Dr Maty Konte


Affiliated Researcher

Research group(s):
4. Governance and institutions
2. Structural Change and Economic Development
5. Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Sustainability Transitions

Affiliated Researcher. My research addresses cutting-edge development issues at the intersection of private sector development, aggregate growth, and political economy. I earned Ph.D. and Master's degrees in economics and a Bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from Aix-Marseille University in France. My continuing education includes a certificate in project management from Georgetown University, Washington DC, and an executive education certificate from Harvard Kennedy School, Boston. 




Selected publications by Maty Konte


Articles (journal, professional, popular)
Konte, Maty & Godsway Tetteh, 2022, Mobile Money, Traditional Financial Services and Firm Productivity in Africa, Small Business Economics, 00, More information
Konte, Maty, Wilfried A. Kouamé & Emmanuel Buadi Mensah, 2022, Structural reforms and labor productivity growth in developing countries: Intra or inter-reallocation channel?, The World Bank Economic Review, 36(3): 646-669, DOI: 10.1093/wber/lhac002, More information
Boly, Amadou, Maty Konte & Abebe Shimeles, 2021, Corruption Perception and Attitude Towards Taxation in Africa, Journal of African Economies, 30: i140-i157, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejab024
Konte, Maty, 2021, How do education resources respond to the quality of local governance in Africa?, Review of Development Economics, 25(3): 1538-1557, DOI: 10.1111/rode.12770, More information
Konte, Maty & Gideon Ndubuisi, 2021, Financial constraint, trust, and export performances: firm-level evidence from Africa, Journal of Institutional Economics, 17: 583-605, More information
Konte, Maty & Rose Vincent, 2021, Mining and quality of public services: The role of local governance and decentralization, World Development, 140, DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105350, More information
Avenyo, Elvis, Maty Konte & Pierre Mohnen, 2021, Product innovation and informal market competition in sub-Saharan Africa: Firm-level evidence, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 31: 605-637, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-020-00688-2, More information
Avenyo, Elvis, Maty Konte & Pierre Mohnen, 2019, The employment impact of product innovations in sub-Saharan Africa: Firm-level evidence, Research Policy, 48(9), More information
Konte, Maty, 2018, Do remittances not promote growth? A finite mixture-of-regressions approach, Empirical Economics , 54(2): 747-782, DOI: 10.1007/s00181-016-1224-z, More information
Konte, Maty, 2017, Measuring Land Property Rights, Political Rights, Civil Liberties, and Political Instability in Senegal (1819–2010), Journal of Development Perspectives, 1: 54-74, More information
Konte, Maty & Stephan Klasen, 2016, Gender difference in support for Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa, Feminist Economics, 22(2): 55-86, DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2015.1103379, More information
Konte, Maty, 2016, The effects of remittances on support for democracy in Africa: Are remittances a curse or a blessing?, Journal of Comparative Economics, 44: 1002-1022, DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2016.02.004, More information
García-Peñalosa, Cecilia & Maty Konte, 2014, Why are women less democratic than men? Evidence from Sub-Saharan African Countries?, World Development, 59: 104-119, DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.01.005, More information
Emmanuel, Flachaire, Cecilia García-Peñalosa & Maty Konte, 2014, Political versus Economic Institutions in the Growth Process, Journal of Comparative Economics, 42(1): 212-229, DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2013.05.001, More information
Konte, Maty, 2013, A curse or a blessing? Natural resources in a multiple growth regimes analysis, Applied Economics, 45: 3760-3769, DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2012.730137, More information
Konte, Maty, 2013, A Curse or a Blessing? Natural Resources in a Multiple Growth Regime Analysis, Applied Economics, 45(26 (1.9.)): 3760-3769, More information
Cette, Gilbert, Samuel Chang & Maty Konte, 2011, The decreasing returns on working time: an empirical analysis on panel country data, Applied Economic Letters, 18(17), More information


Book chapters
Konte, Maty & Gideon Ndubuisi, 2021, Remittances and Bribery in Africa, in: Maty Konte and Linguere Mously Mbaye, Migration, Remittances, and Sustainable Development in Africa, Routledge, UK, More information
Konte, Maty, 2020, Female Policymakers and Women’s Well-Being in Africa, in: M.Konte and N.Tirivayi, Women and Sustainable Human Development Empowering Women in Africa, Palgrave Macmillan, Geneva
Schwerhoff, Gregor & Maty Konte, 2020, Gender and Climate Change: Towards Comprehensive Policy Options, in: M.Konte and N.Tirivayi, Women and Sustainable Human Development Empowering Women in Africa, Palgrave Macmillan, Geneva


Books (monograph or edited volume)
Konte, Maty & Linguère Mously Mbaye (eds.), 2021, Migration, Remittances, and Sustainable Development in Africa, Routledage, UK, More information
Konte, Maty & Nyasha Tirivayi (eds.), 2020, Women and Sustainable Human Development:rnEmpowering Women in Africa, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer, Geneva, More information


UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Konte, Maty & Gideon Ndubuisi, 2022, Remittance dependence, support for taxation and quality of public services in Africa, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2022-019
Tetteh, Godsway, Micheline Goedhuys, Maty Konte & Pierre Mohnen, 2021, Mobile money adoption and entrepreneurs’ access to trade credit in the informal sector, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2021-043
Tetteh, Godsway, Micheline Goedhuys, Maty Konte & Pierre Mohnen, 2020, Towards a new index of mobile money inclusion and the role of the regulatory environment, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2020-035
Ndubuisi, Gideon & Maty Konte, 2019, Credit constraints and trade performance: Does trust-based social capital matter?, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2019-046
Konte, Maty, Victor Osei Kwadwo & Tatenda Zinyemba, 2019, Women's political and reproductive health empowerment in Africa: A literature review, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2019-044
Konte, Maty & Gideon Ndubuisi, 2019, Remittances and Bribery in Africa, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2019-043
Boly, Amadou, Maty Konte & Abebe Shimeles, 2019, Corruption and tax morale in Africa, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2019-042
Konte, Maty & Rose Vincent, 2019, Mining and quality of public services: The role of local governance and decentralisation, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2019-041
Avenyo, Elvis, Maty Konte & Pierre Mohnen, 2019, The employment impact of product innovations in sub-Saharan Africa: Firm-level evidence, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2019-019
Konte, Maty, 2015, The effects of remittances on support for democracy in Africa: Are remittances a curse or a blessing?, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2015-008
Konte, Maty, 2014, Do remittances not promote growth? A bias-adjusted three-step mixture-of-regressions, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2014-075
García-Peñalosa, Cecilia & Maty Konte, 2014, Why are women less democratic than men? Evidence from Sub-Saharan African countries, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2014-010
Konte, Maty, 2014, Gender difference in support for democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do social institutions matter?, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2014-009


External working papers
Konte, Maty, 2014, Gender difference in support for democracy in sub-Saharan Africa: Do social institutions matter?, WIDER Working Paper WP/2014/044 Gender difference in support for democracy in sub-Saharan Africa: Do social institutions matter?, More information
García-Peñalosa, Cecilia & Maty Konte, 2013, Why are women less democratic than men? Evidence from Sub-Saharan African Countries, CESIFO WORKING PAPER NO. 4524, More information


Research reports
Konte, Maty, Gideon Ndubuisi & Amamchukwu Okafor, 2021, The Past and the Present: The Nigerian Ebola experience and the Covid-19 Pandemic, We identify factors responsible for Nigeria's victory over EVD, through a comparative analysis. We also evaluate Nigeria’s country-wide response to Covid-19, while drawing inference from its past success on EVD to underpin factors that may have impeded the country’s from mimicking its successful erstwhile country-wide response in the fight against EVD. We complement this analysis with recent surveys for Nigeria to assess the spatial disparities in terms of vulnerability and shocks to Covid-19 and explore the spatial distribution of government and non-government assistance across the different regions
Konte, Maty & Emmanuel Buadi Mensah, 2020, Mapping Paper for "Work and income for young men and women in Africa; a political economy and social equity approach to the employment potential of specific sectors and sub-sectors in African economies’, Overview of current research initiatives in this field, the methodology and data used, the African countries currently covered in the existing studies and the experts and institutes who are involved in these different projects. In addition, the mapping highlights the knowledge gaps on structural economic transformation/change and income and productive employment for youth and women that need to be filled to inform policies that will help African countries to prepare for an inclusive 4th industrial revolution
Konte, Maty & Rose Vincent, 2017, Analyse de l’évolution de la productivité de la main d’oeuvre au Sénégal (1990-2010), Document commandité par le CRES pour la Direction Générale de la Planification et des Politiques Économiques (DGPPE) du Ministère de l'Economie et des Finances du Sénégal, More information


Conference contributions
Konte, Maty, 2017, How do education resources respond to the quality of local governance in Africa, Public economics for development Conference, UNU-WIDER, Maputo, July 5-6 2017
Konte, Maty, 2017, How do education resources respond to the quality of local governance in Africa?, The International Economic Association World Congress, Mexico June 19-23, 2017


Other (editorship, media appearance, keynote, etc.)
Konte, Maty, 2018, How corrupt local officials kill decent education in Africa, The Conversation, Improving the quality of education systems will have huge benefits for Africa’s present and future generations. Part of this improvement must involve tackling people’s negative perceptions about their local councillors, whether those relate to corruption, effectiveness or responsiveness. Central governance remains important. It should be coupled with careful plans and actions to fix local governance, make councillors more accountable and ensure they’re providing the services schools need to thrive, More information
Konte, Maty, Shobhakar Dhakal, Sandrine Maljean-Dubois & Joice Ferreira, 2017, Yes, climate change matters: international scientists appeal to Trump on his first 100 days, The Conversation Global, Conversation Global, More information
Konte, Maty, 2016, How do remittances affect democracy in Africa?, World Economic Forum, World Economic Forum
Konte, Maty, 2016, Women support democracy less than men in parts of Africa – why?, The Conversation Global
Konte, Maty, M Niaz Asadullah, Harini Amarasuriya, Mizan R Khan & Rut Diamint, 2016, Jeffrey Sachs on meeting the Sustainable Development Goals –‘we need a victory of ideas’, The Conversation Global, The Conversation Global
Konte, Maty, 2015, EMAEE 2015 Conference: Globalisation, Innovation and Economic Change, Keynote speaker
Konte, Maty, 2015, Towards another resource curse? Remittances and support for democracy in Africa, The Conversation Africa, The Conversation Africa
Konte, Maty, 2012, En Afrique, les femmes se préoccupent plus des questions sociales que les hommes, Agence de Presse Sénégalaise, More information


UNU-MERIT