Research Seminar: Migration and Cultural Change

The Growth Lab 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: Hillel Rapoport, Professor of Economics (and Director of International Relations) at the Paris School of Economics

Abstract: We propose a novel perspective on migration and cultural change by asking both theoretically and empirically – and from a global viewpoint – whether migration is a source of cultural convergence or divergence between home and host countries. Our theoretical model derives distinctive testable predictions as to the sign and direction of convergence for various compositional and cultural diffusion mechanisms. We use the World Value Survey for 1981-2014 to build time-varying measures of cultural similarity for a large number of country pairs and exploit within country-pair variation over time. Our results support migration-based cultural convergence, with cultural remittances as its main driver. In other words and in contrast to the populist narrative, we find that while immigrants do act as vectors of cultural diffusion, this is mostly to export the host country culture back home.

Please register in advance, and contact Chuck McKenney with any questions. The seminar will be hybrid, with Hillel presenting in-person for the Harvard community only in Weil Town Hall.

About the speaker:

Hillel Rapoport is Professor of Economics (and Director of International Relations) at the Paris School of Economics, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) since 2021. He is also a research fellow at CEPII, IZA, CESifo, Harvard CID, Kiel Institute for the World Economy, LISER, and European Development Network (EUDN). He was a member of Bar-Ilan University until 2013 and held visiting positions at Stanford University (in 2001-03) and at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (in 2009-11). Since 2008 he is the scientific coordinator of the “Migration and Development” annual conferences jointly organized by the World Bank and the French Development Agency. His research focuses on the growth and developmental impact of migration and on the economics of immigration, diversity, and refugees’ integration.

Development Talks – A Journey of Impact in Namibia: From the Private Sector to Policymaking

The Growth Lab’s Development Talks is a series of conversations with policymakers and academics working in international development. The seminar provides a platform for practitioners and researchers to discuss both the practice of development and analytical work centered on policy. 

Speaker: Nangula Uaandja, CEO, Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board

Moderator: Nikita Taniparti, Research Manager, Growth Lab

Please register in advance, and contact Chuck McKenney with any questions.

About the speaker:

Nangula Uaandja is a chartered accountant by profession and is currently the CEO of the newly established Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board. The Board, a public entity in the Presidency in Namibia, is tasked with the mandate of promoting and facilitating foreign and domestic investments as well as the development of SMEs. Until December 2020, Nangula served as Partner at PwC Namibia with more than 20 years experience in auditing, and she has also been involved in non-audit work such as consulting, fraud investigation, budgetary processes, etc. Nangula was named Namibia’s Businesswoman of the year in 2011.

Research Seminar: Mechanisms of Hardware and Soft Technology Evolution and the Implications for Low-Carbon Energy Costs

The Growth Lab 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: Magdalena Klemun, Assistant Professor, Division of Public Policy, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s Interdisciplinary Program Office; Research Affiliate, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) at MIT.

Abstract: Technologies typically contain both physical (‘hardware’) and non-physical (‘soft technology’) features, such as the duration of installation tasks and other services needed to deploy hardware. Both types of features contribute significantly to technology costs and performance, yet soft technology has been researched less than hardware.

In this talk, she will discuss fundamental differences between hardware and soft technology features in how these features contribute to the evolution of hardware and non-hardware (‘soft’) costs, using examples from the cost evolution of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and nuclear fission plants. Despite divergent overall cost trajectories, the relative share of soft costs has risen in both technologies, suggesting a greater role for non-hardware innovation in future cost trends. However, past changes in soft costs were driven to a large degree by the evolution of hardware rather than soft technology features, and rising shares of soft costs do not necessarily correspond to a greater cost influence of soft technology features today. These results reveal new insight into how technology costs might be driven down in the future, through more deliberate, model-informed approaches to improving soft technology and a continued emphasis on innovation in hardware.

Please register in advance, and contact Chuck McKenney with any questions. 

Brief Bio: Magdalena M. Klemun is an Assistant Professor at the Division of Public Policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s Interdisciplinary Program Office and a Research Affiliate at the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) at MIT. She is also affiliated with the HKUST Energy Institute. Her research examines the dynamics of low-carbon energy innovation, with a focus on how hardware and non-hardware factors interact and shape performance evolution at the technology- and systems-level. She holds a PhD in Engineering Systems from MIT, an MS in Earth Resources Engineering from Columbia University, and a BS in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from Vienna University of Technology. Prior to joining HKUST, she was a postdoc at IDSS.

