Thursday, 15 August 2024
Centre for Research in Economics and Business (CREB) and the Innovation and Technology Centre (ITC) at Lahore School of Economics opened its 6th International Conference on Applied Development Economics (ADE), as an in-person event in Lahore in collaboration with International Growth Center and Consortium for Development Policy Research. The conference is spread over three days from 15 – 17 August 2024 and includes presentations from international and local researchers working on development issues in low and middle-income countries. It broadly focuses on the following thematic areas: Labour Markets, Technology, Health and Gender, Trade, Institutions, Poverty and Social Protection, Climate and Environment and a roundtable on Governance, Productivity and Growth. The aim of the conference is to (i) highlight recent research that can have lasting policy impact for sustainable growth in the developing world; (ii) provide early career researchers the opportunity to obtain feedback on their ongoing work; and (iii) to start a mutually beneficial exchange of ideas and discussions among researchers on potential collaborations.
Dr. Shahid Chaudhry, rector of the Lahore School of Economics, in his inaugural remarks, talked about Pakistan’s ability to revert back despite facing several challenges such as large population which create hindrances in the provision of education, availability of jobs, etc. Dr. Shahid also highlighted that these challenges are most pertinent in the case of women. In the end, Dr. Shahid extended his gratitude towards CREB for organizing the applied development economics conference every year and also thanked the sponsors: Innovation Technology Center (ITC), Consortium for Development Policy Research (CDPR), and International Growth Center (IGC).
The first day of the conference opened with a plenary address by Dr. Adrienne Lucas (Professor and Department Chair, Department of Economics, Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware) aimed at increasing learning in existing systems keeping in consideration the low productivity in education sector. Dr. Adrienne stated that the problem is not what to do but how to to do it in existing systems. Through an RCT in Ghana, she found that learning can indeed be improved in existing systems with existing personnel with persistent gains through refresher training and encouraging teachers to adopt differentiated learning practices.
The plenary address was followed by a session on labor markets, chairAed by Dr. Adrienne Lucas. The first speaker of the session Richard Freund (PhD candidate, University of Cape Town) aimed at improving online labor market outcomes by teaching the entrepreneurial skills required to engage with online marketplaces. The authors find that the training significantly increases the probability of having an online freelancing profile, being contacted by at least one client, and the number of proposals sent. This translated into positive effects on receiving at least one job offer, securing at least one online freelancing contract, and improved socioemotional skills. The second paper by Dr. Hamna Ahmad (Associate Professor, Lahore School of Economics; Research Fellow, Centre for Research in Economics and Business (CREB)) aimed at studying the role of intermediaries (within a seemingly decentralized market) for improving worker productivity and in mitigating workers’ skill constraints in the context of Pakistan. The authors find that intermediation by freelancers is highly prevalent on online platforms, constituting a significant share of the market. Intermediaries provide soft skills (e.g. English communication) and reputation that their workers lack in order to access the online demand. The third paper by Dr. Lena Hassani-Nezhad (Assistant Professor, University of London) analyzed the effects of childcare subsidies on labor supply, fertility, marriage, and childcare decisions in a collective setting. She shows that offering a child care subsidy expands the labor supply of single women while married women respond much less. Additionally, there are large increases in childcare take-up associated with childcare subsidies, which improves the quality of children as a household good and this increases gains from marriage and results in an increase in the married fraction of the sample.
The second session on technology, health and gender was chaired by Dr. Hamna Ahmad (Associate Professor, Lahore School of Economics; Research Fellow, Centre for Research in Economics and Business (CREB)). The first speaker of the session Dr. Fareena Malhi (Lecturer, University of Bath) investigated the impact of providing information on a digital app (Women Safety App) on female mobility and autonomy. The authors find large and significant increases in the duration of each trip, a change in participants' patterns of travel: information about the app increases the number of walked trips and an increase in the number of unaccompanied trips overall, consistent with increased autonomy of our participants. These increases in autonomy and mobility are concentrated among households that report trust in the serving institution (i.e. the police), and among households with limited female agency at baseline. The second paper by Dr. Muhammad Salman Khalid (Faculty, Institute of Business Administration) estimated the impact of E-VACCS (an Electronic Vaccine Registration System) on early childhood vaccination rates in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. The authors find that the intervention led to an increase in the proportion of children having received at least 1 dose of vaccination; however, the increase in vaccination coverage across urban mid-high income households came at the expense of a significant decrease in coverage across low-income rural households, signaling redirection of critical resources. The third paper by Syeda Warda Riaz (PhD candidate, University of California, Davis) explored the intra-household spillover effects of South Africa’s Older Person’s Grant—a large unconditional cash transfer—on the mental health of women who are pregnant or who recently gave birth. The authors find that women show higher levels of depression risk across all wealth deciles than men and among women, depression risk spikes during pregnancy and only slowly declines in the months following childbirth.
