Research Program in Poverty, Development, and Globalization

The Research Program in Poverty, Development, and Globalization (Development Program) supports research, teaching and dissertation supervision in development economics within the Department of Economics and the Center for Economic Research at GW.

The Development Program’s activities include:

Facilitating research in development economics

	Coordinating the Economics Department’s Trade and Development Workshop, which generally meets on Mondays
	Facilitating interactions between the large development policy community in Washington and scholars in development economics at GW and other Washington area universities.
	Facilitating funding, resources, and effective supervision of dissertations in the field of development economics.

Research

Current research of Development Program members include the following fields of study:

Poverty Alleviation.

Identification and development of effective policies for alleviating extreme poverty in low-income countries

Developing improvements in methods of poverty program evaluation

Evaluation of key poverty alleviation strategies including microcredit and health programs

Health and economic development

The effect of health on development, and evaluation of health policies in developing countries

Economics of epidemics and vaccination development

International convergence and divergence in the quantity and quality of investments in health

Trade Policy

Trade policy and development strategy

Development Public Economics

Efficient tax policy for developing countries

Financial sector reform

Corruption

Emerging stock markets in developing countries

Underdevelopment traps

Overcoming externalities and poverty traps in initiating development in traditional rural areas

Financial sector reform and low-level equilibrium traps in the development of entrepreneurship

Development issues in Transition Countries

Economic reform in Russia

Improving the legal framework in developing and transition countries

Transition in former Yugoslavia.

Institutions and Organizations

Cooperatives and cooperative networks

Measuring the effectiveness and of Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs) and Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) in developing countries

Industrial districts in developing countries

Employee financial participation in developing countries.

Teaching.

The Department of Economics offers both graduate and undergraduate courses in development economics and related fields. At the undergraduate level the key course is economics 151, offered every semester. At the Economics M.A./Ph.D. level, each year the Department offers a two-semester course sequence in development economics, Econ 251-252. For graduate students in fields other than economics the department offers Econ 250, taught every semester, with a majority of students drawn from the MA program in International Development Studies (IDS), and other international affairs students. Development Program members played key roles in founding the IDS program in the Elliott School of International Affairs, and remain active in the program.

Members of the Program in Poverty, Development and Globalization include:

	Stephen C. Smith, Professor of Economics and Program Director
	Shahe Emran, Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs
	Bryan Boulier, Professor of Economics
	Sumit Joshi, Associate Professor of Economics
	James R. Millar, Professor of Economics and International Affairs
	Joseph Pelzman, Professor of Economics and International Affairs

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