BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Growth Lab - ECPv6.18.2//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Growth Lab X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Growth Lab REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20240310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20241103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20250309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20251102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20260308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20261101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20270314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20271107T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250226T233000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250227T004500 DTSTAMP:20250910T004217Z CREATED:20250219T224500Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250910T004217Z UID:15042-1740612600-1740617100@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Research Seminar: Trade\, Innovation and Optimal Patent Protection DESCRIPTION:The Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. Speaker: Thomas Sampson\, Associate Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics Whether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance.  Paper Abstract: Intellectual property rights are a recurrent source of tensions between developed and developing economies. This paper provides the first quantitative analysis of optimal patent policy in trading economies. We develop a new model of trade\, growth and patenting in which patent protection affects both innovation and market power. The model is estimated using data on patent applications to calibrate patent protection by country and the geography of innovation. Counterfactual analysis yields three main results. First\, the potential gains from international cooperation over patent policies are large. However\, achieving these gains requires more innovative economies to offer stronger protection. Second\, only a small share of these gains has been realized so far. And third\, by pushing towards policy harmonization\, the TRIPS agreement hurts developing countries without generating global welfare gains. Overall\, there is substantial scope for policy reforms to increase efficiency. Link to the paper: https://personal.lse.ac.uk/sampsont/TradePatents.pdf   About the Speaker: Thomas Sampson is an Associate Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics\, where he has taught since 2011. He earned his PhD from Harvard University\, focusing on international trade and labor. Prior to his current role\, he served as a consultant for organizations such as the Bank of England\, the World Bank\, and the Bank of Papua New Guinea. His research explores questions at the intersection of trade policy\, economic growth\, and innovation\, including the impact of Brexit on the UK economy. Thomas is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research and an Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/research-seminar-trade-innovation-and-optimal-patent-protection/ LOCATION:HYBRID Perkins Rubenstein 429 / Zoom CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250305T113000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250305T124500 DTSTAMP:20250916T175437Z CREATED:20250227T181600Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T175437Z UID:14982-1741174200-1741178700@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Research Seminar - AI-generated Production Networks: Measurement and Applications to Global Trade DESCRIPTION:The Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. Speaker: Thiemo Fetzer\, Professor of Economics at Warwick University and at the University of Bonn This is an online only event. Please register in advance. Paper Abstract: This paper leverages generative AI to build a network structure over 5\,000 product nodes\, where directed edges represent input-output relationships in production. We layout a two-step ‘build-prune’ approach using an ensemble of prompt-tuned generative AI classifications. The ’build’ step provides an initial distribution of edge-predictions\, the ‘prune’ step then re-evaluates all edges. With our AI-generated Production Network (AIPNET) in toe\, we document a host of shifts in the network position of products and countries during the 21st century. Finally\, we study production network spillovers using the natural experiment presented by the 2017 blockade of Qatar. We find strong evidence of such spillovers\, suggestive of on-shoring of critical production. This descriptive and causal evidence demonstrates some of the many research possibilities opened up by our granular measurement of product linkages\, including studies of on-shoring\, industrial policy\, and other recent shifts in global trade. \nAbout the Speaker: Thiemo Fetzer is Professor of Economics at Warwick University and at the University of Bonn. Thiemo is also an Academic Visitor at the Bank of England\, an Affiliate at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and a Fellow at the British National Institute for Social and Economic Research (NIESR). His work cross cuts many fields in economics ranging from international trade\, economic development\, finance\, to spatial economics and political economy leveraging frontier techniques from machine learning\, artificial intelligence and computer science. Thiemo has advised a range of players and policy makers in some G20 countries on issues around economic development and industrial policy\, with a special focus on the economic\, social and institutional and political-economic adjustments that are necessary to counter the climate crisis and help shift societies out of the non-cooperative loose-loose equilibria. His research has been featured in national and international media such as Bloomberg\, New York Times\, The Guardian\, Financial Times\, Le Monde\, El País\, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/research-seminar-ai-generated-production-networks-measurement-and-applications-to-global-trade/ LOCATION:Online Only CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250312T103000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250312T114500 DTSTAMP:20250910T003629Z CREATED:20250306T235400Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250910T003629Z UID:15006-1741775400-1741779900@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Research Seminar: Demand & Supply Side Linkages in Exporting Multiproduct Firms DESCRIPTION:The Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. Speaker: Lisandra Flach\, Professor of Economics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich) and Director of the ifo Center for International Economics Whether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. Abstract: Products produced by a multiproduct firm can be linked through demand linkages or supply linkages. On the demand side\, changes in the price of one product can affect the demand for a firm’s other products through shifts in consumer expenditures. This is commonly referred to as the cannibalization effect. On the supply side\, joint inputs can create a dependency of one product’s marginal costs on the output of other products. The existence of these linkages is important for how firms respond to shocks and has major implications for several performance measures\, such as productivity and markups. This paper provides the first empirical evidence for the existence of cannibalization linkages in the presence of supply linkages\, which is implied evidence for market power. Link to the paper: https://cepr.org/publications/dp18627 Bio: Lisandra Flach is a Professor of Economics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich) and Director of the ifo Center for International Economics. Her research focuses on international trade\, firm dynamics\, and global value chains\, with a particular interest in the effects of trade policy. She is a Research Fellow at CESifo\, a Research Affiliate at CEPR\, and serves as an Associate Editor for leading economic journals. Her work has been widely recognized\, earning her awards such as the “Top 40 under 40” and “Germany’s 10 Most Promising Young Economists.” URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/research-seminar-demand-supply-side-linkages-in-exporting-multiproduct-firms/ LOCATION:HYBRID Perkins Rubenstein 429 / Zoom CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250326T103000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250326T114500 DTSTAMP:20250910T003314Z CREATED:20250325T052800Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250910T003314Z UID:14991-1742985000-1742989500@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Research Seminar - Urban-Biased Growth: A Macroeconomic Analysis DESCRIPTION:The Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development.  