Ange Kakpo, Ph.D.
Board SecretaryAssistant Professor of Economics – School of Business, Economics, and Government at Seattle Pacific University.
Dr. Ange Kakpo received his Ph.D. in Applied Economics at Virginia Tech in 2022. His research interests lie in Development Economics, with a primary focus on issues related to smallholder farmers’ resilience to weather shocks and other resource challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining SPU, Dr. Kakpo taught microeconomics at the undergraduate and graduate levels and mathematical economics at the graduate level. Dr. Kakpo completed his Master’s in Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University and his Bachelor’s in the same area at the Abomey-Calavi University in his home country, Benin.
Dr. Kakpo’s recent work focuses on weather shock impacts on staple crop production and market price seasonality, as well as weather shock impacts on market participation in staple crop markets in West Africa. Dr. Kakpo’s research also studies land access and crop productivity issues in West Africa. In addition, Dr. Kakpo is interested in employing causal inference methods (RCT and quasi-experimental methods) to evaluate the impacts of social protection and other development programs in strengthening the resilience and improving the livelihoods of economically disadvantaged populations.