STEG invites applications to present at the fifth Annual Conference on Structural Transformation and Economic Growth and accompanying Theme Workshops between 8th and 11th January 2025 at the Department of Economics, University of Oxford.
The annual conference will take place in-person on the Thursday, 9th and Friday, 10th of January 2025, and the workshops for themes will sandwich the plenary sessions on either Wednesday 8th or Saturday 11th January 2025. Presentations will be livestreamed to a broader external audience.
Instructions on how to apply for the conference and workshops via the CEPR Hub can be found below.
About the events
The STEG Annual Conference
The fifth Annual Conference on Structural Transformation and Economic Growth will showcase keynote talks, academic and policy panels, ongoing projects, and recent research papers related to structural transformation. Along with full-length presentations, shorter sessions will display a wide range of research, particularly by young scholars. We hope to highlight the field's diverse research and disseminate outstanding projects funded by STEG. We also hope to provide networking and engagement opportunities for early-career researchers across various institutions and geographies. The STEG Annual Conference organisers are Isabela Manelici (LSE and CEPR), Raul Santaeulalia-Llopis (NYU Abu Dhabi and CEPR) and Gabriel Ulyssea (UCL and CEPR). The STEG programme is led by Doug Gollin (Tufts University, University of Oxford and CEPR) and Joe Kaboski (University of Notre Dame and CEPR).
The Thematic Workshops
Similar to the previous conference, STEG will also host Thematic Workshops alongside the main conference. Facilitated by the STEG Theme Leaders, these events go into more depth on STEG’s particular focus themes (see below).
Themes and cross-cutting issues
We welcome submissions for the conference and themed workshops from researchers interested in studying broad systemic patterns and processes of structural transformation and growth in low- and middle-income countries. Submissions can explore comparative analyses across time or space, or focus on specific topics related to our research themes below.
STEG also prioritises three cross-cutting issues: gender, climate change and the environment, and inequality and inclusion. We encourage papers that address these issues alongside structural transformation.
STEG’s goal is to generate research and evidence to inform policy in low-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, we seek papers that demonstrate clear relevance to this objective.
Submitted papers will be considered for both the Conference and Theme Workshops unless otherwise specified in the ‘comments’ section on the application.
Theme 0 - Data, measurement, and conceptual framing
This workshop will focus on how improved data or economic measurement can help shed a light on the process of structural transformation and its link to economic growth. There is a particular interest in understanding the challenges for low-income countries. We welcome papers that introduce new data or measurement approaches in this context.
Specific topics and approaches of interest may include efforts to quantify:
- The process of structural transformation
- The role of resource (mis)allocation
- Domestic or international trade costs
- Technology adoption and productivity
- Home production and structural change
Theme 0 leaders and workshop organisers: Gaaitzen de Vries (University of Groningen) and Akos Valentinyi (University of Manchester and CEPR)
Theme 1 - Firms, frictions and spillovers, industrial policy
This workshop will focus on the roles of firms, frictions, spillovers and industrial policy in structural transformation and economic growth, with a particular interest in understanding the challenges for the poorest countries. Methodologically, we invite a wide range of approaches including theoretical modelling, quantitative analyses, empirical work utilising secondary datasets and micro-compartments in developing countries.
Specific topics and approaches of interest may include:
- Aggregate quantitative modelling featuring heterogeneous firms
- Microempirics of firms in developing countries
- Measurement and quantification of technological spillovers and knowledge diffusion
- Measurement and modelling of barriers to firm entry, growth, and the allocation of resources across firms
- Importance of interactions among producers, e.g. firm to firm trade, production chain decisions, outsourcing
- Empirical, theoretical, or quantitative analysis of industrial policy
- Analyses of macro policies promoting firm productivity and growth
Theme leaders and workshop organisers: Francisco Buera (Washington University in St. Louis and CEPR) and Ezra Oberfield (Princeton University)
Theme 2 - Labour, home production, and structural transformation
This workshop focuses on how home production and market work change during the process of structural transformation, as an economy develops. We are particularly interested in how different types of barriers -- in the home and the market -- affect the movement of work from households into the market, and how these barriers may affect different workers (men/women, unskilled/skilled, etc) in different ways. Our interest is in identifying barriers that help us understand structural change in the labour market in developing countries: how it might be similar to the historical record in developed countries, and ways in which it might differ.