Speaker: Fabian Eckert is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California\, San Diego Please register in advance. Abstract: After 1980\, larger US cities experienced substantially faster wage growth than smaller ones. We show that this urban bias mainly reflected wage growth at large Business Services firms. These firms stand out through their high per-worker expenditure on information technology and disproportionate presence in big cities. We introduce a spatial model of investment-specific technical change that can rationalize these patterns. Using the model as an accounting framework\, we find that the observed decline in the investment price of information technology capital explains most urban-biased growth by raising the profits of large Business Services firms in big cities. Link to the paper: https://fpeckert.me/papers/ubg.pdf Bio: Fabian Eckert is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California\, San Diego\, specializing in spatial economics\, macroeconomics\, international economics\, and urban economics. His research explores how geography\, urban development\, and economic policy shape inequality and growth. He serves as an Associate Editor at the Journal of International Economics and is a partner at UCSD’s Prosperity and Globalization Lab. Fabian holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/research-seminar-urban-biased-growth-a-macroeconomic-analysis/ LOCATION:Online Only CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250409T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250409T150000 DTSTAMP:20250903T201000Z CREATED:20250401T190500Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250903T201000Z UID:15046-1744207200-1744210800@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Research Seminar: Which Economic Tasks are Performed with AI? Evidence from Millions of Claude Conversations DESCRIPTION:The Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. \n\n\n\nThis is an online only event. Please register in advance. \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Kunal Handa\, Research Scientist at Anthropic \n\n\n\nPaper Abstract: Despite widespread speculation about artificial intelligence’s impact on the future of work\, we lack systematic empirical evidence about how these systems are actually being used for different tasks. Here\, we present a novel framework for measuring AI usage patterns across the economy. We leverage a recent privacy-preserving system to analyze over four million this http URL conversations through the lens of tasks and occupations in the U.S. Department of Labor’s O*NET Database. Our analysis reveals that AI usage primarily concentrates in software development and writing tasks\, which together account for nearly half of all total usage. However\, usage of AI extends more broadly across the economy\, with approximately 36% of occupations using AI for at least a quarter of their associated tasks. \n\n\n\nSpeaker Bio: Kunal Handa is a Research Scientist at Anthropic where he focuses on understanding and improving the societal impact of AI systems. His research explores the fundamentals of learning in both humans and machines\, particularly how to build collaborative AI tools grounded in human communication principles. Previously\, Kunal was a graduate student at the University of Oxford and an undergraduate student at Brown University studying linguistics and computer science. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/research-seminar-which-economic-tasks-are-performed-with-ai-evidence-from-millions-of-claude-conversations/ LOCATION:Online Only CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251007T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251007T113000 DTSTAMP:20251007T211107Z CREATED:20251006T183900Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251007T211107Z UID:16783-1759831200-1759836600@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Job Transformation\, Specialization\, and the Labor Market Effects of AI DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Lukas Freund\, Assistant Professor of Economics at Boston College \n\n\n\nWhether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. Room attendance is permitted for the Harvard community. The Zoom session is open to the public. \n\n\n\nAbstract: Who will gain and who will lose as AI automates tasks? While much of the discourse focuses on job displacement\, we show that job transformation—a shift in the task content of jobs—creates large and heterogeneous earnings effects. We develop a quantitative\, task-based model where occupations bundle multiple tasks and workers with heterogeneous portfolios of task-specific skills select into occupations by comparative advantage. Automation shifts the relative importance of tasks within each occupation\, inducing wage effects that we characterize analytically. To quantify these effects\, we measure the task content of jobs using natural language processing and estimate the distribution of task-specific skills. We construct projections of automation effects due to large language models (LLMs)\, exploiting a mapping between model tasks and automation exposure measures. Within highly exposed occupations\, like office and administrative roles\, workers specialized in information-processing tasks leave and suffer wage losses. By contrast\, those specialized in customer-facing and coordination tasks stay and experience wage gains as work rebalances toward their strengths. Our findings challenge the common assumption that automation exposure equates to wage losses; and highlight that AI\, through job transformation\, may be disruptive even absent job displacement.   \n\n\n\nAbout the Speaker: Lukas Freund is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Boston College. His research focuses on macroeconomics\, technological change\, and labor markets. Before joining Boston College\, Lukas was a postdoctoral scholar at Columbia University. He obtained his PhD at Cambridge University\, as a Gates Scholar\, and his undergraduate degree from Oxford University. He also held visiting positions at the OECD\, Bank of England\, and Deutsche Bundesbank.  \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/job-transformation-specialization-and-the-labor-market-effects-of-ai/ LOCATION:Perkins Room (R429) – Rubenstein 4th Floor CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251021T101500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251021T113000 DTSTAMP:20251016T204410Z CREATED:20251016T170043Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251016T204410Z UID:16872-1761041700-1761046200@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Research Seminar: Real Effects of Academic Research Revisited DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Adam Jaffe\, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Brandeis University\, Chair of the National Academies Board on Science\, Technology\, and Economic Policy \n\n\n\nWhether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. Room attendance is permitted for the Harvard community. The Zoom session is open to the public. \n\n\n\nAbstract: This Chapter surveys the findings of social science research on the contribution of universities to innovation and economic growth\, both locally/regionally and globally. In the last several decades research has demonstrated universities’ causal effects through the mechanisms of knowledge creation\, education and training of students and technology transfer/entrepreneurship. \n\n\n\nThe Chapter summarizes how the literature has studied these mechanisms in different disciplines and industrial sectors. The depth and breadth of understanding have been advanced by new microdata and new methods of linking data across inventions\, scientists and institutions\, and by application of methods from network science. These findings have implications for public policy to foster innovation both regionally and globally. \n\n\n\nSpeaker Bio: Adam Jaffe is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Brandeis University and chair of the National Academies Board on Science\, Technology\, and Economic Policy. At Brandeis\, he served as Chair of Economics and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He was previously Co-Chair of The OECD Global Science Forum Experts’ Group on “Effective Operation of Competitive Research Funding Systems\,” and was the founding Coordinator of the National Bureau of Economic Research Innovation Information Initiative (“I3”). Jaffe is currently an Editor for Research Policy. He is the co-author of two books\, Innovation and its Discontents and Patents\, citations\, and innovations: A window on the knowledge economy. He holds an S.B. in chemistry and S.M. in technology and policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/research-seminar-real-effects-of-academic-research-revisited/ LOCATION:HYBRID Perkins Rubenstein 429 / Zoom CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/jaffe-adam.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251104T101500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251104T113000 DTSTAMP:20251102T203423Z CREATED:20251028T165113Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251102T203423Z UID:17034-1762251300-1762255800@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Industrial Policy: Managing Trade-Offs to Promote Growth and Resilience DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. \n\n\n\nCountries increasingly seek to reshape their economies by targeting public support to specific firms and sectors. Their motives vary widely but often include an emphasis on developing strategic industries\, with a view to raising future productivity and growth\, and reducing reliance on imports in key sectors such as energy. Sebastian Wende\, an economist in the Economic Modeling team of the International Monetary Fund’s Research Department\, will discuss new research that leverages theoretical models\, empirical data\, and case studies to investigate the conditions under which such industrial policies are most likely to succeed.  \n\n\n\nWhether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. Room attendance is permitted for the Harvard community. The Zoom session is open to the public. \n\n\n\nAbstract: Countries are increasingly using industrial policy to reshape their economies by supporting strategic sectors and firms. Motivations include boosting productivity\, reducing reliance on imports—especially in energy—and enhancing resilience. Industrial policies can help jump-start domestic industries\, but their efficacy is sensitive to sector-specific characteristics that can be hard to determine in advance. And industrial policies present trade-offs. Onshoring production in a strategic sector might lead to higher consumer prices for a prolonged period. And the fiscal cost of industrial policy can be substantial at a time of elevated debt and constrained public finances. Even when sector-level outcomes are positive\, industrial policy can generate negative cross-sector spillovers and reduce overall productivity by drawing resources inefficiently away from sectors that are not targeted. Effective industrial policy requires careful targeting and implementation\, strong institutions\, complementary structural reforms\, and sound macroeconomic policy. \n\n\n\nSpeaker Biography: Sebastian Wende is an economist in the Economic Modeling team of the IMF’s Research Department. His work includes both developing and harnessing models\, including the IMF’s Global Macroeconomic Model for the Energy Transition (GMMET\, featured in the Oct 2025 WEO Chp3) and the Global Dynamic Network Model (used in the Oct 2024 WEO Chp2). He has both extensive public and private sector experience\, having worked at the Australian Treasury\, BHP\, and the Reserve Bank of Australia. Sebastian is motivated by enhancing welfare through public policy and fascinated by macro dynamics. He has a PHD from the Australian National University in computational macroeconomics\, focusing on tax efficiency in when financial frictions\, and heterogeneity of households and firms are accounted for. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/industrial-policy-managing-trade-offs-to-promote-growth-and-resilience/ LOCATION:HYBRID Perkins Rubenstein 429 / Zoom CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1655455097964.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251117T101500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251117T113000 DTSTAMP:20251113T193834Z CREATED:20251111T141154Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251113T193834Z UID:17194-1763374500-1763379000@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Investment in Infrastructure and Trade: The Case of Ports DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nTheodore Papageorgiou will discuss new research that quantifies the costs of port disruptions and evaluates transportation infrastructure investment. \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Theodore Papageorgiou\, Felter Family Professor of Economics at Boston College \n\n\n\nPaper Abstract: (joint with Giulia Brancaccio and Myrto Kalouptsidi) \n\n\n\nTransportation infrastructure is vital for the smooth functioning of international trade. Ports are a crucial gateway to this system: with more than 80% of trade carried by ships\, they shape trade costs\, and it is critical that they operate efficiently. Yet ports are susceptible to disruptions\, causing costly delays. With enormous budgets spent on infrastructure to alleviate these costs\, a key policy question emerges: in a world with high volatility\, what are the returns to investing in infrastructure? To address this question\, we introduce an empirical framework that combines insights from queueing theory to capture port technology\, with tools from demand estimation. We use our framework\, together with a collection of novel datasets\, to quantify the costs of disruptions and evaluate transportation infrastructure investment. Our analysis unveils four policy-relevant messages: (i) investing in port infrastructure can lead to substantial trade and welfare gains\, but only if targeted properly– in fact\, net of costs\, the marginal return to investment is positive at a minority of US ports; (ii) there are sizable spillovers across ports\, as investing in one port can decongest a wider set of ports\, suggesting that decision-making should not be decentralized to local authorities; (iii) the economies of scale