Research Seminar: Creative Construction: Knowledge Sharing in Production Networks

The Growth Lab 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: Evgenii Fadeev, Ph.D. Candidate in Economics, Harvard

Paper: Creative Construction: Knowledge Sharing in Production Networks

Abstract: Knowledge flows between firms are often measured using patent citations. I show that even the most cited patents on average receive the majority of citations from one firm only, and this concentration has significantly increased since 2000. Using the movement of inventors across companies, I show that the concentration is primarily driven by firms rather than inventors. I develop a theory of knowledge sharing between firms that accounts for these citation patterns. Citations are correlated with the sharing of trade secrets that are complementary to patented technologies. They are concentrated because only a limited set of firms gets access to private knowledge of a patent owner. Firms have incentives to share their secrets with producers of complementary products such as suppliers and customers but to conceal them from competitors. In turn, competitors can obtain private knowledge from each other through their common suppliers and customers if the latter did not sign confidentiality agreements. The model predicts contractual arrangements and patterns of knowledge sharing (citations) in a production network based on the degree of industry competition and firms’ bargaining positions vis-a-vis their suppliers/customers. Using the network data for the U.S. publicly traded firms and the variation across industries in the exposure to import competition from China, I provide empirical evidence supporting the predictions of the theory.

Please register in advance, and contact Chuck McKenney with any questions. 

Development Talks: Community Engagement as a Frontline to National Development

The Growth Lab’s Development Talks is a series of conversations with policymakers and academics working in international development. The seminar provides a platform for practitioners and researchers to discuss both the practice of development and analytical work centered on policy. 

Topic: Community Engagement as a Frontline to National Development: The Peace Corps Experience

Speaker: Dr. Josephine (Jody) K. Olsen, Executive Director of U.S. Peace Corps (2017-2021)

Moderator: Tim Freeman, Research Fellow, Growth Lab

Whether attending in-person or watching over Zoom, please register in advance, and contact Chuck McKenney with any questions. Room attendance is limited to the Harvard community.

About the speaker:
Dr. Josephine (Jody) Olsen, PhD, served as the 20th Director of the Peace Corps from March 2018 to January 2021.  In March 2020, at the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic, she led the nine-day evacuation back to the United States of all 7,000 Peace Corps Volunteers from 61 countries. During her tenure, she opened a new Peace Corps program in Viet Nam, championed global women’s economic empowerment, and led Peace Corps HIV/AIDS mitigation efforts in Africa. Read more

Seminar: Colonialism and Development

This seminar is the fourth in our Diversity in Development series. This panel will investigate connections between the world history of colonialism and related racism within the international development sector. Further, the panelists, both female scholars of color, will discuss their visions of decolonizing the development sector.

Panelists:
Zophia Edwards, Associate Professor, Providence College
Olivia Rutazibwa, Assistant Professor in Human Rights and Politics, LSE

Moderator: Syeda Masood, HKS MPA/ID 2008

Please register in advance and contact Chuck McKenney with any questions. 

This series is hosted in coordination with the MPA/ID Program and the MPA/ID alumni community.

Research Seminar: Organizational Frictions to Automation, and Its Effects on Firms, Workers, and Labor Markets

Speaker: Daniel P. Gross, Assistant Professor, Duke’s Fuqua School of Business

Abstract: AT&T was the largest U.S. firm for most of the 20th century. Telephone operators once comprised over 50% of its workforce, but in the late 1910s it initiated a decades-long process of automating telephone operation with mechanical call switching—a technology first invented in the 1880s. This talk will cover results from two papers. In one, we study what drove AT&T to do so, and why it took one firm nearly a century to automate this one function. In the second, we study how automation affected the labor market for young women.

On the firm side, we find that interdependencies between call switching and nearly every other part of the business were obstacles: the manual switchboard was the fulcrum of a complex production system which had developed around it, and automation only began after the firm and automatic technology were adapted to work together. Even then, automatic switching was only profitable for AT&T in larger markets—hence diffusion expanded as costs declined and service areas grew. Automation supported AT&T’s continued growth, generating a positive feedback loop between scale and automation that reinforced AT&T’s high market share in local markets.

On the worker side, we find that although automation eliminated one of the most common jobs for young American women of this era, it did not affect future cohorts’ overall employment: the decline in operators was counteracted by reinstating demand in middle-skill clerical jobs and lower-skill service jobs. Incumbent (already-employed) telephone operators were most impacted by automation, and a decade later were more likely to be in lower-paying occupations or have left the labor force entirely.

Bio: Daniel P. Gross is an assistant professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, which he joined in 2020 after several years on the faculty at Harvard Business School. His research has two primary branches: (1) crisis innovation policy and strategy, including the effects of crisis R&D efforts on post-crisis innovation, entrepreneurship, industry dynamics, and regional economies; and (2) the effects of automation on workers, firms, and labor markets. He previously also studied the use of incentives and other tools in managing creative workers within organizations. Professor Gross’ research frequently uses historical examples of industries and eras undergoing significant technological change as a lens into the present and future.

Please register in advance, and contact Chuck McKenney with any questions. The seminar will be hybrid, with Daniel presenting in-person for the Harvard community only in WEXNER W-G02.

