present They find that firms owned by visible minorities have a higher denial rate with the highest denial rate for Hispanics. Additionally, the denial rate for has increased between 1998 and 2003. She argues that although educational financial aid is positively related to growth (because it provides resources such as books, training for teachers, etc.) this is only the case for primary education. Educational financial aid in secondary education, on the other hand, does not contribute to economic growth, in fact it may have an adverse effect on growth. This is because of the lack of employment for secondary school graduates (which she suggests is true to many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa), she suggests that another reason why this might be true is the lack of quality secondary education (such that increased time spent in school has no benefits). Finally, she argues that there is a lack of physical capital and other “complementary inputs” in Sub-Saharan Africa that would otherwise encourage productive labour in the region. Health of the labour force is important because it effects absenteeism and thus overall productivity. Secondly, their model suggests that the negative externalities associated with HIV/AIDS (high morbidity and mortality rates which may affect coworkers that are not infected too). They find that reducing the infection rate will encourage FDI, and thus encourage economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. ), but this in turn allows for households in Ghana to invest in human capital as it eases financial constraints. Additionally, this paper argues that this effect is more observable when the household is headed by a female, and that the increase in investment in human capital allows for long term poverty alleviation in Ghana. The paper uses cross-sectional data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) from waves 5, as well as pseudo-panel data from GLSS waves 3-5 They suggest that although FDI may be a vital factor in aiding economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, this economic growth is mostly accrued by the employment created by multinational corporations (MNCs) as these companies usually pay their employees higher wages than domestic companies. The authors use Tullow Oil, plc as an example to show the region's growing share of world oil production as well as to explore the role of MNCs FDI in terms of development and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, they emphasize that the propensity to encourage economic growth or development is highly dependent on the type of FDI - FDI in manufacturing creates more employment than FDI in extractive industries like oil. Additionally, the authors argue that the success of FDI is also dependent on other factors such as the education level in a given country, making it the much more difficult to truly benefit from FDI in just about any industry.

Awards

Kemper Teaching Award, 2008, the University of Kansas Byron Shutz Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2008, the University of Kansas Woman of Distinction Award, 2008, the University of Kansas Outstanding Woman Educator Award, 2003, the University of Kansas University of Illinois PanHellenic Council Teaching Award, 1996 American Association of University Women (AAUW) Fellowship, 1995-1996 Statistics for Social Science Research Network (SSRN) as of June 2017 Emerging Scholar Award, 2007, awarded by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Nation-wide award, honors minority faculty in academia; 10 awards annually Fulbright Specialist Scholar List, November 2008 – Present Big XII Fellowship, August 2008-June 2009