arising from queuing would lead a planner to concentrate investment in large\, geographically dispersed megaports; (iv) macroeconomic volatility can drastically change returns to investment. \n\n\n\nWhether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. Room attendance is permitted for the Harvard community. The Zoom session is open to the public. \n\n\n\nSpeaker Bio: Theodore Papageorgiou’s recent research examines transportation markets\, their impact on global trade\, and the policies that can improve their efficiency and resilience. His work also analyzes the sources of disruptions and the optimal level of infrastructure investment. In addition\, he has investigated how occupations shape labor market outcomes\, the role of cities and firms in facilitating occupational matching\, and the role of learning in shaping firm performance. His research integrates insights and tools from labor economics\, macroeconomics\, spatial/urban economics\, and applied microeconomics more broadly. Read more >> \n\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/investment-in-infrastructure-and-trade-the-case-of-ports/ LOCATION:Wexner G02 CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Theodore-Papageorgiou-e1649542481465.webp END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251118T101500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251118T113000 DTSTAMP:20251113T194659Z CREATED:20251111T141551Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251113T194659Z UID:17196-1763460900-1763465400@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:In Search of a D-ESG Framework for Emerging Markets: What about Environment? DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nLourdes Casanova will discuss the expanded ESG framework\, highlighting how sustainable growth in emerging economies requires aligning development\, environmental\, social\, and governance goals within corporate and policy strategies. \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Lourdes Casanova\, Senior Lecturer of Management at the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Business\, Cornell University \n\n\n\nPaper Abstract: “The Imperative of Growth: A D-ESG Framework” proposes an expanded ESG perspective integrating Development as a central dimension. The framework highlights how sustainable growth in emerging economies requires aligning development\, environmental\, social\, and governance goals within corporate and policy strategies. The discussion connects to our shared work on industrial policy\, sustainability\, and inclusive growth. \n\n\n\nWhether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. Room attendance is permitted for the Harvard community. The Zoom session is open to the public. \n\n\n\nSpeaker Bio: Lourdes Casanova is the co-author (with Anne Miroux) of the Emerging Market Multinationals Report (2016–2024)\, co-editor of From Copycats to Leaders: Innovation from Emerging Markets (Cambridge University Press)\, and co-author of The Era of Chinese Multinationals and Entrepreneurship and the Finance of Innovation in Emerging Markets (Elsevier). She is also the author of Global Latinas: Latin America’s Emerging Multinationals (Palgrave Macmillan\, 2009). In addition\, she serves on the Global Future Council on the Future of Economic Growth at the World Economic Forum and is a Trustee of Canning House. Read More >> \n\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/in-search-of-a-d-esg-framework-for-emerging-markets-what-about-environment/ LOCATION:Perkins Room (R429) – Rubenstein 4th Floor CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/lourdes_casanova_lc683.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251202T101500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251202T113000 DTSTAMP:20251128T233402Z CREATED:20251128T232637Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251128T233402Z UID:17292-1764670500-1764675000@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:The Geographic and Sectoral Impact of Productivity DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nFederico Huneeus will discuss the geographic and sectoral impact of productivity changes and the local and aggregate impact of development policies\, the growth of the lithium industry\, and the closure of a major steel company. \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Federico Huneeus\, Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Duke University\, Senior Economist at the Central Bank of Chile \n\n\n\nPaper Abstract: We study the geographic and sectoral impact of productivity changes in a model that includes production linkages throughout the supply chain\, labor migration\, international and domestic trade\, congestion of fixed factors\, firm entry and exit\, and knowledge diffusion. To quantify these impacts\, we construct\, for the first time for Chile\, input-output matrices disaggregated by geography and sector\, consistent with national accounts\, using administrative data and surveys. We use the model to study the local and aggregate impact of development policies\, the growth of the lithium industry\, and the closure of a major steel company. In addition to aggregate impacts\, we identify winners and losers from these events. \n\n\n\nThis event is online only. Please register in advance. The Zoom session is open to the public. \n\n\n\nSpeaker Bio: Federico Huneeus is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Duke University. He is also a Senior Economist at the Central Bank of Chile. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale University Cowles Foundation. He has a PhD in economics from Princeton University. He is a trade economist who investigates issues related to firm behavior\, from a micro and macro perspective\, with a special focus on the study of production networks of firms\, how they are formed\, how they affect productivity growth and how they affect the impact of development policies. He also has a line of research on understanding equity-efficiency trade-offs. \n\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/17292/ CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Online,Speaker Series ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/IMG_0138.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260127T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260127T111500 DTSTAMP:20260126T155202Z CREATED:20260120T214205Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260126T155202Z UID:17420-1769508000-1769512500@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:The World is Not Flat: Persistence in the Hierarchy of Economic Complexity Across a Century DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nIn this Academic Research Seminar\, Gregor Semieniuk will discuss his paper “The World is Not Flat: Persistence in the Hierarchy of Economic Complexity Across a Century.” \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Gregor Semieniuk\, Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy and Department of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. \n\n\n\nThe speaker will be online but a viewing will be held in the Perkins Room (R-429). Room attendance is permitted for the Harvard community\, the Zoom session is open to the public. Whether attending in person or virtually\, please register  in advance. \n\n\n\nAuthors: Isabella M. Weber\, Gregor Semieniuk\, Junshang Liang\, Tom Westland \n\n\n\nPaper Abstract: To explain long-run cross-country differences in income\, most studies focus on persistent non-economic factors as drivers such as culture\, institutions and geography. In this paper\, we examine a more distinctly economic explanation: persistence in countries’ economic complexity. We construct a new global commodity-level export dataset from the peak of the ‘First Globalization’ prior to the First World War to analyze economic complexity across the first and the current waves of globalization. We show that economic complexity is highly persistent\, and a powerful predictor of national income across the world today even when controlling for historical institutions\, colonial status\, geography and when considering alternative measures of complexity. We exploit the switch from sailing to steamboat transport\, which had heterogenous effects on global trading costs to argue that the persistence is not driven by omitted variables. We further confirm the plausibility of persistence by explicitly testing the transmission mechanism of path-dependence in capabilities\, showing that when countries moved into new export lines\, they were more likely to move into products that were proximate to ones they already exported. \n\n\n\nSpeaker Bio: Gregor Semieniuk is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy and Department of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research focuses on structural change and economic development in the context of climate change and its mitigation\, and he often studies these problems through the lens of economic inequality. Gregor’s work has been published in 24 peer-reviewed articles including multiple times in Nature Climate Change and Nature Energy\, and four of them are among the top 1% cited in their field according to Web of Science. Gregor’s work is often mentioned in the media\, including the Financial Times\, Guardian\, Bloomberg and the Economist\, and he has advised international organizations and testified before the Senate’s Committee on the Budget. From 2023 to 2025\, Gregor worked as a Senior Climate Change Economist on staff at the World Bank\, providing technical leadership on decarbonization strategies and industrial policy for clean tech investments with a focus on Eastern Europe. Before joining UMass Amherst\, Gregor was a Lecturer (the UK’s assistant professor) in Economics at SOAS University of London. \n\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/the-world-is-not-flat-persistence-in-the-hierarchy-of-economic-complexity-across-a-century-2/ CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-20-at-1.08.12-PM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260203T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260203T111500 DTSTAMP:20260126T154913Z CREATED:20260121T174956Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260126T154913Z UID:17424-1770112800-1770117300@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Global Science Sustains U.S. Innovation DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nIn this Academic Research Seminar\, Chris Ross Esposito uncovers the structure of the U.S. knowledge supply chain by tracing multi-generational citation paths that connect NSF-funded research to downstream patents\, and assess its fragility by simulating barriers that impede the flow of scientific knowledge across the U.S. border. \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Christopher Ross Esposito\, Osborne Postdoctoral Fellow in the Strategy Unit at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management \n\n\n\nThe speaker will be online but a viewing will be held in the Perkins Room (R-429). Room attendance is permitted for the Harvard community\, the Zoom session is open to the public. Whether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. \n\n\n\nPaper Abstract: Like physical products\, new technologies are developed using globally sourced inputs. But while the supply chains behind physical goods are well understood\, we know far less about the international ”supply chain” of scientific knowledge that powers U.S. innovation—and how vulnerable it may be to disruption. Here\, I uncover the structure of the U.S. knowledge supply chain by tracing multi-generational citation paths that connect NSF-funded research to downstream patents\, and assess its fragility by simulating barriers that impede the flow of scientific knowledge across the U.S. border. The results reveal that U.S. innovation is deeply reliant on foreign science: 56% of the intermediary papers linking NSF research to patents are produced outside the United States. Cross-border restrictions reduce the connectivity of these paths\, increase their length\, and lower innovation productivity\, as measured by the U.S. patent-to-publication ratio. Most consequentially\, such restrictions strand promising knowledge trajectories outside the U.S.: I estimate there are 104\,149 NSF-stimulated paths currently under development outside the U.S. Under the status quo\, 67\,965 are projected to return to the U.S. for patenting. However\, under scientific autarky\, virtually none would\, representing a loss of approximately $10.7 billion in invested capital. These impacts also affect U.S. firms that are critical to national priorities\, including innovation\, energy\, and security. For example\, autarky reduces outstanding path capture at Microsoft\, ExxonMobil\, and Lockheed Martin by between 48% and 57%. \n\n\n\nSpeaker Bio: Chris Ross Esposito is the Osborne Postdoctoral Fellow in the Strategy Unit at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management\, where he is also associated with the Price Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Previously\, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago and completed a PhD at UCLA in Geography. Chris uses computational and econometric methods to examine key issues in scientific and technological innovation\, including the global dynamics and geopolitical consequences of China’s expanding leadership in science\, the drivers of the innovative capacities of cities\, and the effects of knowledge obsolescence on the organization of the innovation economy. While grounded in theoretical inquiry\, his research generates critical insights for organizational innovation strategy and public policy at the national and metropolitan levels. \n\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development.  \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/global-science-sustains-u-s-innovation/ LOCATION:Perkins Room (R-429) CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Headshot1x1-MediumSmall.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260210T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260210T111500 DTSTAMP:20260206T165338Z CREATED:20260206T165042Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260206T165338Z UID:17527-1770717600-1770722100@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Targeting Place-Based Policies for Canada's Low-Carbon Transformation DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nIn this Academic Research Seminar\, Jacob Greenspon will present his paper “Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Targeting Place-Based Policies for Canada’s Low-Carbon Transformation.” \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Jacob Greenspon\, Doctoral candidate in Economics\, University of Oxford and Research Manager\, HKS Reimagining the Economy Project \n\n\n\nWhether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. \n\n\n\nPaper Abstract: Negative labour demand shocks are often regionally concentrated. Policies that address their impacts are most effective and efficient when tailored to local circumstances. Using newly- assembled data on Canadian communities’ economic challenges and opportunities\, I analyze place-based policy targeting in response to workforce disruptions from GHG reductions. I first motivate and outline the goals of policies that aim to address local labour demand shocks. I next characterize the Canadian communities with workforces susceptible to GHG reduction efforts. I then analyze the suitability in each community of three broad policy responses