Dr. Berhanu Abegaz is Professor of Economics and Director of Africana Studies at The College of William and Mary. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. His publications are wide-ranging, and those on Ethiopia include: Essays on Ethiopian Economic Development (Avebury, 1994); “Persistent Stasis in a Tributary Mode of Production: The Peasant Economy of Ethiopia,” J. of Agrarian Change, 5(3), 2005; “Escaping Ethiopia’s Poverty Trap: The Case for a Second Agrarian Reform,” J. of Modern African Studies, 42(3), 2004; and “Political Parties in Business” (2011).
His research interests are wide-ranging including structural convergence in manufacturing industries between leaders and latecomers, the role of diversified business groups in emerging economies, the challenges facing African industrialization, and poverty traps in Ethiopia ’s agrarian system.