We invite a wide range of methodological approaches including theoretical modelling of mechanisms, quantitative analyses, and empirical work combining rigorous causal methods with secondary datasets from developing countries.
Specific topics of interest may include (but are not limited to):
- The role of technology, and infrastructure, in affecting home and market labour productivity in developing countries
- The role of social norms in constraining the type of work that women do in the market
- The misallocation costs of barriers to structural transformation in specific labour markets of developing countries
- Analyses of policies that promote market work for specific types of workers
- How international trade alters the shift of work from home to market among women in developing countries
Theme 2 leaders and workshop organisers: Taryn Dinkelman (Notre Dame and CEPR) and Rachel Ngai (LSE and CEPR)
Theme 3 - Agricultural productivity and sectoral gaps & Theme 4 - Trade and spatial frictions
This joint workshop with Theme 3 and Theme 4 will focus on how market integration - both internal and global - shapes the structural transformation process in developing countries. In particular, we are interested in the role of agriculture and connections between agriculture and on economic development.
Specific topics include but are not limited to:
- Barrier to movement of labour and capital
- Measurement and quantification of technological barriers and quantification of productivity gaps within and across sectors
- Measurement and quantification of domestic and international spatial frictions
- The role of infrastructure and other investments in market integration on economic development
- Comparative advantage in natural resources and structural transformation
- The role of openness in the transition from rural agricultural sector to high value-added urban manufacturing and service sectors
- Welfare consequences of integration of interior areas in world markets
- Distributional effects of international trade in developing countries
Theme 3 leaders and workshop organisers: Kevin Donovan (Yale School of Management) and Julieta Caunedo (Cornell University and CEPR)
Theme 4 leaders and workshop organisers: Paula Bustos (UPF and CEPR) and Mike Waugh (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis)
Theme 5: The role of the public sector
This workshop will focus on the role of governments in structural transformation and economic development. We are particularly interested in how public finances, investment in infrastructure, and other government policies impact the allocation of resources across households, firms, industries, and space.
We invite applications using different methodologies, including structural modelling, quantitative analysis, and empirical work. We particularly welcome projects using non-standard sources of data and approaches.
Specific topics and approaches of interest may include (but are not limited to):
- Taxes and expenditure, and state capacity
- Fiscal policy and debt management
- The role of the procurement system
- The production of public investment in infrastructure and structures
- The effects of public investment on structural transformation
- The effects of industrial policy
- The role of state in shaping the spatial distribution of economic activity
Theme 5 leaders and workshop organisers: Manuel García-Santana (World Bank, UPF, and CEPR), Martina Kirchberger (Trinity College Dublin and CEPR), Abdoulaye Ndiaye (New York University and CEPR)
How to apply:
Please note:
- If you do not want your submission also considered for the associated Thematic Workshop, please indicate so in the ‘comments’ section on the application portal.
- Please find more information on the themes here.
- If you want to submit a paper to multiple themes you will need to submit the paper to each theme individually.
- Please upload your CV as part of your submission.
- Only complete or near complete papers will be considered.
- Successful applicants will be invited towards the end of October 2024 and will be expected to respond promptly.
- The deadline for submission is Sunday, 6th October 2024, 23:59 BST.
Authors who already have a CEPR HUB profile can upload their submission by:
- Going to https://hub.cepr.org/ and logging in
- After you have logged in, go to https://hub.cepr.org/event/4433
- Click on "Step 1: Apply"
- Under "Apply to Attend" click "Yes"
- Tick the boxes that apply to you
- Tick "Would you like to submit a paper?", upload your paper and supply the requested information *You can submit additional papers, or use this option to submit the paper to more than one theme
- Click "Submit form" to make the submission.
Authors who do not have a CEPR HUB profile can upload their submission by:
- Creating a new profile here https://hub.cepr.org/user/register
- After you have logged in, go to https://hub.cepr.org/event/4433
- Click on "Step 1: Apply"
- Under "Apply to Attend" click "Yes"
- Tick the boxes that apply to you
- Tick "Would you like to submit a paper?", upload your paper and supply the requested information *You can submit additional papers, or use this option to submit the paper to more than one theme
- Click "Submit form" to make the submission.
If you have any difficulties registering or submitting a paper for this conference, please contact Mandy Chan, Head of Events at [email protected].