Clement Brenot

Clement joined the Growth Lab as a research fellow in 2021.

Prior to joining the Growth Lab, Clement spent nine years with the OECD, leading economic research projects in Eastern and Southern Europe, Central Asia, and Turkey. Clement started his career with the Boston Consulting Group, serving a number of public and private sector clients, mainly in the infrastructure and financial services industries.

His research interests include: macroeconomics, international finance and investment; growth diagnostics, especially in middle income and resource-rich economies; cities and urban development; innovation and knowledge.

Clement holds an MSc in Finance from HEC Paris and a Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Tim O’Brien

Tim O’Brien has managed Growth Lab applied research projects on five continents since joining the team in 2015.

He has led diagnostic work, capacity building, and execution of the Growth Lab’s overall research collaborations in South Africa, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Jordan, Albania, Western Australia, and Wyoming. Tim has also led the Growth Lab’s student engagement efforts, including the growth of its summer internship program, and works to build rich collaborations across Harvard Kennedy School research programs to target place-based challenges and practical research needs.

Before joining the Growth Lab, Tim completed the MPA/ID program at the HKS. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Malawi and holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University.

Op-Eds

• Growth through inclusion: the key to unlocking SA’s economic potential Business Day (2023).
• We recently ran a PDIA course on climate change adaptation. Why? Building State Capability Blog (2018).
• PDIA and Climate Change Adaptation. Building State Capability Blog (2018).
• Solar Radiation Management Can Only Work if it Works for the Poor. Angle Journal (2015).

Ricardo Hausmann

Ricardo Hausmann is the founder and Director of Harvard’s Growth Lab and the Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School. Under his leadership, the Growth Lab has grown into one of the most well regarded and influential hubs for research on economic growth and development around the world.

His scholarly contributions have had a significant impact on the study and practice of development. These include the development of the Growth Diagnostics and Economic Complexity methodologies, as well as several widely used economic concepts, such as Dark Matter, Original Sin, and Self-discovery. His work has been published in some of the top journals in the world, including Science, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of International Economics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of International Money and Finance, Economic Policy and the Journal of Economic Growth, among many others. These publications have been cited more than 54,000 times.

Since launching the Growth Lab in 2006, Hausmann has served as principal investigator for more than 50 research initiatives in 30 countries, including the US, informing development policy, growth strategies and diversification agendas at the national, regional, and city levels.

Before joining Harvard University, he served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank (1994-2000), where he created the Research Department. He has served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela (1992-1993) and as a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. He also served as Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee. He was Professor of Economics at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion (IESA) (1985-1991) in Caracas, where he founded the Center for Public Policy. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University.

Download CV (last updated August 2023)

Muhammed A. Yildirim

Muhammed A. Yildirim serves as the Director of Academic Research at the Harvard Growth Lab and an Associate Professor of Economics at Koç University. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University and a BS degree from the California Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the faculty at Koç University, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for International Development at Harvard University.

His research primarily focuses on understanding network and spillover effects across various research domains, including industrial policy, international trade, productivity, economic growth, and matching. His work has been published in prestigious economic journals, including Science, Nature, Cell, Nature Communications, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Methods, Economic Policy, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Theoretical Economics, and Research Policy. Furthermore, he is a co-author of “The Atlas of Economic Complexity,” published by the MIT Press.

Dr. Yildirim’s research has garnered significant attention from global media outlets, including the New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, CNN, and the New Yorker magazine. In recognition of his contributions, Dr. Yildirim received the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship in 2015, the Young Scientist Award (BAGEP) from the Science Academy in Turkey in 2021, and Koç University’s College of Administrative Sciences and Economics Outstanding Faculty Award in 2021.

Douglas Barrios

Douglas Barrios joined Harvard’s Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2013.

Previously, he worked in McKinsey’s Bogotá office as a Public Sector Specialist where he served public and social sector organizations throughout Latin America in a broad set of topics ranging from ICT promotion strategies to education policy design. Other previous experience include serving as an external policy adviser for local governments as well as political campaigns in Venezuela.

His research interests are focused on urban dynamics, natural resource extraction and rent management, behavioral economics and the political economics behind policy design.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Universidad Metropolitana (Venezuela) and a Masters in Public Administration and International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School (MPA-ID 2012).

