BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Growth Lab - ECPv6.15.20//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:20170312T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20171105T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20180311T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20181104T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20190310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20191103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20200308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20201101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20210314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20211107T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20220313T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20221106T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20230312T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20231105T060000 END:STANDARD 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 END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20181116T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20181116T140000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20180815T190800Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T175425Z UID:14849-1542373200-1542376800@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:CID Speaker Series: New Pathways to Inclusive Growth: Sri Lanka Project in Retrospect DESCRIPTION:Speakers: Daniel Stock\, Research Fellow\, CID; Timothy O’Brien\, Research Fellow\, CID; Sehar Noor\, Research Assistant\, CID About the talk: Starting in November 2015\, the Center for International Development’s Growth Lab has been engaged in economic policy research with the Government of Sri Lanka. Led by Professor Ricardo Hausmann\, the team has focused on a single question: what is holding back investment in Sri Lanka – especially in new and non-traditional export-oriented sectors – and what can the government do about it? In this talk\, members of the Sri Lanka team will show what they learned. First\, a lack of new economic “knowhow” has meant that there are few easy opportunities for innovative investors to exploit. Next\, the investors who do arrive find significant roadblocks to their success; these include policy barriers to reaching markets and key inputs\, and infrastructural gaps at the regional level. As these challenges became clear\, the team partnered with key counterparts in the government and civil society to support potential solutions\, and to better understand the deeper institutional gaps that prevent proactive policymaking. About the speakers: Daniel Stock rejoined the Center for International Development’s Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2015. He also held this position from 2011-2013. He studies how countries apply proactive strategies to promote structural transformation. His research focuses on using network models to uncover new opportunities for diversifying exports and attracting new sources of investment. Prior to joining CID\, Daniel was a Junior Professional Associate at the World Bank\, working with governments to improve the investment climate for local businesses and FDI. Daniel has also worked as a researcher at the MIT Media Lab’s Macro Connections group\, and a Research Intern at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Santiago\, Chile. Daniel earned a B.S. in Quantitative Economics and International Relations from Tufts University.  Tim O’Brien joined the Center for International Development in 2015\, working on both Growth Lab and Building State Capability projects.He has led growth diagnostic research in Albania and Sri Lanka. Tim holds a Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) degree from the Harvard Kennedy School and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University. Tim served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi from 2008-2010 and has experience working with the World Bank and in environmental engineering. Tim’s research interests center on the challenges of economic transformation and adapting to climate change in developing countries and vulnerable communities. Sehar Noor is a Research Assistant at the Center for International Development’s Growth Lab. Sehar graduated from Rollins College in May 2016 with honors in Economics and International Affairs. While at Rollins\, she served as captain of the debate team\, and studied abroad in Cuba and China. Her previous experience includes conducting fieldwork in disaster relief camps as an intern for the Aga Khan Rural Support Program in Gilgit\, Pakistan\, and interning with the Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Unit of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Islamabad\, Pakistan.       URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/cid-speaker-series-new-pathways-to-inclusive-growth-sri-lanka-project-in-retrospect/ LOCATION:Democracy Lab AB (R414 AB) – Rubenstein 4th Floor CATEGORIES:Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20181130T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20181130T140000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20180815T190900Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T175425Z UID:14835-1543582800-1543586400@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:CID Speaker Series: Cash Transfer Programs in Developing Countries: Insights from Indonesia DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Aaron Berman\, Research Fellow\, Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) About the talk: In this talk\, Aaron Berman will present an overview of EPoD’s research on cash transfers in developing countries\, led by Professors Rema Hanna (HKS) and Ben Olken (MIT). He will focus in particular on two research projects. The first\, “Universal Basic Incomes versus Targeted Transfers: Anti-Poverty Programs in Developing Countries\,” explores several considerations related to the design and implementation of cash transfer programs and weighs the advantages of targeted programs against universal basic income schemes. The second\, “Cumulative Impacts of Conditional Cash Transfers: Experimental Evidence from Indonesia\,” evaluates