How Wyoming and New Mexico are Diversifying Fossil-Dependent Economies
April 16 | 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Despite their reliance on coal, oil, and natural gas for revenue and jobs, Wyoming and New Mexico are actively seeking to diversify their economies amid a changing energy landscape. In this webinar, Growth Lab research fellows Tim O’Brien and Juan Carlos Orrego Zamudio will share research insights from our work in New Mexico, including the fiscal risks of economic reliance on fossil fuels, potential growth industries, and considerations for effective state policymaking.
Read Tim and Juan Carlos’ working paper, New Mexico’s Economy Over Time and Space, and explore their regional diversification briefs.
This event is part of a webinar series hosted by the Resilient Energy Economies initiative.
The Canadian Standard of Living, Productivity and Innovation Lecture Series: Core Productivity Drivers and Diagnostics
April 9 | 5:45 pm – 7:30 pm
This event is part of the CIGI Speaker Series The Canadian Standard of Living, Productivity and Innovation hosted by the Centre for International Governance Innovation.
Productivity, innovation adoption and standard of living are intrinsically linked. Due to lagging productivity, Canada’s standard of living has dramatically declined, particularly in the last two decades — a trend felt by individuals, communities and businesses across the country.
In this lecture, Growth Lab Director Ricardo Hausmann will examine how emerging forces including new technologies, alongside enduring factors such as natural resources, are reshaping productivity, prosperity and Canada’s economic trajectory.
This hybrid event will be followed by a discussion with CIGI Senior Fellow Vass Bednar and closing remarks from physicist, inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist Savvas Chamberlain.
Whether you are attending online or in-person, please RSVP. In-person attendees are invited to arrive at 5:00 p.m. EDT for networking and refreshments. The lecture will begin promptly at 5:45 p.m. EDT for online and in-person attendees.
About the lecture series:
The Canadian Standard of Living, Productivity and Innovation lecture series, sponsored by Savvas Chamberlain and presented by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), brings together CEOs, financiers, manufacturers, policy makers and influencers, empowering them to champion the adoption of innovation — a critical step in reversing Canada’s productivity decline.
Each lecture will feature a keynote presentation from a distinguished global or Canadian speaker, followed by a forward-looking discussion focused on practical pathways for change, highlighting how individual, institutional and policy choices can shape Canada’s long-term economic performance and prosperity.
Faculty Webinar 2026: Leading Green Growth
February 25 | 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
As the world transitions to a lower carbon economy, new industries, markets, and paths to economic prosperity are emerging. Join Harvard faculty Ricardo Hausmann and Daniel Schrag for a 1-hour webinar on how the current energy transition is reshaping economic opportunity around the world—opening new doors for some and posing threats to others—and explore what this transition means for you.
Learn more about their upcoming HKS Executive Education Program, Leading Green Growth, here.
This is a free, live webinar that will last approximately 1 hour, and the recording will be distributed to all registrants. This presentation does not qualify for a certificate.
Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Grace Brown at gbrown@hks.harvard.edu in advance of the session.
Research Seminar – Urban-Biased Growth: A Macroeconomic Analysis
March 26, 2025 | 10:30 am – 11:45 am
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.
Research Seminar: Demand & Supply Side Linkages in Exporting Multiproduct Firms
March 12, 2025 | 10:30 am – 11:45 am
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.”
Faculty Webinar: Strategies for Inclusive Growth
March 18, 2024 | 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Join Profs. Matt Andrews and Ricardo Hausmann for a one-hour webinar on the rapidly evolving paths to economic prosperity and how rethinking economic policy, from design to implementation, can advance shared prosperity for all.
Registration is required.
This free, live webinar is a precursor to the upcoming Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education program, Strategies for Inclusive Growth. The recording will be distributed to all registrants. This presentation does not qualify for a certificate.
Research Seminar – AI-generated Production Networks: Measurement and Applications to Global Trade
March 5, 2025 | 11:30 am – 12:45 pm
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.
About 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.
Research Seminar: Trade, Innovation and Optimal Patent Protection
February 26, 2025 | 11:30 pm – February 27, 2025 | 12:45 am
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.
Leading Green Growth with Ricardo Hausmann and Daniel Schrag
February 13, 2025 | 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Research Seminar – From Labor to Intermediates: Firm Growth, Input Substitution, and Monopsony
February 5, 2025 | 11:30 am – 12:45 pm
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: Matthias Mertens, postdoctoral associate at MIT FutureTech
Whether attending in person or virtually, please register in advance.
Paper Abstract: (Matthias Mertens with Benjamin Schoefer from UC Berkeley) We document and dissect a new stylized fact about firm growth: the shift from labor to intermediate inputs. This shift occurs in input quantities, cost and output shares, and output elasticities. We establish this regularity in firm data for Germany and in firm (and industry) data for 11 (21) additional countries. We explain this regularity through a parsimonious model featuring an elasticity of substitution between intermediates and labor above one, and an increasing shadow price of labor (monopsony or adjustment costs). Labor-intermediates substitution also accounts for much of the labor share decline that we document accompanies firm and industry growth.
About the Speaker: Matthias is a postdoctoral associate at MIT FutureTech. His primary focus includes analyzing firm productivity, production technologies, and market power. He completed his Ph.D. at the Halle Institute for Economic Research in collaboration with the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg. Prior to joining MIT, Matthias led the Research Group at the Halle Institute for Economic Research and coordinated the Scientific Team at the Competitiveness Research Network, where he oversaw the data collection team responsible for constructing the CompNet database for several years.