David Dam is a second-year MPP student at Harvard Kennedy School. He was accepted into the Growth Lab's 2023 Summer Internship Program and contributed to the ongoing project with the United Arab Emirates - a multi-year initiative aimed at developing rigorous research to inform the UAE Ministry of Economy's policies towards achieving sustained long-term economic growth and structural transformation.
Why did you apply to the Growth Lab Summer Internship?
The Growth Lab’s work aligned with many of my policy and research interests. I was especially excited about the UAE project given the country’s dramatic economic transformation over the past few decades. Additionally, I looked forward to collaborating closely with advisors within the UAE’s Ministry of Economy to gain exposure to another facet of policymaking where I could apply my existing skillset to an entirely different context. And of course, who could say no to spending an entire funded summer in Dubai?
What did you work on?
A focus of the Growth Lab UAE Project was on understanding productivity and labor force dynamics in the country. My main responsibilities over the summer included providing more insights to these workstreams. I worked on analyzing raw time series microdata of private sector firms and their employees using R and Python. This was such a fun collaboration navigating between the Growth Lab, Ministry of Economy, and Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.
In what ways were you challenged?
I appreciated putting in the time prior to the actual summer internship to catch myself up on the ongoing project and familiarize myself with the economy of the UAE. Many of our policy research questions also required more creative thinking due to the lack of data granularity or reporting, in contrast to how I often took working with detailed U.S. economic data for granted. I enjoyed thinking about what traditional economic metrics tell us and what types of proxies we could use in place of them to yield additional insights and convey useful, actionable information.
What was your most exciting/surprising experience?
Besides learning how to ski and snowboard for the first time (you can truly find anything in the malls!) and witnessing the summer heat, I had the wonderful opportunity of briefing the Minister of Economy on the ongoing work and findings towards the end of my internship. I learned a lot from the preparation work, such as iterating on data visualizations and anticipating follow-up questions. I found myself putting many of the skills I learned from the first year of the MPP to good use!
What advice would you give to future interns?
Learn beyond the internship work! I took the time to explore Dubai and beyond over the ten weeks, and my conversations with both locals and expats gave me a much more informed view on the UAE’s labor market and high-growth industries. Time management and understanding what’s reasonable to accomplish within a 10-week period also helped me pace and organize my tasks, as well as balance work and fun!
What’s next for you?
I am finishing up my final year of the Master’s in Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. I am incredibly thankful for my time at HKS, and I am really excited about all of the opportunities ahead!