Conference
The research programme on Structural Transformation and Economic Growth (STEG), led by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), held its first virtual annual conference on 13-15 January 2021.
This conference fell near the close of STEG’s first (inception) year. The conference papers helped to define the current research frontiers in the area of structural transformation and economic growth. STEG seeks to advance these frontiers during its 5 year program through competitive research funding and academic community building. STEG’s objective is to build a body of research and evidence that will inform policy in low-income countries; we consequently seek papers that have clear relevance to this goal.
In addition to full-length presentations, the conference included (virtual) sessions of short presentations, as a way to highlight the diversity of research in the field and to offer more opportunities for early-career researchers and scholars representing a wide range of institutions and geographies.
Programme
* Times are in London time.
Wednesday 13 January
2:00 pm Opening Remarks. View the recording here.
2:15 pm “Electricity and Firm Productivity: A General-Equilibrium Approach” by Stephie Fried (Arizona State University and San Francisco Fed) and David Lagakos
Moderator: Molly Lipscomb (University of Virginia)
3:15 pm “Worker Mobility and Domestic Production Networks” by Marvin Cardoza, Francesco Grigoli, Nicola Pierri, and Cian Ruane (IMF)
Moderator: Lori Beaman (Northwestern University and CEPR)
4:15 pm Parallel Session Speed Rounds
4:15pm Round 1:
Breakout Room 1 hosted by Monika Tsvetkova (CEPR) - “A Division of Laborers: Identity and Efficiency in India” by Guilhem Cassan, Daniel Keniston, and Tatjana Kleineberg (World Bank)
Breakout Room 2 hosted by Kirsty McNeill (CEPR) - “O-Ring Production Network” by Banu Demir, Ana Cecilia Fieler, Daniel Yi Xu and Kelly Kaili Yang (Duke University)
Recording Not Available.
Breakout Room 3 hosted by Lauren Waring (CEPR) - “Re-industrialization” by Gaaitzen De Vries (University of Groningen), Hagen Kruse, Emmanuel Mensah, and Kunal Sen
4:30 pm BREAK
4:35pm Round 2:
Breakout Room 1 hosted by Monika Tsvetkova (CEPR) - “Digitization and Development: Property Rights and Land and Labor Markets” by Sabrin Beg (University of Delaware)
Breakout Room 2 hosted by Kirsty McNeill (CEPR) - “Impact of Financial Access on Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship and Financial Inclusion: Evidence from India” by Sandhya Garg and Sammarth Gupta (NCAER)
Breakout Room 3 hosted by Lauren Waring (CEPR) - “Judicial Independence and Development: Evidence from Pakistan” by Sultan Mehmood (New Economic School, Moscow)
4:50 pm BREAK
5:00 pm “Relative Welfare from Disaggregate Expenditures” by Ethan Ligon (Berkeley)
Moderator: Chang-Tai Hsieh (University of Chicago and CEPR)
6:00 pm Policy Keynote: Albert Zeufack (Chief Economist, Africa, World Bank)
Moderator: Doug Gollin (University of Oxford and CEPR)
7:00 pm CLOSE
Thursday 14 January
2:00 pm “Gendering Technological Change: Evidence from Agricultural Mechanization” by Farzana Afridi (Indian Statistical Institute), Monisankar Bishnu, and Kanika Mahajan
Moderator: Taryn Dinkelman (University of Notre Dame and CEPR)
3:00 pm “Automation, Trade and Multinational Activity: Micro Evidence from Spain” by Katherine Stapleton (University Oxford) and Michael Webb
Moderator: Natalia Ramondo (Boston University)
4:00 pm Parallel Session Speed Rounds
4:00pm Round 1:
Breakout Room 1 hosted by Monika Tsvetkova (CEPR) - “Contracting and Quality Upgrading: Evidence from an Experiment in Senegal” by Joshua Deutschmann (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Tanguy Bernard, and Ouambi Yameogo
Breakout Room 2 hosted by Kirsty McNeill (CEPR) - “The Impact of Trade Liberalization in the Presence of Political Distortions” by Sebastian Jävervall and Roza Khoban (Stockholm University)