a large-scale policy experiment involving Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH)\, Indonesia’s conditional cash transfer program\, six years after the program’s launch. In this paper\, Hanna\, Olken\, and co-authors show that the conditional cash transfer continues to have large impacts on incentivized health-seeking behaviors and educational attainment for children ages 7 to 15. Additionally\, the program has had longer-term impacts on health outcomes\, such as stunting\, that may require cumulative investments. This project contributes to a relatively new body of knowledge on the long-term impacts of conditional cash transfer programs\, which have previously been difficult to estimate. About the speaker: Aaron Berman is a research fellow at Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) at Harvard Kennedy School\, where he supports the research portfolio of Rema Hanna\, Jeffrey Cheah Professor of South-East Asia Studies. He has spent his time at EPoD studying the implementation and impacts of various anti-poverty programs in Indonesia and India. Aaron’s research interests focus on the intersection between economics\, public health\, and medicine. He has previously worked on projects related to Ebola response in Liberia as well as on state-level drug pricing legislation in the US. He holds a BA from Yale University and an MPH from the Yale School of Public Health. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/cid-speaker-series-cash-transfer-programs-in-developing-countries-insights-from-indonesia/ LOCATION:Perkins Room (R429) – Rubenstein Building 4th floor CATEGORIES:Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190215T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190215T140000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20190115T002300Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250909T235407Z UID:14978-1550235600-1550239200@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Preventing Violence in Developing (and Developed) Countries DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Leslee Udwin\, Founder & President\, Think Equal About the Speaker: Leslee was voted by the NY Times the No 2 Most Impactful Woman of 2015 (second to Hillary Clinton)\, and has been awarded the prestigious Swedish Anna Lindh Human Rights Prize (previously won by Madeleine Albright). She has also been named Safe’s Global Hero of 2015\, Global Thinker by Foreign Policy. A BAFTA and multi-award winning filmmaker and Human Rights Campaigner\, Leslee’s documentary “India’s Daughter”\, has been critically acclaimed around the globe\, won 32 awards (including the Peabody Award and the Amnesty International Media Award for Best Documentary 2016) and sparked a global movement to end violence against women and girls. The searing insights yielded by the 2½ journey making “India’s Daughter”\, led Leslee to found UK-and-US-based Not for Profit global education initiative “Think Equal”. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/preventing-violence-in-developing-and-developed-countries/ LOCATION:Democracy Lab (R414 AB)\, Rubenstein Building 4th floor\, HKS CATEGORIES:Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190222T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190222T140000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20190115T002500Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T175426Z UID:15060-1550840400-1550844000@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Syria: The Catastrophe DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Rt Hon. Andrew Mitchell\, British MP and Former Secretary of State for International Development About the Speaker: Rt Hon. Andrew Mitchell is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sutton Coldfield since 2001. He was the MP for Gedling from 1987 to 1997. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development from 2010 to 2012. Mitchell was elected President of the Cambridge Union in 1978. Before university\, he served for several months as a United Nations military peacekeeper in Cyprus. He has extensive pre-government experience of the developing world\, and is the founder of Project Umubano\, a Conservative Party social action project in Rwanda and Sierra Leone in central and west Africa\, launched in 2007. Mitchell was returned as MP for Sutton Coldfield at the 2017 general election\, with a reduced majority. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/syria-the-catastrophe/ LOCATION:Democracy Lab (R414 AB)\, Rubenstein Building 4th floor\, HKS CATEGORIES:Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190301T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190301T140000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20190115T001800Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T175426Z UID:14967-1551445200-1551448800@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:PDIA in Action: Challenges & Experiences DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Salimah Samji\, Director of the Building State Capability program at CID About the talk: Building State Capability (BSC) program uses the Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) approach to help organizations develop the capability to solve complex problems and to implement public policies. PDIA is a process of facilitated emergence which focuses on problems (not solutions) and follows a step by step process (not a rigid plan) that allows for flexible learning and adaptation. In this seminar\, Salimah will discuss the challenges and experiences BSC has faced when implementing PDIA in-the-field. She will draw on examples from BSC’s work in Albania and Sri Lanka\, and talk about the recent launch of the PDIAToolkit\, a Do-it-Yourself kit for teams to use when solving complex problems. About the Speaker: Salimah Samji is the Director of Building State Capability (BSC). She has more than 15 years of experience working in international development on the delivery of public services\, transparency and accountability\, strategic planning\, monitoring\, evaluation and learning. She joined CID in 2012 to help create the BSC program. Today\, she is responsible for providing vision\, strategic leadership\, oversight