based on regional characteristics and insights from prior literature. First\, to guide provision of income supports for early retirees\, I document large differences in the age profiles of susceptible local workforces. Second\, I argue retraining programs are most suitable for susceptible workers that have strong job transition opportunities and\, based on a newly-developed measure\, estimate substantial variation in the proportion of these workers across susceptible communities. Third\, I analyze nine domains related to challenges and opportunities for local job creation: high-speed broadband access; physical infrastructure; small business services and financing; higher-education attainment; childcare and housing availability; renewable energy generation; critical minerals production; and publicly-funded research. I assess the relative priority of interventions in each domain and identify four clusters of susceptible communities with similar priorities. I conclude with a discussion of how these results can be incorporated into collaborative federal and local policymaking processes. \n\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/beyond-one-size-fits-all-targeting-place-based-policies-for-canadas-low-carbon-transformation/ LOCATION:Perkins Room – R-429 Rubenstein 4th floor CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/5819-0960.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260414T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260414T130000 DTSTAMP:20260408T144425Z CREATED:20260407T172254Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260408T144425Z UID:17672-1776168000-1776171600@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Training in the Age of AI: A Theory of Career Viability DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nIn this Academic Research Seminar\, Luis Garicano will present his paper “Training in the Age of AI: A Theory of Career Viability.” \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Luis Garicano\, Professor of Public Policy\, London School of Economics \n\n\n\nAuthors: Luis Garicano & Luis Rayo \n\n\n\nPaper Abstract: Across the economy\, juniors pay for training by doing menial tasks. Al now performs an increasing share of that work\, putting the bargain at risk. We introduce Al into a dynamic career model with an automation threshold and possible complementarity for experts. The expertise leverage ratio\, measuring the output of a fully-trained graduate relative to that of a novice who has just enough knowledge to outperform Al\, governs the overall impact of the technology. Our central result is that careers are guaranteed viable\, in the sense that they are at least as profitable as they were before the arrival of Al\, when this ratio is above a critical threshold\, specifically Euler’s number e; in this case\, training has a fixed duration and the training path is not at risk. Below the threshold\, the senior’s sale-able knowledge shrinks and training compresses; in this case\, advances in Al threaten wholesale career collapse. \n\n\n\nWhether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. \n\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/training-in-the-age-of-ai-a-theory-of-career-viability/ CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/unnamed.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260430T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260430T113000 DTSTAMP:20260424T145138Z CREATED:20260424T144612Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260424T145138Z UID:17784-1777543200-1777548600@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Who Captures Knowledge Spillovers? Academic Mobility and the Geography of Scientific Inequality DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nIn this Academic Research Seminar\, Frank van der Wouden will present his paper\, co-authored by Zixuan Zhang\, “Who Captures Knowledge Spillovers? Academic Mobility and the Geography of Scientific Inequality.” \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Frank van der Wouden\, Assistant Professor of Economic Geography and Innovation Studies \n\n\n\nAuthors: Frank van der Wouden and Zixuan Zhang \n\n\n\nPaper Abstract: Does physical proximity still shape the flow of scientific ideas? And if it does\, who captures the spillovers? Using a matched panel of 52\,878 scholars tracked through OpenAlex from 1975 to 2024\, we estimate a heterogeneity-robust staggered difference-in-differences model with Coarsening Exact Matching on pre-move productivity and networks. When a scholar relocates\, the destination city’s share of their new-audience citations rises by 6.6 percentage points (SE = 0.002; p < 10⁻¹⁶). The probability that any previously unconnected local researcher cites them jumps by 24 percentage points. The effect is immediate\, persistent and survives a large number of robustness checks. Three findings stand out. First\, co-location redirects rather than creates scholarly attention. Total new-audience citations do not rise\, while non-destination citations fall. Second\, the citation boost also happens to papers the scholar had already written before moving (+0.24 pp; p < 10⁻⁵). This suggests that pure talent sorting is not driving this effect\, since what is on the page cannot change with the scholar’s address. Third\, the effect is markedly larger where the destination hosts more scholars in the mover’s own subfield and in elite academic hubs (ATT = 0.088 in Top-40 cities vs. 0.047 elsewhere). These findings have implications for academic recruitment and science policy. Hiring functions as a mechanism through which local communities gain access to a scholar’s existing knowledge. The returns do not depend on recruiting only the most elite. Yet\, because top academic hubs both capture larger spillovers per hire and absorb most mobile scholars\, the current pattern of academic hiring may deepen the gap between leading and peripheral cities. \n\n\n\nSpeaker Bio: Professor Frank van der Wouden is an Assistant Professor of Economic Geography and Innovation Studies at The University of Hong Kong. His work uses large-scale patent\, publication and mobility data to uncover how innovation travels across cities\, teams and individuals. He holds a PhD from UCLA and did a post-doctoral training at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.” \n\n\n\nWhether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. \n\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/who-captures-knowledge-spillovers-academic-mobility-and-the-geography-of-scientific-inequality/ LOCATION:W-G02 CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Frank_Portrait.