Op-eds

• How many more migrants and refugees can we expect out of Venezuela?, Brookings
• ¿Llevará la hiperinflación a la transición democrática en Venezuela?, The New York Times
• Cómo salvar a Venezuela, The New York Times

Annie White

Annie is the Director of Software Tools at Harvard’s Growth Lab. With over 12 years of experience in sustainable development, research and software products, she is interested in how digital products can help solve global development challenges. At the Growth Lab, Annie is responsible for the development of the International Atlas of Economic Complexity, along with various sub-national Atlases, from research to design, development and launch.

Prior to joining the Growth Lab, she was the Director of Digital Product at Sustainalytics, a global environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and analytics firm. At Sustainalytics she successfully launched an ESG risk and analysis software platform used by analysts and investors globally. Before Sustainalytics, she was a policy analyst with the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C.

Annie holds a master’s degree in Development Economics from the University of Glasgow and is a certified Product Manager and Scrum Product Owner.

Andrea Hayes

Andrea Hayes is the Growth Lab’s Director of Programs, responsible for a wide range of program activities including recruiting and performance management, resource allocation, proposal process and reporting, liaising with internal and external stakeholders.

Prior to joining CID in 2015, Andrea spent nine years working at Accion International. As Principal Specialist in the Training and Capacity Building unit (TCB), Andrea managed many of the unit’s programs and activities including Accion’s Orientation Training Program targeted to Senior Technical and Investments staff; Accion’s Global Certification & Licensing of Signature trainings; the unit’s blended learning programs.

She has traveled extensively in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. Andrea is fluent in English and Spanish. A native of Ecuador, she holds a BA in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Government from Harvard’s Extension School.

Andrea Neilan Carranza

Andrea Neilan Carranza is the Executive Director of the Growth Lab at Harvard’s Center for International Development. Andrea has over 20 years’ experience in business development and oversees the center’s operations and strategic development.

Prior to the Growth Lab, Andrea was an Advisor to Grameen Research and Director with Cambridge Energy Research Associates (IHS CERA), a global energy research firm. She launched several new businesses for IHS CERA, including the firm’s Global Power Forum, a membership serving C-level executives from electric utilities, independent power producers and government ministries; CERA’s Asia Pacific Energy practice and its global financial services practice.

Andrea was an English teacher at Kai Tak Vietnamese refugee camp in Hong Kong and co–founded Boston Cares. Andrea has a MA in Intercultural Relations from Lesley University and a BA from James Madison University.

Tim Cheston

Timothy Cheston joined the Center for International Development’s Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2014.

Prior to joining CID, Tim worked for the World Bank in the Social Protection and Labor team for the Latin America and Caribbean region, where he led in the design, negotiation, and supervision of major social protection and labor projects and research in the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Bolivia, and Belize. His experience also includes research on the use of psychometric screening tools for small business financing in South Africa with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Africa. He also serves on the Board of Empowerment Health, an NGO providing community-based maternal and child health services in Afghanistan. Previously, Tim led remittance research with the Inter-American Dialogue, worked on microfinance with FINRURAL in Bolivia, and lived in the Dominican Republic, serving undocumented Haitian immigrants through the Dominican Literacy Project.

His research interests focus on: the role of economic diversification in explaining differences in growth between countries as within them; the use of growth diagnostics to formulate more effective economic strategy-making to unlock structural transformation processes; and the formulation of inclusive growth via productive development policies that better integrate the poor into high-productivity activities.

Tim holds a BA in the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs from Princeton University and a Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Media

• India-China Trade War: What’s at Stake? The Dollar Business Magazine, TDB Intelligence Unit, October 2017 Issue, p.21
• CID 2025 Global Growth Projections. CID Speaker Series Podcast. July 2017.
• New 2025 Global Growth Projections Predict China’s Further Slowdown and the Continued Rise of India. The Atlas of Economic Complexity. June 28, 2017.
• The Globe of Economic Complexity. Harvard CID. 2016.
• India Likely to Top World’s Growth Chart. The Times of India (New Delhi edition) 26 Dec 2015.
• Manufactura de México impulsará crecimiento de Latinoamérica. Notimex. May 8, 2015.