Research Seminar: Technology Within and Across Firms

Speaker: Diego Comin, Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College

Paper: Technology Within and Across Firms

Abstract: This study collects data on the sophistication of technologies used at the business function level for a representative sample of firms in Vietnam, Senegal, and the Brazilian state of Ceara. The analysis finds a large variance in technology sophistication across the business functions of a firm. The within-firm variance in technology sophistication is greater than the variance in sophistication across firms, which in turn is greater than the variance in sophistication across regions or countries. The paper documents a stable cross-firm relationship between technology at the business function and firm levels, which it calls the technology curve. Significant heterogeneity is uncovered in the slopes of the technology curves across business functions, a finding that is consistent with non-homotheticities in firm-level technology aggregators. Firm productivity is positively associated with the within-firm variance and the average level of technology sophistication. Development accounting exercises show that cross-firm variation in technology accounts for one-third of cross-firm differences in productivity and one-fifth of the agricultural versus non-agricultural gap in cross-country differences in firm productivity.

For virtual attendees, please register in advance and contact Chuck McKenney with any questions. 

About the speaker:

Diego Comin is a Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. He is also Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research and Faculty Research Fellow in the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Economic Fluctuations and Growth Program. Comin is a fellow for the Institute of New Economic Thinking (INET). Professor Comin has published multiple articles in top economic journals on the topics of business cycles, technology diffusion, economic growth and firm volatility. He has also authored cases studies published in the book Drivers of Competitiveness. Comin’s research has been supported by the Gates foundation, the National Science Foundation, the C.V. Star Foundation, the INET foundation and the Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW).

Research Seminar: Achieving Power Sector Carbon Neutrality in a Low-cost Renewable Era

Speaker: Gang He, Assistant Professor in the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University

Abstract: Clean power transition is at the center to achieve mid-century carbon neutrality goals. The cost of solar and wind has plummeted in the past decade, and solar and wind electricity has been achieving grid parity. Low-cost renewables offer new perspectives for energy system decarbonization that was less visioned before. In this talk, Dr. He will discuss the pathways of clean power transition and their system impacts using high-resolution models, to reflect the need for integrating variable renewable energy and phasing out coal to achieve carbon neutrality in the power sector at a low-cost renewables era.

The talk will be based on the following papers:

• He, Gang, Jiang Lin, Froylan Sifuentes, Xu Liu, Nikit Abhyankar, and Amol Phadke. 2020. “Rapid Cost Decrease of Renewables and Storage Accelerates the Decarbonization of China’s Power System.” Nature Communications 11 (1): 2486. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16184-x.
• Zhang, Chao, Gang He, Josiah Johnston, and Lijin Zhong. 2021. “Long-Term Transition of China’s Power Sector under Carbon Neutrality Target and Water Withdrawal Constraint.” Journal of Cleaner Production 329 (December): 129765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129765.
• He, Gang, Jiang Lin, Ying Zhang, Wenhua Zhang, Guilherme Larangeira, Chao Zhang, Wei Peng, Manzhi Liu, and Fuqiang Yang. 2020. “Enabling a Rapid and Just Transition Away from Coal in China.” One Earth 3 (2): 187–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.07.012.

Please register in advance and contact Chuck McKenney with any questions. 

About the speaker:

Dr. Gang He is an Assistant Professor on energy policy in the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University. His work focuses on energy modeling, energy and climate change policy. He also studies other issues related to global climate change and the development of lower-carbon energy sources. He had worked for Stanford University Program on Energy and Sustainable Development from 2008 to 2010 and was a Cynthia Helms Fellow at World Resources Institute in 2008. He received his Ph.D. in Energy and Resources at the University of California, Berkeley, He also holds an M.A. from Columbia University on Climate and Society and a B.S. and M.S. from Peking University on Geography.

Knowledge Diffusion as a Cornerstone of Economic Recovery in the Post-COVID World

The Growth Lab has recently collaborated with the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics to launch the Growth Co-Lab at LSE. The strategic goal is to bring together the capacities, expertise, and reach of two top academic institutions to expand the activities of the Growth Lab globally.

In this public event marking the launch of the collaboration, a panel of high-level government officials and academic experts will discuss Knowledge Diffusion as a Cornerstone of Economic Recovery and Growth in the Post-COVID World.

Speakers/Moderators:

Arben Ahmetaj, Deputy Prime Minister of Albania.
Omar Al-Razzaz, former Prime Minister of Jordan.
Ann Bernstein, Executive Director of the Center for Development and Enterprise, South Africa.
Ricardo Hausmann, Director of the Growth Lab.
Isabel de Saint Malo, former Vice-President of Panama.
Miguel Angel Santos, Director of Applied Research at the Growth Co-Lab at LSE.
Andrés Velasco, Professor of Public Policy and Dean of the School of Public Policy at LSE.

Please register in advance, and contact Chuck McKenney with any questions.

Twitter Hasthag for this event: #LSEPostCOVID