Kyle Soeltz
Kyle Soeltz is a Front-end developer and works on the Growth Lab’s Atlas of International Complexity. He is passionate about building great user interfaces and supports the Atlas with new features and improvements. Prior to joining CID, he built and designed front-end systems at Motivis Learning, an education software startup looking to help revolutionize the way our country learns. He also worked at COMSOL Multiphysics, a physics simulation software company where he built tools and resources for the engineers that use the product.
In between his time at Motivis and his start at CID, Kyle spent nearly 6 months hiking from Mexico to Canada along the Pacific Crest Trail. While on the trail, he promoted his trip online and used it to raise money for mental health research and trail conservation efforts.
Kyle holds a degree in Graphic Design and a minor in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, climbing, cooking, and creating side projects.
Ibrahim Hassen
Ibrahim Worku Hassen joined the Center for International Development’s (CID) Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2019.
Before joining CID, Ibrahim worked for the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) as Consultant and Research Assistant, where he worked on a number of national projects. To name a few, the Feed the Future (FtF), the Agricultural Growth Program (AGP), the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) and others. Before joining IFPRI, Ibrahim taught microeconomics and statistics courses as part-time lecturer at Department of Economics, Addis Ababa University. Ibrahim also has consultancy work experience with the World Bank. Recently, he was a teaching fellow (TF) for Policy Analysis and Design and Math camp at Harvard Kennedy School. Ibrahim was an intern at UNECA analyzing child poverty on middle income countries.
Ibrahim authored/co-authored journals and book chapters on a number of development issues: diet transformation in Africa, seasonality and household diets, demand for animal sourced foods, demand elasticity of livestock products, book chapter on ‘Teff’ consumption pattern, the link between economic growth and road transport in Ethiopia, wages and food price inflation, determinants of primary commodity export in Africa and others.
His recent research interest focuses on analysis of growth diagnostics, complexity analysis and diverse development issues: agricultural productivity, poverty, consumption and nutrition analysis.
Ibrahim holds BA in Economics from Addis Ababa University and double masters in Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School and Masters in Economic Analysis from Addis Ababa University.
Yang Li
Yang LI joined the Center for International Development’s Growth Lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 2019.
His research focuses on the patterns, processes, and sustainability of industrial development in cities. By integrating the view of economic complexity and industrial ecology, he aims to understand the diversification of industries in cities, measure the environmental impact of diversification through changes of material and energy flows, and investigate the sustainable pathways of industrial development, especially for cities in developing countries.
He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering (2019) and a Bachelor degree in Environmental Engineering (2012), both from Tsinghua University, China.
Eduardo Levy Yeyati
Eduardo Levy Yeyati is the Dean of School of Government at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, and the founding Director of the Center for Evidence-Based Policy (CEPE-Di Tella). He is also a Principal Researcher at Argentina´s CONICET, a consulting member of CARI (Argentina´s top think tank), a Faculty Associate at Harvard’s Growth Lab, and a member of the Editorial Board of AS/COA’s Americas Quarterly.
In the past, Eduardo was senior adviser to the Office of the Chief of Staff in Argentina and Director of Argentina 2030 (Argentina´s Presidential program for long-term strategic thinking), Director at the Bank of Investment and Trade Credit (BICE), Head of Latin American Research and Emerging Markets Strategy at Barclays Capital, Senior Financial Sector Adviser for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank, and Chief Economist and Monetary and Financial Policy Manager of the Central Bank of Argentina. He was also the founding President of the National Council of Production, and President of CIPPEC (an Argentine think tank).
Eduardo is the top ranked economic researcher in Argentina according to rankings in RePEc and Google Scholar. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BSc in Engineering from Universidad de Buenos Aires.
James McNerney
James McNerney is a senior researcher at the Growth Lab in the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He joined the team in 2018.
His research interests lie at the intersection of economic and physical systems with a particular focus on the dynamics of technologies. His research examines the processes by which technologies evolve and how this leads to performance improvements, adoption, environmental impacts, and macroeconomic outcomes of economic growth and structural transformation. He draws on frameworks in complex networks, engineering, and economics to describe and understand these processes.
Before coming to the Growth Lab, McNerney was a researcher and Leading Technology and Policy Fellow at the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at MIT. He was a graduate fellow at the Santa Fe Institute and Boston University, where he completed a PhD in physics.
