Newsletter

STEG Newsletter - February 2023

Dear All,

February kicked off with our third (and first in-person!) annual conference. On top of this, we have selected several groundbreaking new projects for funding and will have a new funding call timeline for you very soon!

If you missed the STEG-IGC Conference on Structural Transformation, Growth, and Economic Development earlier this month, you can find all papers, slides, and recordings on the STEG website!

STEG is releasing a new podcast series on a number of important topics in the fields of structural transformation and economic growth. Check out who is speaking below!

New grants have been funded under the Third Larger Research Grants Call. Find out the latest projects here!

An update on STEG funding calls, which are still currently on hold. We will have a new call timeline by the end of March.

The STEG Working Paper Series has released two more papers this February! Find the papers below and on the STEG website.

Proposals from the Third & Fourth Ideas for Transformation Call are currently under evaluation with decisions expected in March.

Lastly, don't forget to get all the dates for upcoming calls and events in your calendar!

Best,

The STEG Team


Conference on Structural Transformation, Growth, and Economic Development - Resources Available Now

We hope you were able to join us for the STEG-IGC Conference on Structural Transformation, Growth, and Economic Development earlier this month. Over the two days, we heard 20 presentations on some of the latest research taking place in these fields. These included two keynote addresses, eight full-length presentations, six short speed-round presentations, and four updates from STEG partners. The conference helped to demonstrate the breadth and quality of recent and ongoing work around structural change, and the various opportunities and challenges there are still to explore. It was fantastic to see researchers working in the fields of structural transformation and economic growth gathering together in person under the STEG banner for the first time. We hope to be able to hold more events in person later in the year.

If you weren't able to attend the conference or if you would simply like to go back and review any of the presentations, you can find all related papers, slides, and recordings, where available, on this programme and through the conference homepage.


New STEG Podcast Series

STEG is releasing a new podcast series over the next two weeks based around research presented at our annual conference.

Professor Adnan Khan, Chief Economist and Director for Economics and Evaluation Directorate at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), will be introducing the series discussing how to put research into practice and the importance of structural transformation to FCDO's agenda.

The following four presentations feature research on key issues in the debate around structural transformation and economic growth. Allan Hsiao discusses his work on urban adaptation, Nathan Lane on industrial policy, Marina Ngoma on industrialisation in Africa, and Nina Pavcnik on global value chains.


New Projects: Third LRG Call

A further six projects have been funded across our Third Larger Research Grants Call:

  • Alex Armand, Pedro C. Vicente, and Wayne Sandholtz – On the Political Economy of Urbanization: A Natural and Two Field Experiments around the 2023 Local Elections in Mozambique
  • Costas Arkolakis, Conor Walsh, and Anton Yang – Clean Water (cross-country; Sub-Saharan Africa)
  • Francis Annan and Apoorv Gupta – Digitizing Bureaucracy (Ghana)
  • Marco Gonzalez-Navarro, Florence Kondylis, and John Loeser – Rural Roads and Agricultural Value Chains (Rwanda)
  • David Atkin, Dave Donaldson, and Federico Huneeus – The Incidence of Distortions in the Developing World (Chile, Rwanda, and Uganda)
  • Amen Jalal and Pol Simpson – Curse of the Cow: Barriers to Climate Adaptation in Pakistan’s "Biblical" Floods (Pakistan)

Further information on these projects will soon be announced on the STEG website.


STEG Funding Update

We have recently been made aware of uncertainties about the STEG budget as a result of potential reductions in the budget of our funder FCDO (UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office). Funding calls are currently on hold as a result whilst we establish the available budget.

We appreciate that this uncertainty is an inconvience for those seeking funding and hope to reopen the calls as soon as possible. We currently anticipate that a new call timeline will be released by the end of March. This will give an indication of when the next SRG and LRG funding calls will be opening and closing.

Please note that we do not expect funding for open STEG grants to be affected.


New Papers under the STEG WP Series

Two new papers have been published under the STEG Working Paper Series in February:

If you would like to submit your paper to the STEG Working Paper Series, please contact the STEG Team at [email protected].

Working papers that have been produced through STEG-funded projects are included in the series and we welcome papers from researchers directly affiliated with STEG as well as researchers' papers that have been presented at STEG-funded events including our Annual Conference and Theme Workshops


Important Dates

Calls under Evaluation

  • Third & Fourth Ideas for Transformation Call - decisions expected by end of March

Open Calls

There are currently no open calls.

Opening Soon

  • Fifth Ideas for Transformation Call - opens mid-March

Find a provisional call timeline for future calls here.

Upcoming Events

There are currently no upcoming events.

If you have any questions, please contact the STEG Team at [email protected].

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STEG Working Paper Series

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