Research Seminar: Robot Adoption, Organizational Capital and the Productivity Paradox
April 10, 2023 | 10:15 am – 11:30 pm
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.
Whether attending in-person or virtually, please register in advance. Room attendance is limited to the Harvard community. Seating availability is based on a first-come, first-served basis. The Zoom webinar is open to the public.
Speaker: Rodimiro Rodrigo, Assistant Professor at George Washington University School of Business.
Abstract: Major technological changes have come with an adjustment period of stagnant productivity before the economy operates at its full potential. The mechanism of this adoption process is still not well understood. In this seminar, Rodimiro Rodrigo will present his research on how productivity increases with a five-year lag after adopting industrial robots in Brazilian local labor markets. Combining employer-employee matched data with a novel measure of robot adoption, he provides evidence of establishment-level labor reorganization and organizational capital depreciation induced by the automation process. He examines a model that highlights the role of organizational costs accompanying the adoption of new technologies, illustrating its usefulness by using it to characterize the implications of the “innovator’s dilemma.”
Development Talk: Economic Policymaking in a World of Deep Disorder
April 17, 2023 | 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm
The Growth Lab’s “Development Talks” is a series of conversations with policymakers and academics working in economic development. The seminar provides a platform for practitioners and researchers to discuss both the practice of development and analytical work centered on policy.
Speaker: Mamo Mihretu, Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, HKS MPA 2009
Moderator: Pablo Andrés Neumeyer, Professor of Economics, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
Whether attending in-person or virtually, please register in advance. Room attendance is limited to the Harvard community. Seating availability is based on a first-come, first-served basis. The Zoom webinar is open to the public. Lunch will be provided.
About the speaker:
Mamo E. Mihretu is the 10th Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE). As the central bank, the primary objective of NBE is to maintain price stability, health and proper functioning of the financial services industry. Before he was appointed as the Governor of NBE, Mr. Mihretu served as the founding CEO of the Ethiopian Investment Holdings, the strategic investment arm of the Government of Ethiopia. EIH manages all key commercial companies of the Government of Ethiopia, such as Ethiopian Airlines and Ethio Telecom. Mr. Mihretu is a member of Ethiopia’s Macroeconomic Council, which is the body that steers economic policy and strategic decisions. Mr. Mihretu obtained a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School. He also holds a post-graduate degree in Trade and Investment from the Universities of Pretoria and Amsterdam. He was a gold medalist when he graduated from Addis Ababa University, School of Law.
Research Seminar: Tackling the UK’s Regional Economic Inequality: Binding constraints and avenues for policy intervention
April 3, 2023 | 10:15 am – 11:30 am
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.
Location: Weil Town Hall, Belfer, HKS/Zoom
Whether attending in-person or virtually, please register in advance. Room attendance is limited to the Harvard community. Seating availability is based on a first-come, first-served basis. The Zoom webinar is open to the public.
About the Seminar: The UK is one of the most regionally unequal industrialized economies. In this seminar, Ed Balls and Anna Stansbury will discuss the UK’s regional economic inequality from the perspective of productivity disparities between large regions, focusing on the gap between London/South East vs the rest, looking at four important economic inputs – education, infrastructure, innovation, and access to finance – for each one building up a collage of evidence to gauge the extent to which it is a binding constraint on regions’ productivity growth. They emphasize that economic opportunity for those from outside London and the South East is curtailed by London’s overheating housing market, which limits interregional mobility.
About the Speakers: Ed Balls is a broadcaster, writer and economist. He is Professor of Political Economy at King’s College, London and a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Ed, a former Member of Parliament, was UK Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (2011-2015) and served in the UK Cabinet as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (2007-2010). He was the UK Minister for Financial Services (2006-2007) and the Chief Economic Adviser to the UK Treasury (1999-2004) during which time he was Chair of the IMFC Deputies and UK G20 Deputy.
Anna Stansbury is an Assistant Professor of Work and Organization Studies at MIT Sloan School of Management. She is a labor and macroeconomist whose work focuses on inequality and productivity in industrialized economies. She has a PhD in Economics from Harvard, an MPP from the Kennedy School, and a BA in Economics from Cambridge – and was a former part-time Growth Lab RA before her PhD!