Featured Publications
- McNerney, J., Savoie, C., Caravelli, F., Carvalho, V. M., & Farmer, J. D. (2022). “How
production networks amplify economic growth.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(1). - Kavlak, G., McNerney, J., & Trancik, J.E. “Evaluating the causes of cost reduction in photovoltaic modules.” Energy Policy, 123 (2018), pp. 700-710.
- Needell, Z., McNerney, J., Chang, M., & Trancik, J.E. “Potential for widespread electrification
of personal vehicle travel in the United States.” Nature Energy, 1 (2016). - McNerney, J., Fath, B.D., & Silverberg, G. “Network structure of inter-industry flows.” Physica
A, 392 (2013), pp. 6427-6441. - McNerney, J., Farmer, J.D., Redner, S., & Trancik, J.E. “Role of design complexity
in technology improvement.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 108 (2011), pp. 9009 – 9013. - McNerney, J., Farmer, J.D., & Trancik, J.E. “Historical costs of coal-fired electricity and implications for the future.” Energy Policy, 39 (2011), pp. 3042 – 3054.
Daniela Muhaj
Daniela joined the Center for International Development’s Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2018.
Before joining the CID, she worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington D.C. conducting country surveillance and research on labor markets, economic polarization, and structural reforms. She has also investigated the macroeconomic effects of the 2008 financial crisis with the Central Bank of Slovenia, and worked as a business consultant at the Center for Innovation & Growth (Cleveland, Ohio). In 2013, she received an ASIANetwork Freeman Foundation fellowship to conduct field research on the socio-economic effects of urban relocation and demolition in China.
Daniela holds a dual degree in Mathematical Economics and International Relations from Baldwin Wallace University, and a Master’s in International Economics and Relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
She is enthusiastic about harnessing the power of mathematical modeling, econometric techniques, machine learning, and behavioral economics to diagnose economic issues and inform effective policy making. Her research interests include labor economics (the future of work, upskilling, employment polarization), structural reforms, economic diversification, network science, and complexity.
Jimmy Xu
Mingzhi (Jimmy) Xu is joining the Growth Lab at the Center for International Development as a Visiting Fellow.
He is currently the Postdoctoral Researcher at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the Assistant Professor at the Institute of New Structural Economics, Peking University.
He obtained B.A. from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in 2012 and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California Davis in 2018. Dr. Xu’s research interests include international economics, economic development and the economy of China.
Carolina Pan
Carolina Pan received her Ph.D. in Economics and a M.A. in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University, as well as a M.A. and a B.A. in Economics from the Universidad de San Andres in Argentina.
Her research interests are primarily in the fields of international trade and economic development. Her work focuses on the effects of technological innovation in exports and growth, on the patterns of technological and export diversification, and on the role of immigrants in a country’s innovation patterns.
Prior to joining the Growth Lab, she was a Quantextual Research Fellow at State Street Associates in the investor behavior team, and a consultant for the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development Bank.
William Johnson
Will Johnson is a research associate at the Growth Lab and a postdoctoral fellow in the economics department at Dartmouth College. His research lies at the intersection of international trade and economic growth. In particular, he studies structural change, industrial diversification, the dynamics of comparative advantage, and the diffusion of knowledge across industries.
Hillel Rapoport
Hillel Rapoport is Professor of Economics at the Paris School of Economics, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, scientific advisor at CEPII (Paris) and a research fellow at IZA, CESifo, CReAM and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. A member of Bar-Ilan University’s Economic Department until 2013, he also held visiting positions at Stanford University (in 2001-03) and at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (in 2009-11). During that latter period, he was a visiting research fellow with the Center for International Development, of which he is a research affiliate since then. His research focuses on the growth and developmental impact of migration and on the economics of immigration, diversity, and refugees’ relocation and resettlement.
Rapoport is the scientific coordinator of the “Migration and Development” annual conferences jointly organized by the World Bank and the French Development Agency since 2008 (the 2011 conference took place at CID). His work with CID investigates the interplay between international migration and other dimensions of globalization such as trade, capital and financial flows, as well as the diffusion of knowledge and culture.
Rapoport is the editor of two books (“Brain gain or brain drain: the international competition to attract talent”, Oxford University Press 2012, and “The economics of immigration and social diversity”, Elsevier, 2006) and has published research articles in general economics journals such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, and in field journals such as Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of Public Economics or International Migration Review.