Dr. Theresa Thompson Chaudhry chaired the final session of the day and it focused on the theme of gender. The first speaker of the session Dr. Sidra Ishfaq (Senior Research Officer, Health Services Academy) investigated the relationship between women's empowerment and out-of-pocket (OOP) health expenditures. The authors find a tangible reduction in OOP health expenditures and impoverishment levels with an increase in women's empowerment. The last paper of the session by Dr. Sadia Batool (Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Development, Karakoram International University) developed an effective blended learning model with MOOC support, and found out its impact on self-efficacy of 45 six-semester preservice teachers specializing in elementary teacher education. She finds a significant shift in preferences, with a mentored blended learning MOOC model emerging as the preferred method for teaching selected preschool education content. Preservice teachers expressed a strong interest in using MOOCs to gain a deeper understanding of training material and favored this new model over traditional teaching methods.
Friday, 16 August 2024
The second day of the conference opened with a plenary address by Dr. Jonathan J. Morduch (Professor of Public Policy and Economics, Executive Director of the Financial Access Initiative, New York University) focusing on the simple but multidimensional idea of poverty encompassing health, education and standard of living. Dr. Morduch addressed questions, such as, do the households have enough resources to meet their needs and how do people sustain themselves with so little. He found that conventional annual poverty measure is powerful but it can dilute evidence of extreme deprivations and it is imperative to recognize the importance of instability and consumption smoothing in measurement and welfare. This has widespread implications for measuring hunger and inequality as well.
The plenary address was followed by a session on trade, chaired by Dr. Mujtaba Piracha (Public Service Specialist). The first speaker of the session Dr. Zara Liaqat (Assistant Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University) used the terrorist attack in India in 2016 as a quasi-natural experiment and investigated the effect of an uncertainty shock on exporting behavior of firms. The authors find that smaller exporters experienced a larger drop in exports volume and price, while more import-intensive firms, particularly those importing from India, did not witness a decrease in demand. The second paper by Dr. Nida Jamil (Early Career Researcher, University of Edinburgh) investigated the effects of two instances of trade policy changes (Free trade agreement (FTA) and Multifibre agreement (MFA)) on firm-level carbon emissions by Pakistani firms.The authors find that Pakistan-China FTA led to an increase in Pakistani exports, an increase in the quality of the exported goods to China and an increase in overall emissions. They also find that the MFA led to lower Pakistani exports because Pakistani firms faced greater competition from other countries, lower overall emissions and an increase in emissions per unit of output. The third paper by Dr. Philipp Barteska (Post doctoral fellow, Harvard Kennedy School) investigated how much the effect of an industrial policy during South Korea’s growth miracle depended on bureaucratic capacity. The authors find that the bureaucrats implementing the policy greatly changed its effect on exports – the variable targeted by the policy and key to South Korea’s economic success.
The second session on institutions was chaired by Dr. Hamna Ahmad (Associate Professor, Lahore School of Economics; Research Fellow, Centre for Research in Economics and Business (CREB). The first speaker of the session Sarah Shaukat (PhD candidate, Tufts University) used the FATF grey-listing of Pakistan and the subsequent deregistration of NGOs across tehsils in Punjab as a natural experiment to estimate whether NGOs are effective in improving development outcomes. The authors find that NGO closures reduce household investment in education, particularly affecting girls and urban households, decreases prenatal care access and immunization likelihood for girls, especially in rural areas. Although the government increases its role to compensate, it does not fully replace the services provided by NGOs. The broader regional impacts included diminished economic development, as indicated by reduced night light intensity, increased public discontent evidenced by more demonstrations and riots, and heightened violence against women, reflected by higher admissions to female shelter homes. The second paper by Nikita Grabher-Meyer (PhD candidate, University of East Anglia) conducted a lab-in-the-field experiment where law students in Ukraine were randomly assigned to an innovative and interactive integrity training programme to enhance students' awareness and behavior around ethical issues. The authors find that integrity training had a significant impact on attitudes towards corruption but only significantly reduced corrupt behavior in the game when the students knew they were playing alongside other integrity- trained students.
Dr. Zunia Tirmazi (Assistant Professor, Lahore School of Economics; Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Research in Economics and Business (CREB)) chaired the last session of day 2 on poverty and social protection. The first speaker of the session Dr. Mahreen Mahmud (Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter) studied the impact of the discontinuation of long running cash transfers, the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), in Pakistan, comparing households below the revised eligibility criteria who continue to receive cash transfers to those who no longer receive it. One year later, the authors find no significant impacts on household economic outcomes as a result of discontinuation. Two years later, there is some reduction in expenditures, suggesting that the reduced income support starts to bind. The last paper of the session by Dr. Saima Nawaz (Associate Professor, COMSATS University Islamabad) investigated the impact of asset transfers under the National Poverty Graduation Program (NPGP) in Pakistan, amid an established framework of unconditional cash transfers. The authors observe significant enhancements in overall well-being, food consumption, ownership of assets, and social integration among beneficiaries. Furthermore, the NPGP encourages savings behavior among beneficiaries, contributing to their long-term financial resilience.