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260922T093000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260922T104500 DTSTAMP:20260916T113922Z CREATED:20260915T155815Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260916T113922Z UID:19026-1790069400-1790073900@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Tradability and Goods' Prices: A Tale of Two Regions DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nIn this Academic Research seminar\, Joseba Martinez\, Assistant Professor of Economics at London Business School and a CEPR Research Affiliate\, will discuss his paper “Tradability and Goods’ Prices: A Tale of Two Regions.” \n\n\n\nPaper Abstract \n\n\n\nWe provide new evidence on manufacturing price inflation and the allocation of productivity gains by comparing US and EU industries from 1992 to 2017. Two patterns emerge. In tradable industries\, where global competition is strong\, prices have moved in lockstep across the Atlantic. In non-tradable industries\, relatively sheltered from foreign competition\, value-added deflators in the US have risen about four times faster than in Europe despite similar wages and industry compositions. The inflation differential is unrelated to compositional shifts\, and evident in narrowly defined product categories where unobserved quality differences are unlikely to matter. A decomposition attributes one-third of the differential to rising market power and two-thirds to slower productivity growth in US non-tradable manufacturing industries\, a pattern absent in tradable ones. Using variation in import penetration\, we find that greater trade exposure lowers prices and profit shares\, while competition policy remains crucial in non-tradable industries. \n\n\n\nSpeaker Bio \n\n\n\nJoseba Martinez is an Assistant Professor of Economics at London Business School and a CEPR Research Affiliate. His research studies how technology shapes productivity\, growth\, and the response of the economy to policy\, and how information asymmetry in financial markets affects investment and growth. Recent work examines the cost of the green energy transition when fossil-fuel-dependent capital cannot be easily repurposed\, the financial-market valuation of firms exposed to that transition\, the role of government-funded innovation in sustaining postwar U.S. growth\, the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy\, and the labour-market consequences of automation and AI. He has also developed natural-language methods on patent data to measure technical change and link it to aggregate productivity. His published research\, in Review of Economic Studies\, Journal of International Economics\, AEJ: Macroeconomics\, examines the design of bank stress tests\, capital-market integration in monetary unions\, and the role of technology diffusion and R&D in shaping business cycle dynamics. He teaches Macroeconomics to MBA and EMBA students and PhD Macroeconomics to doctoral candidates at London Business School. Beyond his academic role\, he has consulted for a New York-based investment fund and served as a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund. Dr Martinez brings substantial professional experience to his academic work. Before beginning his PhD\, he worked as a trader at ABN AMRO London and held the position of senior manager at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development\, where he developed expertise in financial markets that informs his current research and teaching. \n\n\n\nThe speaker will be virtual\, but you may join us in-person for a viewing in the Perkins Room (R-429). Whether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. \n\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/tradability-and-goods-prices-a-tale-of-two-regions/ LOCATION:Zoom CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Online ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/images.webp END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260929T093000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260929T104500 DTSTAMP:20260914T210513Z CREATED:20260914T210044Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260914T210513Z UID:19021-1790674200-1790678700@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:The Indian Innovation Puzzle DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this Academic Research Seminar\, Josh Lerner will present his paper\, co-authored by Namrata Kala and Junxi Liu “The Indian Innovation Puzzle.” \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Josh Lerner\, Jacob H. Schiff Professor at Harvard Business School and Co-Director of the HBS Private Capital Project. \n\n\n\nCo-Authors: Namrata Kala (MIT Sloan School of Management) and Junxi Liu (University of Warwick) \n\n\n\nPaper Abstract: Despite recent increases in some measures of innovation\, India continues to have very modest levels of domestic patenting\, contradicting standard views of the importance of property rights in economic development. Using a novel\, newly constructed dataset of Indian patent grants\, we explore why Indian patenting has been so low. We examine whether an absence of non-patented innovation\, differences in industry composition and public attitudes\, and a lack of public market reactions to patent awards can explain these differences\, and find only modest support for these explanations. We then show evidence of an institutional quality mechanism\, i.e.\, long delays in patent examination. We estimate the causal effects of reduced delays using a natural experiment. Specifically\, we show that a 2016 reform by IP India (the patent office) increased examination speeds for technology-office pairs that gained access to more same-field examiner capacity. In response\, the mixture of applicants shifted away from applicants with very low success rates and towards high-quality filers. This improved institutional capacity also enhanced other innovation outcomes\, boosting the financing of venture capital-backed firms. But the magnitude of these effects was modest\, closing just over one-tenth the patenting gap between India and other leading nations. This modest effect may reflect the implementation of the reform (a back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that high-quality patenting could have been increased by an additional 9 to 31 percent)\, as well as the uncertainty surrounding patent litigation. These results underscore the importance of institutional quality in facilitating innovation. \n\n\n\nSpeaker Bio: Josh Lerner is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor at Harvard Business School and Co-Director of the HBS Private Capital Project. Much of his research focuses on venture capital and private equity organizations and innovation policy. He has been recently recognized as among the forty most influential economists worldwide by ScholarGPS and research.com. \n\n\n\nHe has co-directed the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Productivity\, Innovation\, and Entrepreneurship Program since 2010 and serves as co-editor of their publication\, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy. He founded and runs the Private Capital Research Institute\, a nonprofit devoted to encouraging access to data and research and has been a frequent leader of and participant in the World Economic Forum projects and events. \n\n\n\nWhether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. \n\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/19021/ LOCATION:Perkins Room – R-429 Rubenstein 4th floor CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/josh_lerner_360.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260929T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260929T170000 DTSTAMP:20260930T184342Z CREATED:20260925T173113Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260930T184342Z UID:19116-1790697600-1790701200@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Why Europe’s AI Talent Strategy Needs a Local Layer DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn this Academic Research Seminar\, Casey Weston will present his paper “The Talent Will Not Be Centralized: Why Europe’s AI Talent Strategy Needs a Local Layer.” \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Casey Weston\, Senior Manager\, Public Policy and Economic Graph at LinkedIn \n\n\n\nPaper Abstract: Europe’s AI competitiveness debate is conducted largely at the national and EU level\, yet the AI engineering talent it depends upon develops and moves locally. Using LinkedIn data on AI Engineering Talent concentration\, growth\, and migration across 202 European market areas\, this note assesses where and how local AI talent ecosystems form across the EU\, and the extent to which that clustering may align with national AI talent strategies. At the local level\, we observe three methods through which cities accumulate AI talent: cultivating it through research infrastructure (e.g. Braga)\, attracting