The CSAE aims to make a difference by providing impartial and impactful advice to policymakers and advisers in developing countries. They engage on an international level with organisations to challenge strategies on policy advice, build connections, and they work with academic institutions in developing countries to strengthen their research capacity.

The research undertaken at the CSAE is both microeconomic and macroeconomic. This means that it looks at issues facing individuals, farmers, entrepreneurs or companies, as much as issues in relation to the overall economy such as inflation and exchange rate setting. The objective in developing these areas has been to build the research infrastructure that will allow researchers to pursue the CSAE's primary research objective – the production of excellent research geared to an improvement in economic performance in developing countries.

The Centre organises the CSAE Conference: Economic Development in Africa, a large annual conference held in Oxford, UK, and the Economic Development in Africa Workshop, hosted at a different academic institution in Africa each year. Alongside this, the Centre also runs a programme of lunchtime seminars and research workshops during term, and other events throughout the year.

The Mind and Behaviour Research Group (MBRG) brings together economists, psychiatrists and psychologists based at the University of Oxford as part of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the Blavatnik School of Government. Their aim is to investigate the psychological impact of living in poverty and use findings to improve policy programmes. Find out more about the MBRG.

New from 2023, the Economic Policy Network (EPN) is run by Stefan Dercon, Rose Page and Pascal Mensah and is a join venture between the Blavatnik School of Government and the CSAE.

Find out more about the EPN