Ebehi Iyoha

Ebehi Iyoha is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School. Prior to joining HBS in 2022, she served as a Research Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Her academic journey includes a PhD in Economics from Vanderbilt University (2021) and a BA from Loyola Marymount University.

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in Economics, Vanderbilt University (2021)
• BA, Loyola Marymount University

Professor Iyoha's research focuses on the intersection of industrial organization and international trade, with particular emphasis on how interfirm networks impact firm performance through productivity and trade channels. Her work employs both structural and reduced-form econometric methods to examine complex economic phenomena. She has made significant contributions to understanding trade policy effects, particularly during the U.S.-China trade war, where she pioneered research on trade rerouting and tariff circumvention. Her research on productivity spillovers in U.S. production networks has provided new methodological approaches to measuring firm-to-firm economic interactions.

Her recent publications reveal several important trends in her research agenda. She consistently applies microdata analysis to tackle macroeconomic questions, demonstrating how granular firm-level data can provide insights that aggregate country-level data cannot. A recurring theme across her work is the importance of network structures in international trade and production, with particular attention to how policy changes ripple through complex global value chains. Her research methodology often combines transaction-level trade data with firm-level information to produce nuanced analyses of economic phenomena.

Professor Iyoha has received notable recognition for her scholarly work:

• Winner of the Young Economists' Essay Award at the 2021 Annual Conference of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE) for her paper "Estimating Productivity in the Presence of Spillovers: Firm-Level Evidence from the U.S. Production Network"

As an educator, Professor Iyoha teaches the required first-year MBA course The Entrepreneurial Manager at Harvard Business School. Her research has significant policy implications, particularly for understanding how trade policies affect small businesses and developing economies. She has been involved in research initiatives examining African fintech development and the potential of artificial intelligence to enhance productivity in African companies, partnering with researchers from Nigeria, Kenya, and Senegal.

Professor Iyoha leads research projects that examine firm networks and trade dynamics, often collaborating with colleagues across disciplines. Her current research agenda includes further exploration of productivity spillovers and how firm-to-firm relationships affect technology adoption, with particular focus on African contexts.