Read the full Research Paper: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/mrcbg/publications/awp/awp198
VoxEU summary link: https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/how-tackle-uks-regional-economic-inequality-focus-stem-transport-and-innovation
Webinar: Leading Green Growth
April 5, 2023 | 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.
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.
HKS Executive Education is offering a one-week on campus program, Leading Green Growth: Economic Strategies for a Low-Carbon World, in August 2023. Under the direction of faculty chairs Ricardo Hausmann and Daniel Schrag, participants will gain a foundational understanding of decarbonization and its economic impact. Application deadline is June 26.
Development Talk: Greening Economic Development / What Does It Take?
April 13, 2023 | 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
The Growth Lab’s “Development Talks” is a series of conversations with policymakers and academics working in economic development. The seminar provides a platform for practitioners and researchers to discuss both the practice of development and analytical work centered on policy.
Speaker: Amir Lebdioui, Assistant Professor in the Political Economy of Development, SOAS University of London
Moderator: Ketan Ahuja, Research Fellow, Growth Lab
What does it take to align economic development with ecological sustainability? Is industrial development still the optimal pathway to poverty reduction? What does a climate-smart industrial policy look like? Why are the factors of success in the implementing of green industrial policy for latecomers? What does an economic development agenda look like for biodiverse nations?
Drawing on recent research and policy work, this talk will address how governments can cope with the changing optimal pathways to economic development, and explain the type of joined-up policy approach needed to use the decarbonization agenda as a lever to diversify economies, leave the commodity dependence trap behind, and increasing macroeconomic resilience.
Whether attending in-person or virtually, please register in advance. Room attendance is limited to the Harvard community. Seating availability is based on a first-come, first-served basis. The Zoom webinar is open to the public. Lunch will be provided.
About the speaker:
Dr. Amir Lebdioui is an Algerian development economist and lecturer in the Political Economy of Development at SOAS, University of London. Before joining SOAS, Amir was based at the London School of Economics (LSE) where he led the Canning House Research Forum, a research and policy engagement program on the Future of Trade in Latin America. His research has focused on the economic diversification of resource-dependent nations, low carbon innovation, biodiversity-based innovation, and industrialization in the context of climate change. Amir also regularly advises governments and international institutions on industrial policy strategies. He serves on the advisory council of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, as member of the African Climate Foundation (ACF) and as a non-resident fellow of the Africa Policy Research Institute. He holds an MPhil and PhD in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge.
Research Seminar: Opportunities and Challenges in the Use of Alternative Data Sources to Study Migratory Phenomena
March 27, 2023 | 10:15 am – 11:30 am
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: Stefano M. Iacus is the Director of Data Science and Product Research at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University. He is working closely with the Dataverse (Managing Director of the Dataverse Project) and OpenDP (executive committee member) projects and well as with the Data Science Services at IQSS.
Abstract: With the consolidation of the culture of evidence-based policymaking, the availability of data has become central to policymakers especially in time of crisis. Focusing on migration studies, this seminar will provide an overview of the current state of data innovation in the scientific literature and then point out at areas in which data innovation has the most concrete potential.
Whether attending in-person or virtually, please register in advance. Room attendance is limited to the Harvard community. Seating availability is based on a first-come, first-served basis. The Zoom webinar is open to the public
Development Talk: Access to Power / Electricity and the Infrastructural State in Pakistan
April 4, 2023 | 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
The Growth Lab’s “Development Talks” is a series of conversations with policymakers and academics working in economic development. The seminar provides a platform for practitioners and researchers to discuss both the practice of development and analytical work centered on policy.
Speaker: Ijlal Naqvi, Associate Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean (Curriculum and Teaching) at the School of Social Sciences of Singapore Management University
Prof. Naqvi will discuss his new book “Access to Power: Electricity and the Infrastructural State in Pakistan,” which explores state capacity in Pakistan by following the material infrastructure of electricity across the provinces and down into cities and homes.
