Abebe is an Ethiopian national with a PhD in economics from University of Goteborg, Sweden; M.A., Delhi School of Economics, India, and B.A in economics from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. He has over 25 years of professional experience in policy research, teaching and supervising by working for academia, NGO (Action Aid), and other international organizations (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa; World Bank and African Development Bank) with a proven track record of publications. Currently he is Director of Research at the African Economic Research Consortium, a position he has held since November 2019. His research areas fall within the broad discipline of development economics, with a focus on poverty, income distribution, labor market issues, agriculture, community-based health insurance as well as macroeconomic topics in the areas of debt dynamics, domestic resource mobilizations and related topics.