and managing projects and research initiatives. Salimah also leads BSC’s work on digital learning. Before joining CID\, she was an independent consultant working for the World Bank on issues of governance\, and the Hewlett Foundation on strategic planning for one of their grantees. She has worked as a senior program manager at Google.org\, leading a transparency and accountability initiative focused on empowering citizens and decision-makers\, by making information on service delivery outcomes publicly available. Salimah has also worked at the World Bank as a social/rural development and monitoring and evaluation specialist in South Asia. She has a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo (Canada) and a Masters in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School. She is a qualified Casualty Actuary who changed careers after working for 18 months in Afghan refugee camps with a Canadian NGO (FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance) based in Pakistan. Salimah has worked and lived in Kenya\, India\, Pakistan\, Tajikistan\, Canada and the USA.     URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/pdia-in-action-challenges-experiences/ LOCATION:Democracy Lab (R414AB)\, Rubenstein Building 4th Floor\, HKS CATEGORIES:Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190308T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190308T140000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20190115T002700Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T175426Z UID:15070-1552050000-1552053600@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:The Promises and Pitfalls of Philanthropy in International Development DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Nageeb Sumar\, Vice President\, Philanthropic Strategies & Relationship Management Private Donor Group\, Fidelity Charitable About the talk: Private global philanthropy is on the rise\, which has resulted in a shift in the stakeholders involved in influencing international development policy and practice. During this talk\, Nageeb Sumar will review trends in philanthropy- both with private foundations and individual donors- and present reflections on how these shifts are affecting issues in global health and development. He will touch on his recent experience at the Gates Foundation\, as well as his current role at Fidelity Charitable to consider the appropriate role that philanthropy will play in the decades ahead to shape international development. About the Speaker: Nageeb Sumar joined Fidelity Charitable in 2018 as a member of the Private Donor Group team. In his current role\, Nageeb helps Fidelity Charitable’s most generous donors develop innovative solutions in catalyzing social change in the United States and around the world. Prior to joining Fidelity Charitable\, he served in a leadership role at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for nine years\, overseeing the foundation’s work on policy\, systems\, and innovation in philanthropy. He also led and oversaw the Gates Foundation’s partnership with various governments in the U.S.\, Canada\, and Asia-Pacific region. Nageeb holds a law degree from McGill Law School\, a master’s degree in international finance from Queen’s University School of Business\, and bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Urban and Regional Planning from Cornell University. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/the-promises-and-pitfalls-of-philanthropy-in-international-development/ LOCATION:Democracy Lab (R414 AB)\, Rubenstein Building 4th floor\, HKS CATEGORIES:Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190329T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190329T130000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20190115T003300Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250909T235355Z UID:15061-1553860800-1553864400@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Tackling Poverty Through Diplomacy and Development DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Fatema Z. Sumar\, Vice President of Global Programs\, OXFAM America About the talk: At a time when 65 million people are displaced from their homes and more than 800 million people go to bed hungry every night\, how can we make a real difference in tackling poverty & social injustices? During this talk\, Fatema will draw on her experiences as a diplomat and development leader and offer case “samples” from her experiences working in the U.S. Senate\, the U.S. State Department\, the Millennium Challenge Corporation\, and Oxfam America. We will explore different pathways to sustainable change – and how where you sit can define how you approach development. About the Speaker: Fatema Z. Sumar joined Oxfam America in 2018 as Vice President of Global Programs\, where she oversees our regional development and humanitarian response programs. Fatema comes to Oxfam with a distinguished career in the U.S. government\, leading U.S. efforts to advance sustainable development and economic policy in emerging markets and fragile countries. Most recently\, she served as Regional Deputy Vice President for Europe\, Asia\, Pacific\, and Latin America at the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)\, where she managed investments focused on international growth and poverty reduction. Prior to MCC\, she served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia at the U.S. Department of State and as a Senior Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Fatema holds a Master’s in Public Affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Cornell University. She studied abroad at the American University in Cairo. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/tackling-poverty-through-diplomacy-and-development/ LOCATION:Bell Hall (B500)\, Belfer Building 5th floor\, HKS CATEGORIES:Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190405T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190405T130000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20190115T003400Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T175426Z UID:14927-1554465600-1554469200@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Improving Smallholder Farmers’ Livelihoods through Mobile Phone-Based Agricultural Advice DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jonathan Lehe MPA/ID ’17\, Director of New Programs\, Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD) About the talk: The majority of the world’s 450 million smallholder farmers and the 2 billion people who depend on them live in rural villages in developing countries\, growing crops at close to subsistence levels to feed their families. Smallholders typically harvest only 30% to 50% of potential yields due to suboptimal farming practices in quickly changing contexts. Small changes in agricultural practices can substantially improve productivity and profitability\, but farmers continue to lack the advice they need to close the yield gap and maximize their incomes\, despite significant budgets spent on traditional in-person agricultural extension programs. However\, mobile phone ownership is 50 to 70% in developing countries\, and access to mobile phones is even higher—typically 70 to 90%—presenting a huge opportunity to provide digital agricultural advisory services. In addition to technological advances\, recent advances in research methods can also be leveraged to improve the delivery of agricultural extension\, including behavioral economics\, big data and machine learning techniques\, A/B testing\, and rigorous evaluation techniques. Jonathan Lehe\, Director of New Programs at Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD)\, will discuss how the organization is working to improve the lives of farmers in developing countries. About the Speaker: Jonathan Lehe is PAD’s Global Research Manager. Mr. Lehe holds a Masters in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School. He has more than 10 years of experience in the global health and education sectors\, managing research projects and implementation of programs to scale up access to critical public services in Africa\, Asia\, and the Caribbean. He has previously worked at the Clinton Health Access Initiative\, and consulted for the World Bank\, Bridge International Academies\, and MIT’s Jameel Poverty Action Lab.  URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/improving-smallholder-farmers-livelihoods-through-mobile-phone-based-agricultural-advice/ LOCATION:Perkins Room (R429)\, Rubenstein Building 4th floor\, HKS CATEGORIES:Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190412T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190412T130000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20190115T003500Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T175426Z UID:14920-1555070400-1555074000@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Hard Data: Adventures in Evidence Collection DESCRIPTION:Speakers: Charity Moore\, India Research DirectorSonya Suter\, Senior Program Manager About the Speakers:Charity Moore: Charity Troyer Moore is the India Research Director for Evidence for Policy Design at the Harvard Kennedy School. She leads research-policy engagements with a variety of entities in India to ensure that research is attuned to the problems facing policymakers and integrated into policy design and program implementation. Charity’s research examines how to use technology to improve public service delivery and governance; the drivers and potential solutions to India’s low female labor force participation; land rights; and social protection programs. She holds an M.A. in Economics and Ph.D. in Agricultural\, Environmental\, and Development Economics.Sonya Suter: Sonya Suter is a Senior Program Manager at Evidence for Policy Design where she oversees the management of Rohini Pande’s research portfolio in India\, including a range of projects on environment\, gender\, governance\, and financial inclusion. Prior to joining EPoD\, Sonya was the Special Assistant to the Managing Director at the World Resources Institute\, where she supported the organization’s management team\, expansion through international offices\, and engagement on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals among other projects. Sonya also worked as a Research Assistant at ICF International on land use and transportation policy and has worked on research projects in Rwanda and Tanzania. Sonya holds an MPA from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a BA in environmental policy from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. About the Talk: Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) is a policy research initiative based at Harvard Kennedy School and working around the globe to improve lives by designing and enabling better policy. In India\, we collaborate on research-policy engagements focused on governance\, environmental and energy issues\, financial inclusion\, and gender equality – using theory\, economic frameworks\, and evidence to identify effective policies\, and help build capacity to implement them. However\, whether studying barriers to women’s economic empowerment\, implementation of social welfare programs\, or uptake of clean cookstoves\, often the real thing we want to measure (social norms\, time use\, or even real-time air quality) is elusive –because measurement itself is complex\, institutions are not set up for research collaborations\, or both. In this seminar\, Charity and Sonya will share experiences\, lessons\, and innovations in data collection from EPoD’s work in India. