<p style="text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc389157708"></a><strong>Sub-theme 5.1. Economic Development, Policy, and Institutional Analysis</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Aim </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This sub-theme aims at investigating how the socio-economic systems, policies, and markets influence the well-functioning of various institutions in the socio-economic and business environment.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Description </strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The sub-theme addresses various issues including analysis of the well-functioning of socio-economic systems, operations of the business environment, and roles of institutions in development, the mechanics of development policies, livelihood conditions as well as food security and poverty reduction strategies. This sub-theme with its wide areas of concept, context and content is, thus, identified to contribute to the understanding of the multi perspective features, structures and functions of the real world economic institutions and organizations. Under this framework, the multidirectional influences of the functions of institutions with poverty and food insecurity, human development, environment, markets, overall economy and ecology are the issues to be explored. This also encompasses how to profile, shape and enhance the roles of institutions in allocating and channelling resources (natural, financial, human, physical and social capital) into productive investment activities in optimal, cost effective and sustainable manner in the future. Diagnostic and interrogative rigors of making institutions function also enhances the process of decision making for appropriate allocation of resources, optimization of the returns thereof and profiling as well as taking calculated risks in the process of resource mobilization, utilization, investment and development. Therefore, within this sub-theme, institutions as central functional units of research-based operation and innovation are to be considered in prioritizing the efforts and allocation of resources for research.<a name="_Toc389157709"></a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Research Areas</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc389157710"></a><em>5.1.1. Institutions and business environment</em></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc389157711"></a><em>5.1.2. Market, value chain management, and enterprise development</em></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc389157712"></a><em>5.1.3. Behavior of decision making units</em></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc389157713"></a><em>5.1.4. Poverty, livelihood, and food and nutritional security</em></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc389157714"></a><em>5.1.5. Macroeconomic dynamics and stability</em></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc389157715"></a><em>5.1.6. Development policy analysis</em></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://ResearchAffairs.haramaya.edu.etwp-content/uploads/2017/10/Sub-theme-5.1-description.pdf"><u>For the details, click here</u></a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://ResearchAffairs.haramaya.edu.etwp-content/uploads/2017/10/2017-Sub-theme-5.1-Priority-research-areas.pdf"><u>Research priorities 2017</u></a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://ResearchAffairs.haramaya.edu.etwp-content/uploads/2017/10/2016-Sub-theme-5.1-Priority-research-areas.pdf"><u>Research priorities 2016</u></a></p>