Development economics focuses on the economics aspects of improving the quality of lives of less privileged groups regardless of whether they are in advanced economies or less developed economies. Networks are an ideal tool for modeling the micro aspects of such behavior since they can be used to focus of the different levels and types of relations that can exist between individuals in close knit societies. The proposed conference will be the first one to focus entirely on this emerging area of study. Our goal is to bring together senior scholars working in this area to provide an assessment of the current state of knowledge as well as provide directions for the future by setting out a body of open problems. Junior scholars and recent graduates who will benefit from the feedback received as well as from a well defined research agenda. Moreover, an explicit attempt will be made to expose graduate students from LSU and nearby universities in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas to this emerging area of research. Bringing together researchers that use the entire spectrum of methodological tools as well as junior and senior researchers will provide many opportunities for fruitful collaboration. The conference will cover all aspects of the proposed theme: theory, empirical and experimental work.

Project Report

This project was in the nature of public service to the discipline where the PIs sought funding for hosting a conference on an emerging theme in economics (and hence no overhead costs are charged). The conference was titled: Networks and Development: Exploring An Emerging Theme and focused on the intersection of Development Economics (an established area that seeks to study both at the individual and aggregate level how economies grow and develop) and Network modeling (a relatively in new discipline both within and outside of economics). This type of modeling recognizes the fact that network relationships are very important for economic transactions, particularly when there is uncertainty or issues of trust. Clearly such issues are important for developmental activities for both less developed and developed economies. The conference had two plenary speakers: Prof. Matthew Jackson, William D. Eberle Professor of Economics, Stanford University Prof. Francis Bloch, Professor of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris Prof. Jackson talked about the spread of microfinance using networks, and Prof. Bloch examined how price formation occurs in a network. The conference had 11 other papers that were presented spread over one and half days. There were approximately 40 participants of whom 23 including presenters were graduate students. Of these students, 14 were from out of town and 11 women participated in the conference. The presented papers were of very high quality since participants took the trouble to fly to Baton Rouge from as far away as Hawaii and Australia.The most important outcomes was the feedback that was made available to graduate students who had already written papers. Graduate who were just starting out on their research also benefited enormously by being exposed to cutting edge topics and methodologies in an emerging area. Moreover, being under one roof all these researchers were able to interact with one another and this potentially lead to future collaborative work.The PI for certain has found one new co-author and potentially more opportunities for collaboration will exist in the future. Some of the advanced graduate students have now gone on to academic jobs and are working on related topics. Presented papers covered topics ranging from how financial contagion spreads to how to defend against adversaries who might be interested in moving some dangerous goods using a network. Other papers focused on the role of trust in networks and how mobile phone usage can be used to track charitable activities during times of trouble. Some papers also analyzed how communities and families deal with risky situations by pooling their resources.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
1157407
Program Officer
Niloy Bose
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2012-04-01
Budget End
2012-09-30
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$28,825
Indirect Cost
Name
Louisiana State University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Baton Rouge
State
LA
Country
United States
Zip Code
70803