Informal institutions, infrastructure, and urbanization
What is your research about?
My research agenda, which would be supported by a ‘start-up’ research grant from the Stone Centre, investigates the roles of informal institutions and infrastructure in the development process. My work will highlight how urban markets, such as housing or transport, respond to government investment and evolve with development. Understanding the mechanisms involved will then inform crucial policy questions. Should governments, particularly in developing countries, optimize existing ‘technologies’ serving the urban lower-income masses – such as shared minibuses or informal settlements – or invest in the formal housing or transit infrastructure?
How will the Stone Centre grant help your research?
The Stone Centre grant will help with a varity of projects related to my research agenda, for example:
- the analysis of existing data, some confidential, such as ONS SRS household, firm, travel survey datasets, matched employer-employee data in Brazil and Germany,
- the empirical component of some projects, for example, using natural experiments to estimate reduced-form event studies.
What will you produce as part of your research?
I would like to produce:
- working papers and later journal article publications of my three existing projects,
- a CORE Econ 'How economists learn from facts' on commuting access or gains from transport infrastructure,
- a CORE Econ 'When economists disagree' on spatial inequality and place-based policies.
About this grant
Title of the project: The role of self-stereotypes in perpetuating educational inequalities
Value of the grant: £25,000
Duration: September 2023 – ongoing