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/hard-data-adventures-in-evidence-collection/ LOCATION:Bell Hall (B500)\, Belfer Building 5th floor\, HKS CATEGORIES:Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190419T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190419T130000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20190115T005700Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T175426Z UID:14901-1555675200-1555678800@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Empowering Women in South Asia’s Slums: The Challenges of Environmental Degradation DESCRIPTION:Speakers: Amit Patel\, Assistant Professor\, McCormack Graduate School for Policy and Global Studies\, University of Massachusetts BostonAmmar Malik\, Director\, EPoD Research About the Talk: Environmental degradation reduces the environmental capacity to meet social and ecological needs of societies\, which is exacerbated by natural hazards and extreme climate events\, and often intensify existing vulnerabilities. Marginalized groups in cities\, particularly women and poor\, are disproportionately at risk to face negative consequences of such environmental stressors. To better understand relationship between women empowerment and environmental degradation in cities\, we surveyed 1\,199 households in 12 informal settlements of New Delhi (India)\, Dhaka (Bangladesh)\, and Islamabad and Lahore (Pakistan). Using this data\, we created the Empowerment in Informal Settlements Index (EISI) and the Women’s Empowerment in Informal Settlements Index (WEISI) that systematically measure men’s and women’s empowerment. We found that women were significantly less empowered than their male counterparts in all three countries\, with widest gaps in Pakistan. We tested several linkages between empowerment and measures of environmental degradation using regression analyses and found many significant associations.  How Climate Change and Environmental Degredation Hurts Women More Than Men in Slums of South Asia (Policy Brief) About the Speakers:Amit Patel\, PhD: Amit Patel is Assistant Professor at University of Massachusetts Boston’s McCormack Graduate School for Policy and Global Studies. Amit’s research focuses on bottom-up approaches to improve socio-economic outcomes for urban poor. His main research projects funded by the National Science Foundation\, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation\, Urban Institute\, and the World Bank focus on housing and health disparities concerning urban poor living in slums in the Global South. He regularly teaches courses on public policy theories\, urban politics and policies\, and advanced quantitative methods. Amit has a PhD in public policy from George Mason University and prior training in management\, urban and regional planning\, and architecture. When he is not in the field or in front of the computer\, you will find him behind the camera.Ammar Malik: Ammar A. Malik is the Director of EPoD Research. He leads research-policy engagements that derive actionable policy insights from rigorous research. He oversees EPoD’s labor market and education research portfolios in the Middle East\, identifying and supporting opportunities for data and economic analysis to inform local policies that empower underrepresented groups and support social and economic development. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/empowering-women-in-south-asias-slums-the-challenges-of-environmental-degradation/ LOCATION:Democracy Lab (R414 AB)\, Rubenstein Building 4th floor\, HKS CATEGORIES:Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190426T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190426T130000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20190115T010100Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250909T235349Z UID:15069-1556280000-1556283600@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America. DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Andrés Reséndez\, Professor\, Department of History at University of California Davis; Author\, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America. About the talk: The Other Slavery examines the system of bondage that targeted Native Americans\, a system that was every bit as terrible\, degrading\, and vast as African slavery. Anywhere between 2.5 and 5 million Native Americans may have been enslaved throughout the hemisphere in the centuries between the arrival of Columbus and the beginning of the 20th century.  And\, interestingly\, in contrast to African slavery which targeted mostly adult males\, the majority of these Indian slaves were women and children. About the Speaker: Andrés Reséndez is a professor of history and author. His specialties are early European exploration and colonization of the Americas\, the U.S-Mexico border region\, and the early history of the Pacific Ocean. His latest book\, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt\, 2016)\, was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award and winner of the 2017 California Book Awards in nonfiction and the 2017 Bancroft Prize from Columbia University. He teaches courses on food and history\, Latin America\, and Mexico. He is currently working on a new book provisionally titled Conquering the Pacific: The Story of How a Mulatto Pilot and a Friar-Mariner Learned to Navigate the Largest Ocean and Launched our Global World. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/the-other-slavery-the-uncovered-story-of-indian-enslavement-in-america/ LOCATION:Democracy Lab (R414 AB)\, Rubenstein Building 4th floor\, HKS CATEGORIES:Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20191018T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20191018T130000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20191011T185000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T175428Z UID:14906-1571400000-1571403600@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Female Labor in Jordan: A Systematic Approach to the Exclusion Puzzle DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Semiray Kasoolu\, Research Fellow\, Growth Lab About the Talk: Women in Jordan are excluded from labor market opportunities at among the highest rates in the world. Previous efforts to explain this outcome have focused on specific\, isolated aspects of the problem and have not explained its persistence. After a careful review of the available literature and key stakeholder interviews in Jordan\, we develop a comprehensive framework to analyze the causes of low female employment rates and systematically test their validity. We find that the nature of low female inclusion in Jordan’s labor market varies significantly with educational attainment\, and identify evidence for different factors affecting different educational groups. Among women with high school education or less\, we report extremely low participation levels and find the strongest evidence for this phenomena tracing to traditional social norms and poor public transportation. Among university graduates and above\, we find that the problem is not one of participation but rather unemployment\, which we trace to a problem of a small and undiversified private sector that is unable to accommodate women’s needs for work and family balance. About the Speaker: Semiray Kasoolu has been a Research Fellow at the Center for International Development’s Growth Lab since 2017. Her research areas include labor markets and gender and growth diagnostics. She works in projects in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Prior to joining CID\, she worked with the World SME Forum in the Republic of Georgia to diagnose constraints to the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises and as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. Semiray holds a Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID\, 2017) from the Harvard Kennedy School. