Please note this seminar will be in person only.

Title: Blossoming Towns

Abstract:

Towns and cities create jobs and income. Can the arrival of new jobs also create a town? We study large agro-industrial labour demand shocks in rural sub-Saharan Africa: flower farms in Kenya. Rising production costs in Europe generate a boom in Kenyan cut-flower export production, providing stable wage jobs for mostly low-skilled women. We exploit the specific requirements of cut- flower production to track the arrival and growth of greenhouses over the last two decades. We find large increases in wage employment and home-to-market transformation within agriculture, especially for women. Urbanisation unfolds population growth and in-migration are flanked by an emerging private rental market for housing. Housing quality and infrastructure access improve; wealth accumulates. Educational investments increase while fertility decreases. Suggestive evidence highlights that the resulting towns initiate occupational change, motivate forward-looking investment and even survive flower farm closures – indicating towns that can sustain themselves as centres of economic activity.

Bio:

Link to Homepage: https://niclasmoneke.com

Link to Paper:
https://niclasmoneke.com/wp-content/uploads/Bishop_Moneke_Zipfel-Blossoming_Towns-2026.pdf