Participant List

 

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH

 

Pre-Conference on

Economic Research on African Development Successes

 

Sebastian Edwards, Simon Johnson, and David N. Weil, Organizers

 

February 27-28, 2009

 

NBER

2nd Floor Conference Room

 1050 Massachusetts Avenue

Cambridge, Massachusetts

 

PROGRAM

 

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27

 

 

Shuttle leaves Royal Sonesta Hotel for NBER at 8:15 am and 8:30 am

 

 

8:30 am

Continental Breakfast

 

 

9:00 am

Welcome and brief background about the NBER Africa Project

 

 

9:10 am

Agriculture in Africa: An Exploration of Macro Factors (Project 1)

 

DOUGLAS GOLLIN, Williams College

 

RICHARD ROGERSON, Arizona State University and NBER

 

 

 

Discussant: STEVEN BLOCK, Tufts University

 

 

10:10 am

Coffee Break

 

 

10:30 am

Leapfrogging the Neighbors: The Penetration and Socioeconomic Effects of Information Communications Technologies in Landlocked Malawi (Project 2)

 

TARYN DINKELMAN, Princeton University

 

ANGELA MSOSA, National Statistical Office, Malawi

 

EMILY OSTER, University of Chicago and NBER

 

REBECCA THORNTON, University of Michigan

 

DERIC ZANERA, National Statistical Office, Malawi

 

 

 

Discussant: SIMON JOHNSON, MIT and NBER

 

 

11:30 am

Demographic Pressure and Institutional Change: Village-Level Response to Rural Population Growth in Burkina Faso (Project 11)

 

HAROUNAN KAZIANGA, Oklahoma State University

 

AUGUSTINE LANGYINTUO, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Zimbabwe

 

WILLIAM MASTERS, Purdue University

 

MARGARET McMILLAN, Tufts University and NBER

 

 

 

Discussant: NANCY QIAN, Brown University

 

 

12:30 pm

Lunch

 

 

1:30 pm

The Brain Drain, Brain Circulation and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (Project 4)

 

YAW NYARKO, New York University

 

 

 

Discussant: SEBASTIAN EDWARDS, UC, Los Angeles and NBER

 

 

2:30 pm

Healing the Wounds: Learning from Sierra Leone’s Post-war Institutional Reforms (Project 6)

 

RACHEL GLENNERSTER, MIT

 

EDWARD MIGUEL, University of California, Berkeley and NBER

 

KATHERINE WHITESIDE CASEY, Brown University

 

 

 

Discussant: STEVEN RADELET, Center for Global Development

 

 

3:30 pm

Coffee Break

 

 

3:50 pm

Policy and Contractual Uncertainty and Firm Behavior in Africa 
(Project 7)

 

MARY HALLWARD-DRIEMEIER, The World Bank

 

LANT PRITCHETT, Harvard University

 

 

 

Discussant: RAFAEL LA PORTA, Dartmouth College and NBER

 

 

4:50 pm

Micro-Economic Evidence on a Transition to Democracy (South Africa) (Project 8)

 

MURRAY LEIBBRANDT, University of Cape Town

 

JAMES LEVINSOHN, University of Michigan and NBER

 

JUSTIN McCRARY, University of California, Berkeley and NBER

 

(presented by Taryn Dinkelman)

 

 

 

Discussant: ERIC WERKER, Harvard University

 

 

5:50 pm

Adjourn

 

 

Shuttles to the Royal Sonesta Hotel leave at 6:00 and 6:15 p.m.

 

 

7:00 pm

Dinner
Legal Sea Foods
5 Cambridge Center (Kendall Square)
Cambridge, MA 02142

 

 

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28

 

 

Shuttle leaves Royal Sonesta Hotel for NBER at 8:15 am and 8:30 am

 

 

8:30 am

Continental Breakfast

 

 

9:00 am

Exchange Rates and Market Integration: The Impact of the CFA Devaluation on Agricultural Markets in Niger (Project 9)

 

JENNY AKER, Center for Global Development

 

MICHAEL KLEIN, Tufts University and NBER

 

STEPHEN O’CONNELL, Swarthmore College

 

 

 

Discussant: WILBERFORCE KISAMBA-MUGERWA, National Planning Authority, Uganda

 

 

10:00 am

Coffee Break

 

 

10:20 am

Evaluating the Effects of Large Scale Health Interventions in Developing Countries: The Zambian Malaria Initiative (Project 3)

 

NAVA ASHRAF, Harvard University and NBER

 

GŰNTHER FINK, Harvard University

 

DAVID N. WEIL, Brown University and NBER

 

 

 

Discussant: REBECCA THORNTON, University of Michigan

 

 

11:20 am

Assessing African Successes, West and South: the Cases of Cape Verde and Mozambique (Project 12)

 

Manuel Caldeira Cabral, Universidade do Minho

 

Jorge Braga de Macedo, Universidade Nova de Lisboa and NBER

 

JosÉ MÁrio Guerreiro Lopes, Universidade Nova de Lisboa

 

LuÍs Brites Pereira, Universidade Nova de Lisboa

 

 

 

Discussant: JEFFREY FRANKEL, Harvard University and NBER

 

 

12:20 pm

Q&A with co-chairs about logistics or joining the NBER Africa Project

 

 

12:35 pm

Lunch and Adjourn

 

 

 

 

 

Note on Time Allocation (60 minutes per project):

            Author(s):                  30 min.
            Discussants:              10 min.
            General discussion:  20 min.

 

Instructions to the Presenters:

Please load your ppts or other presentation files onto the laptop in the conference room before the relevant session.

 

 

Instructions to the Discussants:

In the spirit of this informal, working meeting, please give comments that are helpful rather than critical.

 

 

 

Updated 2/26/09