Moderator: Abdurrehman Naveed, HKS MPP 2023
Whether attending in-person or virtually, please register in advance. Room attendance is limited to the Harvard community. Seating availability is based on a first-come, first-served basis. The Zoom webinar is open to the public. Lunch will be provided.
This talk is co-sponsored by the HKS South Asia Caucus.
About the speaker:
Ijlal Naqvi is Associate Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean (Curriculum and Teaching) at the School of Social Sciences of Singapore Management University. He studies governance and development in the Global South, using infrastructure as a lens on state-building and the citizen’s engagement with the state on an everyday basis. His book Access to Power: Electricity and the Infrastructural State in Pakistan was published by Oxford University Press (2022). Ijlal’s research has been published in Energy Research and Social Science, Journal of Development Studies, Urban Studies, Journal of Democracy, and Current Sociology. Ijlal earned his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Research Seminar: Structural Change in Export Activities: An Exploration Using Occupations Data
March 13, 2023 | 10:15 am – 11:30 am
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: Hagen Kruse, PhD candidate and Research affiliate of the Groningen Growth and Development Centre @University of Groningen
Abstract: Traditionally, comparative advantage in exporting is measured at the level of products or industries. However, with international production fragmentation, countries specialize in activities along the production chain rather than in particular products. This paper therefore explores changes in the structure of exports at the level of activities for a set of 53 countries. Activities are measured using new internationally harmonized statistics on labour income of 13 detailed occupation classes of workers in 35 industries. Income shares from engineering, management, and support services increase as countries grow richer. New specializations have a strong proximity to the initial export basket, especially for routine manual intensive activities in developing countries. Some countries appear to specialize more in new activities that are relatively unrelated to their initial specializations. This is found to be positively related to income growth.
About the Speaker: Hagen Kruse is a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen and research affiliate of the Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC). His research focuses on the role of international trade in shaping modern patterns of structural change in developing countries. His first chapter was recently published in the IMF Economic Review and featured in media outlets such as The Economist, Project Syndicate, or UNIDO’s Industrial Analytics Platform. Current projects of Hagen are financially supported by the World Bank Group and a CEPR STEG research grant.
Research Seminar: Deconstructing Human Capital to Construct Nestedness
March 20, 2023 | 10:15 am – 11:30 pm
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: Hyejin Youn is an associate professor at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO), and an external faculty at Santa Fe Institute and serves as Associate Editor at PLOS One and Management Science.
In this talk, Hyejin Youn will explore the geographic and demographic disparities in wealth based on the distribution of skills acquired in school and in the workplace. Analyzing individuals’ career changes and demographic age of occupations reveals that “nested skills” are needed more as one moves up the career ladder. Historical changes in occupation skill requirements show that these branches have become more fragmented over the decade, suggesting the increasing labor gap.
Register: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yrXaEgr3TqyjZKU1EecoUA
Whether attending in-person or virtually, please register in advance. Room attendance is limited to the Harvard community. Seating availability is based on a first-come, first-served basis. The Zoom webinar is open to the public
Development Talk: Easy to Say, Hard to Do / Leading Economic Change in Wyoming
March 23, 2023 | 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm
The Growth Lab’s “Development Talks” is a series of conversations with policymakers and academics working in economic development. The seminar provides a platform for practitioners and researchers to discuss both the practice of development and analytical work centered on policy.
Speaker: Josh Dorrell, CEO, Wyoming Business Council
Moderator: Gordon Hanson, Peter Wertheim Professor in Urban Policy, HKS
Whether attending in-person or virtually, please register in advance. Room attendance is limited to the Harvard community. Seating availability is based on a first-come, first-served basis. The Zoom webinar is open to the public. Lunch will be provided.
As CEO of the Wyoming Business Council, Josh Dorrell provides leadership and strategic direction in the state’s economic development strategy. In this talk, Josh will discuss the growth challenges in Wyoming, and how a research collaboration with the Growth Lab is helping them outline pathways to sustainable growth, jobs, and prosperity.