Teferi Mergo is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Waterloo (UW), with appointments at United College, the Economics department and the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development. He is a Research Fellow at Global Labour Organization and has been recognised for research excellence at UW.

Dr. Mergo’s published studies gauge the impacts on economic development of demographic transition, international migration, ethnic favouritism, representative government, and English medium instruction, and he has ongoing research projects (some under review) that investigate the impacts of housing development programs, financial deepening, and horizontal inequality on development. He has authored policy articles and analytical pieces exploring the causes of civil conflicts in Ethiopia, arguing that the recurrent civil wars in the country are manifestations of power imbalances among its ethnic communities, and they might be resolved with a carefully calibrated devolution of power from the centre to the peripheries.

He earned his PhD in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests are in the fields of development economics, political economy, and demographic economics, with sub-Saharan Africa as the region of focus.