Saturday, 17 August 2024
The third day of the conference started with a session on climate and environment chaired by Dr. Jonathan J. Morduch (Professor of Public Policy and Economics, Executive Director of the Financial Access Initiative, New York University). The first speaker of the session Dr. Farah Said (Executive Director, Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre (MHRC); Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Lahore University of Management Sciences) analyzed the impact of the 2022 floods on agricultural supply networks in Punjab, Pakistan. The authors found statistically significant pre-event anticipatory effects that increase supply followed by reduction on the overall quantities compared to the baseline in the after- math of the floods. They showed that vegetables had the highest susceptibility to such shocks, whereas the trajectory of grains was suggestive of state interventions.
The second paper by Muhammad Bin Khalid (Pre doctoral fellow, National University of Singapore) studied the long-term effects of cash relief on migration in the context of the 2010 Pakistan floods. The authors found that providing cash transfers and building a payment infrastructure for future cash relief at the village level does not reduce migration away from flood-prone areas; rather, the liquidity effects of the transfers were larger than the moral hazard effects and caused more people to leave flood-prone areas. The third paper by Nihan Rafique (Development Practitioner, The World Bank) evaluated the impact of an unconditional cash transfer (BISP) program which was implemented unusually rapidly in response to severe flooding in Pakistan during 2022. The authors found null results of the cash transfer programme on all major household welfare indicators, suggesting that while cash transfers of this size in disaster scenarios may help smooth consumption in the short term, they are unlikely to have lasting benefits.
Dr. Waqar Wadho (Associate Professor and Director Graduate Studies (Economics), Lahore School of Economics; Senior Research Fellow, Center for Research in Economics and Business (CREB)) chaired the second session of day 3 on climate and environment. The first speaker of the session Dr. Aatir Khan (Assistant Professor, Habib University) aimed to raise climate change awareness and promote civic engagement in students by establishing civic clubs in public schools in the city of Karachi, Sindh. The second speaker of the session Azka Sarosh (Teaching and Research Fellow, Lahore School of Economics) examined the relationship between regional integration, trading partners, and CO2 emissions, with a specific focus on the varying effects across three South Asian economies: Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. The authors found that increased regional integration generally contributes to a reduction in carbon emissions, the magnitude and direction of these effects vary significantly across the three countries under study. Bangladesh's trade with China increased CO2 emissions by approximately 20%, while India experienced the same effect, with increased emissions stemming from the same bilateral trade relationship by approximately 5%. Pakistan experienced reduced emissions by 3%. Trade with African nations resulted in a decrease in carbon emissions for Pakistan by 5% but an increase for India by 22%, further reflecting the uneven effects with the same trading regions.
For the last session of the 6th International Applied Development Conference, Dr. Hamna Ahmad (Associate Professor, Lahore School of Economics; Research Fellow, Centre for Research in Economics and Business (CREB)) moderated a roundtable on governance, productivity and growth.
This discussion included Dr. Shahid Chaudhry (Rector, Lahore School of Economics), Dr. Ali Cheema (Director of the Mahbub Ul Haq Research Centre, LUMS; Co-founder of the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP)), Dr. Azam Chaudhry (Professor, Dean and Head of Department, Faculty of Economics, Lahore School of Economics; Director, Innovation and Technology Center), Dr. Adrienne Lucas (Professor and Department Chair, Department of Economics, Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware) and Dr. Naved Hamid (Director, Center for Research in Economics and Business (CREB)). Dr. Ali Cheema identified Pakistan as one of the most debt ridden economies for its level of income and that this debt has not been able to induce growth. Adding further, he stated that the heart of the debt problem is structure of government. The panelists further discussed that an absolute lack of trust has developed over the last few years coupled with low exports which is impacting tax collection in Pakistan. Dr. Shahid asserted the importance on focusing on health and education while Dr. Naved and Dr. Azam focused more towards services sector which has the potential to boost exports. Adding to the discussion, the panelists listed sticky gender roles and societal norms, large family sizes, safety concerns and mobility restrictions as constraints towards female participation in the labor force.
The rector, Dr. Shahid Chaudhry, in his closing remarks thanked the speakers, attendees and the organizing team for their contributions in making this conference a success and in enriching one another’s global experiences. Dr. Chaudhry highlighted how this conference played a vital role in pushing the pressing agenda of sustainable growth in the developing world forward.
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