Eliana La Ferrara of Harvard University delivered the 32nd Annual Kuznets Memorial Lecture on Thursday March 2, 2023.
Eliana La Ferrara of Harvard University delivered the 32nd Annual Kuznets Memorial Lecture, "Changing Harmful Norms" on Thursday March 2, 2023 at 4PM. The event took place in-person at Yale with live simulcast online.
Hosted annually by the Yale Economic Growth Center since 1987, the Simon Kuznets Memorial Lecture features a prominent economist speaking on issues in economic development.
Professor Eliana La Ferrara
Eliana La Ferrara is a Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. She is 2nd Vice-President of the Econometric Society and Program Director of Development Economics for the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). She is also a J-PAL Affiliate, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Economic Association, and an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Her research focuses on Development Economics and Political Economics, particularly on the role of social factors in economic development. Methodologically, she combines fieldwork, rigorous empirical analysis, and microeconomic theory to address questions at the intersection of economics and other social sciences. She has studied ethnic diversity, kin structure and social norms, and the effects of television on social outcomes. She has also investigated political constraints to development, with particular focus on violent conflict in Africa. She regularly collaborates with governments and international organizations to evaluate the effectiveness of development policies.
La Ferrara's work has been published in leading economic journals, including the American Economic Review, Econometrica, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics, among others.
La Ferrara received a PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 1999. Prior to joining Harvard, she was the Invernizzi Chair in Development Economics at Bocconi University, Milan, where she founded and directed the Laboratory for Effective Anti-poverty Policies (LEAP). She was president of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD) in 2016-2019 and of the European Economic Association (EEA) in 2018. In 2020 she received the Birgit Grodal Award, which is awarded annually by the EEA to a European-based female economist who has made a significant contribution to the Economics profession.
Kuznets Mini-Conference
As part of the 32nd Annual Kuznets Lecture, a mini-conference spotlighting the work of early career researchers was held on Friday, March 3, 2023. Held in conjunction with the 32nd Kuznets Lecture, the Kuznets Mini-Conference on Norms, Gender, and Development highlighted current work in these areas.
Group photo of mini-conference presenters and attendees