Over the summer 2023, four early career researchers in the Department of Economics were awarded grants from the Integrated Impact Fund to develop the research and engagement pipelines of socially impactful projects.
Sarah Clifford (Associate Professor, St Hugh’s College) used the grant to start a project on the effect of the UK tax system and foreign tax systems on the allocation of investment and high-skilled jobs within multinational firms in the UK. Sarah used the grant to prepare a database of the system of tax rules, and their changes over time, affecting multinational firms.
Dennis Egger (Associate Professor, Queen’s College) used the grant to apply the findings of his recent paper in Econometrica to the design of the roll-out of GiveDirectly’s STEP programme. This is an unprecedentedly large cash transfer program aiming to give 550 USD to each adult living below 2.15 USD per day in Malawi and Rwanda over the next 10 years. The program will amount to over 5bio USD and will reach 10 million recipients. Dennis used the funds to help develop a model to predict the likely impacts of the programme and to help design an evaluation strategy for the roll-out.
Francis Ditraglia (Associate Professor, Lady Margaret Hall) used the grant to help develop a detailed dataset on childhood blood lead levels in the US and UK. They went beyond much existing data work in this area to create the UK indicators at a very detailed geographic level and created a first proof-of-concept interactive web-app to display spatial relationships in England.
Romuald Méango (Associate Professor, Christ Church College) used the grant to organise a special session on “Challenges of Employment in Africa” at the Africa Econometrics Society 2024 to disseminate the latest findings on labour markets in Sub Saharan Africa. The session will bring together academic scholars and local government officers in Cote d’Ivoire and West Africa including representatives from the office of the President, the office of the Prime Minister, the Ministries of Labour, the African Development Bank, the Agence Francaise de Development, and the Union Economique et Monetaire Ouest Africaine.