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/female-labor-in-jordan-a-systematic-approach-to-the-exclusion-puzzle/ LOCATION:Rubenstein 414\, HKS CATEGORIES:Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200306T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200306T140000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20200218T210800Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T175428Z UID:15083-1583499600-1583503200@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:You Get What You Pay For: Sources and Consequences of the Public Sector Premium in Albania and Sri Lanka DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Ljubica Nedelkoska\, Postdoctoral Fellow\, Growth Lab About the Talk: We study the factors behind the public sector premium in Albania and Sri Lanka\, the group heterogeneity in the premium\, the sources of public sector wage compression\, and the impact of this compression on the way individuals self-select between the public and the private sector. Similar to other countries\, the public sectors in Albania and Sri Lanka pay higher wages than the private sector\, for all but the most valued employees. While half of the premium of Sri Lanka and two-thirds of it in Albania are explained by differences in the occupation-education-experience mix between the sectors\, and the level of private sector informality\, the unexplained part of the premium is significant enough to affect the preferences of working in the public sector for different groups. We show that the compressed distributions of public sector wages and benefits create incentives for positive sorting into the public sector among most employees\, and negative sorting among the most productive ones. Work co-authored with Ricardo Hausmann and Sehar Noor. URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/you-get-what-you-pay-for-sources-and-consequences-of-the-public-sector-premium-in-albania-and-sri-lanka/ LOCATION:Bell Hall (B500)\, Belfer Building 5th floor\, HKS CATEGORIES:Growth Lab,Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231129T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231129T121500 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20231124T214700Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250908T230107Z UID:14998-1701255600-1701260100@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:Research Seminar: Anticipating Climate Change Across the United States\, with E. Rossi-Hansberg 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: Adrien Bilal – Harvard University Register: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ORfldxS0QwaTky5BhjVUsw Website: https://sites.google.com/site/adrienbilal/ Paper: NBER Working Paper 31323 -https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31323/w31323.pdf Abstract: We evaluate how anticipation and adaptation shape the aggregate and local costs of climate change. We develop a dynamic spatial model of the U.S. economy and its 3\,143 counties that features costly forward-looking migration and capital investment decisions. Recent methodological advances that leverage the ‘Master Equation’ representation of the economy make the model tractable. We estimate the county-level impact of severe storms and heat waves over the 20th century on local income\, population\, and investment. The estimated impact of storms matches that of capital depreciation shocks in the model\, while heat waves resemble combined amenity and productivity shocks. We then estimate migration and investment elasticities\, as well as the structural damage functions\, by matching these reduced-form results in our framework. Our findings show\, first\, that the impact of climate on capital depreciation magnifies the U.S. aggregate welfare costs of climate change twofold to nearly 5% in 2023 under a business-as-usual warming scenario. Second\, anticipation of future climate damages amplifies climate-induced worker and investment mobility\, as workers and capitalists foresee the slow build-up of climate change. Third\, migration reduces substantially the spatial variance in the welfare impact of climate change. Although both anticipation and migration are important for local impacts\, their effect on aggregate U.S. losses from climate change is small. Speaker Bio: Adrien Bilal is a macroeconomist with interests in labor and spatial economics. Adrien received his PhD in Economics from Princeton University. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Economics at the department of Economics at Harvard University and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Becker-Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago.  URL:https://growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/research-seminar-anticipating-climate-change-across-the-united-states-with-e-rossi-hansberg/ LOCATION:HYBRID Weil Hall (Belfer L1) / Zoom CATEGORIES:Speaker Series END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251202T101500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251202T113000 DTSTAMP:20260507T065747 CREATED:20251128T232637Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251128T233402Z UID:17292-1764670500-1764675000@growthlab.hks.harvard.edu SUMMARY:The Geographic and Sectoral Impact of Productivity DESCRIPTION:Speaker Series\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 END:VCALENDAR