Breakout Room 3 hosted by Lauren Waring (CEPR) - “Who Is Employed? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa on Redefining Employment” by Isis Gaddis, Gbemisola Oseni, Amparo Palacios-Lopez, and Janneke Pieters (Wageningen University, IZA)
4:15 pm BREAK
4:20pm Round 2:
Breakout Room 1 hosted by Monika Tsvetkova (CEPR) - “Caffeinated Development: Export Sector, Human Capital, and Structural Transformation in Colombia” by Mateo Uribe-Castro (Universidad del Rosario)
Breakout Room 2 hosted by Kirsty McNeill (CEPR) - “Gender-Biased Struural Transformation and Fertility: Evidence from Brazil,” by Vivek Moorthy (University of Notre Dame)
Breakout Room 3 hosted by Lauren Waring (CEPR) - “Land Property Rights, Financial Frictions and Resource Allocation in Developing Countries” by Kristina Manysheva (Northwestern University)
4:35 pm BREAK
4:40pm Round 3:
Breakout Room 1 hosted by Monika Tsvetkova (CEPR) - “Understanding Climate Damages: Consumption versus Investments.” by Gregory Casey (Williams College), Stephie Fried, and Matthew Gibson
Breakout Room 2 hosted by Kirsty McNeill (CEPR) - “Language Barriers in MNCs and Knowledge Transfers” Louise Guillouët (Columbia University), Amit Khandelwal, Rocco Machiavello, and Matthieu Teachout
Breakout Room 3 hosted by Lauren Waring (CEPR) - “The Political Economy of State Employment and Instability in China” by Jaya Wen (Harvard Business School)
4:55 pm BREAK
5:00 pm “The Impact of Chinese FDI in Africa: Evidence From Ethiopia” by Riccardo Crescenzi and Nicola Limodio (Bocconi University)
Moderator: El Hadj Bah, African Development Bank
6:00 pm Academic Keynote: Melissa Dell (Harvard University and CEPR)
Moderator: Monica Martinez-Bravo (CEMFI and CEPR)
7:00 pm CLOSE
Friday 15 January
2:00 pm “Heterogeneous Paths of Industrialization” by Federico Huneeus (Bank of Chile) and Richard Rogerson
Moderator: Alessio Moro (University of Cagliari)
3:00 pm “Industrial Policy at Work: Evidence from Romania’s Income Tax Break for Workers in IT” by Isabela Manelici (Princeton University) and Smaranda Pantea
Moderator: Leonard Wantchekon (Princeton University)
4:00 pm STEG Program Updates and Discussion by Doug Gollin (University of Oxford and CEPR) and Joe Kaboski (University of Notre Dame and CEPR)
4:30 pm Parallel Session Speed Rounds
4:30pm Round 1
Breakout Room 1 hosted by Monika Tsvetkova (CEPR) - “Mechanizing Agriculture: Impacts on Labor and Productivity” by Julieta Caunedo (Cornell University) and Namrata Kala
Breakout Room 2 hosted by Kirsty McNeill (CEPR) - “Migration Costs, Sorting, and the Agricultural Productivity Gap” by Qingen Gai, Naijia Guo, Bingjing Li (National University of Singapore), Qinghua Shi and Xiaodong Zhu
Breakout Room 3 hosted by Lauren Waring (CEPR) - “Structural Transformation in India: The Role of the Service Sector” by Rafael Serrano-Quintero (Universidad de Alicante)
4:45 pm BREAK
4:50pm Round 2
Breakout Room 1 hosted by Monika Tsvetkova (CEPR) - “Is Sub-Saharan Africa Deindustrializing?” by Emmanuel Mensah (GGDC, University of Groningen)
Breakout Room 2 hosted by Kirsty McNeill (CEPR) - “Misallocation and Capital Market Integration: Evidence From India” by Natalie Bau (UCLA and CEPR) and Adrien Matray
Breakout Room 3 hosted by Lauren Waring (CEPR) - “Mutual Insurance and Land Security in Rural Ghana” by Georgios Manalis and Karol Mazur (University of Oxford)
5:05 pm “Urban Public Works in Spatial Equilibrium: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia” by Simon Franklin, Clement Imbert (University of Warwick and CEPR), Girum Abebe and Carolina Mejia-Mantilla.
Moderator: Michael Peters (Yale University and CEPR)
6:05 pm Closing Remarks
6:10 pm CLOSE
VoxEU Column
Agglomeration effects in a developing economy: Evidence from Turkey
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- Development 
- Productivity and Innovation
VoxEU Column
Collapse revisited: Climate change and the development of middle-income countries
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- Climate Change 
- Development