it through favorable national migration policy and dense employment opportunities (e.g. Munich\, Barcelona)\, and/or retaining it against wage and tax competition from higher-cost neighbors (e.g. Brno\, Wrocław). We find that the resulting AI ecosystems may or may not align with national strategic intentions: Poland’s domestic capacity-building strategy successfully generated broad-based local momentum\, but France’s research strength has not translated into comparable local growth\, and Czechia’s struggles to convert local demand into compounding hubs for its robust talent pipeline. We conclude that while EU and national AI infrastructure investments may be necessary for AI sovereignty\, they are insufficient to realize the desired economic returns from the AI transition; converting these investments into durable economic benefit requires deliberately paired localized talent strategies. \n\n\n\nWhether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. \n\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/why-europes-ai-talent-strategy-needs-a-local-layer/ LOCATION:HYBRID WEXNER W-102\, HKS / Zoom CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Casey-Weston-LinkedIn-EnergyNow-SDG7-24Sep2025-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261013T093000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261013T104500 DTSTAMP:20261008T084631Z CREATED:20261006T190647Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261008T084631Z UID:19189-1791883800-1791888300@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:From Disaster to Discovery: The Regional Scientific Response to Katrina Hurricane Season DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nIn this Academic Research Seminar\, Salvatore Viola will present his paper “From Disaster to Discovery: The Regional Scientific Response to Katrina Hurricane Season.” The paper is co-authored by Ernest Miguelez and Rosina Moreno. \n\n\n\nPaper Abstract: This paper investigates how natural disasters shape the direction of science. Treating the 2005 U.S. hurricane season\, and Hurricane Katrina in particular\, as an exogenous shock\, we estimate its effects on regional scientific output and on specialization in hurricane- and climate change-related research. We assign OpenAlex publication data to U.S. Core-Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) and identify affected regions using housing damage reports. Difference-in-differences estimates show that affected regions were 14.9 percentage points more likely to specialize in hurricane-related research. This effect persisted for around six years post-disaster and occurred despite muted effects in climate change-related science and an overall decline in scientific output. Exploratory analyses suggest the effect was stronger in regions with higher pre-disaster relatedness density\, and that collaborations between affected and unaffected regions helped support scientific activity in affected areas. Our findings offer new evidence on the directional response of science to climate-related natural disasters. They also suggest that building research capacity around specific regional vulnerabilities\, supported by sustained funding\, may strengthen regional scientific resilience. \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Salvatore Viola\, PhD student in Economics at the University of Barcelona \n\n\n\nSpeaker Bio: Salvatore Viola is a PhD student in Economics at the University of Barcelona\, where he is affiliated with the Regional Quantitative Analysis Group (AQR-IREA). He works under the supervision of Rosina Moreno and Ernest Miguélez. His research interests include the geography of innovation\, the economics of science\, and high-skilled migration. His current work examines how migrant inventors spur regional diversification into green technologies and how natural disasters influence the direction of scientific research. He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MSc in Economics from the University of Barcelona. \n\n\n\nWhether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. \n\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/from-disaster-to-discovery-the-regional-scientific-response-to-katrina-hurricane-season/ LOCATION:Perkins Room – R-429 Rubenstein 4th floor CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/2.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261027T093000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261027T104500 DTSTAMP:20261022T131851Z CREATED:20261022T131252Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261022T131851Z UID:19259-1793093400-1793097900@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:The Effects of U.S. Public R&D on Global Growth DESCRIPTION:Academic Research Seminars Hybrid\n\n\nIn this Academic Research Seminar Ishan Nath will discuss his paper “The Effects of U.S. Public R&D on Global Growth” co-authored with Gustavo De Souza\, Andrew Fieldhouse\, Karel Mertens\, and Valerie Ramey. \n\n\n\nSpeaker: Ishan Nath\, Assistant Professor of Public Policy\, Faculty Associate of the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability \n\n\n\nAbstract: This paper provides the first causal estimates of the global social returns to U.S. public R&D. We use a narrative identification strategy to quantify the effects of exogenous shocks to U.S. R&D appropriations on the dynamic TFP response of 69 foreign economies from 1980–2019. A U.S. R&D appropriations shock equal to 1 percent of the federal R&D capital stock raises foreign TFP by approximately 1 percent after 12 years. This response is driven primarily by nondefense rather than defense R&D and is concentrated in non-OECD economies. These patterns are most consistent with diffusion occurring through openly accessible scientific content\, capital-embodied trade\, and technological leapfrogging by economies further from the global frontier. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the global social returns to U.S. public non-defense R&D are roughly twice as large as the domestic returns\, meaning the U.S. captures about half of these productivity benefits. When he is not thinking about economics\, Ishan can be found playing\, watching\, or talking about basketball.  \n\n\n\nSpeaker Bio: Ishan Nath is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a Faculty Associate of the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. His research focuses broadly on climate change\, international trade\, and the macroeconomics of development. He currently serves as an associate editor of the Journal of International Economics and the Review of Economics and Statistics\, and Research Director for Climate and the Environment at the International Growth Centre. Prior to joining Harvard\, Ishan worked as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and completed postdoctoral fellowships with the Climate Impact Lab at the University of Chicago and in the International Economics section at Princeton University. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago\, an MPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford\, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar\, and a B.A. in Economics and B.S. in Earth Systems from Stanford University. When he is not thinking about economics\, Ishan can be found playing\, watching\, or talking about basketball.  \n\n\n\nWhether attending in person or virtually\, please register in advance. \n\n\n\nThe Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n Share URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/the-effects-of-u-s-public-rd-on-global-growth/ LOCATION:Perkins Room (R429) – Rubenstein 4th Floor CATEGORIES:Academic Research Seminars,Hybrid ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/M.png END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR