PhD Researchers
You-ah Chung
You-ah Chung's thesis is on 'National systems of foreign aid and developmental consequences'.
Subhasish Dey
The title of Subhasish's thesis is 'Welfare or workfare? A strategy for inclusive growth: exploring the case of MG-NREGS'.
His research looks at the world’s biggest employment guarantee (EGS) programme, namely India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes (MGNREGS), which typically involves workfare intervention by the state. His research examines how far this workfare intervention will ensure the inclusive growth agenda claimed in the programme design of MGNREGS.
He investigates the underlying self-targeting notion of this programme. Institutional efficiency in implementing this programme through local self-government will also be tested, along with the impact of this programme on participating households vis-à-vis non-participating households.
Starting with a theoretical debate around the possibility of ensuring long-run inclusive growth through EGS, his research looks into an in-depth econometric analysis of primary and secondary data on household participation in this programme. A randomised control experiment exercise would be used to assess the programme’s impact on participating households.
Selected publications
Dey, S. (2010). ‘Evaluating the impact of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: the case of Birbhum District, West Bengal', India, ISS Working Paper No. 490, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, January.
Dey, S. and Bedi, A. (2010). 'The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as a safety net in Birbhum, West Bengal'. SSRN Working Paper.
Dey, S. and Bedi, A. (2010). 'The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Birbhum', Economic and Political Weekly,9 October, XLV(41).
Dey, S. and Bhattacharjee, S. (2010). 'Effect of decentralisation policy and practice on the poor people in West Benga l — Contribution of DFID-supported SRD approaches' (Programme evaluation report submitted to DFID, India).
Mohammed Eusuf
Mohammed's thesis is on 'Dynamics of urban poverty in Bangladesh'.
Most studies on the analysis of poverty in Bangladesh have focused on rural areas, while rigorous empirical research on urban poverty is quite limited. The thesis is intended to fill this void and make an in-depth analysis of urban poverty dynamics. The key research questions are as follows:
The research will follow both quantitative and qualitative (Q) methods. It attempts to construct a pseudo panel data with the formation of cohorts using four rounds of nationally representative HIES data. The research explores poverty dynamics scenarios among the various core household groups, ‘never poor’, ‘movers’, ‘fallers’ and ‘chronically poor’, over the same period. It finds that the momentum of escaping from poverty of the day labour groups is very low compared to other occupation groups during the observed period.
Selected publications
Eusuf, M. A. (2011), ‘Assessment of budget analysis and monitoring unit (BAMU) in improving the role of parliament in Bangladesh’, International Budget Partnership e-Newsletter, 60, May–June, Washington DC.
Eusuf, M. A (2010), ‘The Doha Development Agenda (DDA): an analysis from the perspectives of the LDCs’. Dhaka University Journal of Development Studies, 1(1): 71-77.
Eusuf, M. A. and Atiur Rahman (2009), ‘Responding to the Millennium Development Challenge though private sector’s involvement in Bangladesh’, Dhaka: General Economics Division, Planning Commission and UNDP Bangladesh.
Eusuf, M. A. and Ahmed, M. (2008), ‘Causality between export and growth: Granger causality tests on South Asian countries’, Jahangirnagar Economic Review, Department of Economics, Jahangirnagar University.
Eusuf, M. A. (2008), ‘Prising open non-traditional export bonanza’, The Daily Star, 17 February.
Eusuf, M. A. et al. (2007), ‘Institutions for facilitating FDI: issues for BEPZA, Bangladesh’, University of Manchester: IPPG Briefing Paper 10.
Eusuf, M. A. et al. (2007), ‘Trade liberalization and poverty: the Bangladesh experience’, in At the Crossroads – South Asian Research, Policy and Development in a Globalized World. Islamabad: Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).
Huraera Jabeen
Huraera's thesis is entitled 'The gender dynamics of asset-based adaptation to climate variability in the built environment by the urban poor in Bangladesh'.
Effects of climate change are argued to be gendered because of the strong relationship between poverty and vulnerability to environmental change. In the past, development policy making was often either ‘gender-blind’ or tried to ‘mainstream’ gender as an after-thought. Understanding ‘gender’ as the ‘social relation’ between women and men, can create possibilities for positive transformations. Gender dynamics within households can play a key role in decision making for asset accumulation in the built environment to reduce vulnerability and move towards adaptation encompassing physical, social and ecological factors.
The aim of the research is to explore how asset-based adaptation to climate variability among the urban poor is mediated by gender dynamics, both within households and within local communities. The research aims to examine the process of accumulating and consolidating assets in the built environment to increase resilience against vulnerability from the impacts of climate change and climate variability; the gender dynamics within household and communities in urban areas that mediate the processes of decision making, access to, and management of, resources and their contribution to adaptation; as well as the spatial dimension of adaptation to climate change and climate variability that can conjoin both asset and gender dynamics
Recent publicationsJabeen, H. (2012), ‘Measuring resilience for adapting with climate change: gender dynamics and the built environment in urban poor households’. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Urban Sustainability and Resilience, 5-6 November 2012, UCL Centre for Urban Sustainability and Resilience, London, UK.
Jabeen, H., C. Johnson and A. Allen (2010), ‘Built-in resilience: learning from grassroots coping strategies for climate variability’, Environment and Urbanization, 22(2): 415-431.
Jabeen, H. and Mallick, F.H, (2009) 'Urban poverty climate change and built environment' published in The Daily Star, 24 January 2009.
Jabeen, H. (2006), ‘Strengths and weaknesses of participatory methods for rapid definition of problems and potentials to promote socially just urban intervention’, BRAC University Journal, 3(2).
Jabeen, H. (2005), ‘Reconciling self - urban development practice and social justice’, BRAC University Journal, 2(2), 2005.
Jabeen, H (2005) Concept of 'Planning gain', The Independent, 13 May 2005.
Jabeen, H (2005) Alternative housing proposal: experience from Kingston, Jamaica’s Parade Gardens, The Independent, 8 July 2005.
Moustafa Khalil
The title of Moustafa's thesis is 'Islamic institutions practice for poverty alleviation in Egypt: defining mechanisms and impact assessment'.'
Alma Kudebayeva
The title of Alma's thesis is 'Measurement and determinants of poverty in Kazakhstan during the boom of 2000’s: different approaches.'
This research is devoted to dynamic poverty measurements and determinants of chronic poverty in Kazakhstan, 2000-2009. It aims to assess the extent to which Kazakhstan’s economic success has been accompanied by reductions in poverty. How to measure multidimensional poverty in Kazakhstan? How will different measurements of household and individual welfare, such as consumption expenditures per capita or income per capita, influence multidimensional indicators of poverty? Who are the chronically poor and the transient poor? How are different approaches to the measurement of the chronically poor correlated? How to combine the indexes for measuring changes in poverty in time and multidimensional indicators? How vulnerable are these indicators to different cut offs, such as poverty line and duration of poverty? It also examines which factors and determinants, if any, led to some households benefiting more than others.
Selected publicationsKudebayeva A. and Muhamediyev B. (2003). 'Economic growth and poverty of the regions of Kazakhstan'. Al-Pari. Economics Journal 3-4, Almaty.
Kudebayeva A. (2007). 'Economic growth and inequality in Kazakhstan'. Materials of II International Congress Caucasus and Central Asia in the Globalization Progress, Baku.
Kudebayeva A. (2010). 'Kazakhstan: poverty and social exclusion in rural development'. The Hong Kong Journal of Social Work,44(2) (Winter).
Mathilde Maitrot
The title of Mathilde's thesis is 'Governance practices and organisational development: drivers of performance of MFIs.' Her research will contribute to the development of more socially performing microfinance institutions to improve their impact on poverty reduction. She aims to identify how organisational structures and systems can enhance the performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in rural Bangladesh.
The objectives of her study are to understand the diverse livelihoods requirements and needs of people in rural Bangladesh, in order to recognise their diverse preferences, expectations and perceptions towards MFI services. This will lead to the analysis of those MFI organisational structures and systems that channel a better social performance in Bangladesh. These findings shall have wider practical implications for the management of MFIs with respect to poverty alleviation.
Julia Mase
Julia Mase's thesis is entitled ‘Household responses to the South African state old age pension'. Her research aims to assess the impact of public transfers on household dynamics in older person households in developing countries.
Julia will be using qualitative and quantitative methods with a strong longitudinal component to analyse changes over time to household dynamics in specific regions of Brazil and South Africa, both rural and urban, which she will then compare. It is hoped that the findings from this research will contribute to the facilitation of better informed policies aimed at managing simultaneous economic development and population ageing.
Julia is the recipient of a +3 ESRC studentship attached to the project 'Ageing, Wellbeing and Development: a comparative analysis of South Africa and Brazil' being funded by the New Dynamics of Ageing cross-council programme. Her general research interests include population ageing, the relationship between social policies and demographic outcomes, and the political economy of age-inequality. Immediately prior to joining the BWPI in October 2008, Julia completed a MSc in Social Research Methods and Statistics from the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research, also at Manchester.
Myriam Jacqueline Gómez Méndez
Myriam’s research is entitled ‘The policy-making process of social protection in Argentina: a poverty alleviation case study’. It aims to contribute to existing theory on analysis of policy-making processes regarding poverty alleviation in the face of economic crisis. It is hoped this may produce results that could be useful for analysing similar situations in other developing countries, and for improving the design of social policies.
Prior to joining Manchester, Myriam completed a pre-doctoral internship in Paris, France to present the Diplôme de langue (awarded ‘Avec mention bien’ ); a Masters in Social Science, with a focus on Latin American and Iberian Studies at the University of Guadalajara (awarded as a high grade student); and a BA in Political Studies and Government, with a focus on electoral systems and processes at the University of Guadalajara (awarded Honours degree for outstanding academic performance).
She has previously worked as intern researcher at Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) and as lecturer at the Universidad del Valle de México, the Universidad Tecnológica de México, the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara and the Universidad de Guadalajara. Myriam has recently worked in Argentina as visiting researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center for Public Policy Studies (CIEPP). She has presented her research at international conferences in UK, Ireland, México and France.
Luigi Peter Ragno
Luigi Pietro (Peter) Ragno’s research aim is to contribute to developing a conceptual framework on social protection policies in developing countries, and particularly on public policies addressing economic security in old age in urban Bangladesh. This aim will be achieved through an in depth research on social assistance schemes (social, non contributory, pension scheme) in an urban centre (Municipality of Narayanganj) in Bangladesh with the instrumental purpose of ensuring these public policies will promote livelihoods and contribute to poverty reduction.
The research project will critically adapt and operationalize the Social Risk Management conceptual framework in an analytical tool. It will investigate to what extent income transfer programmes facilitate risk taking and investments in targeted households, and to what extent improvements in the management of risks have long lasting impact on the wellbeing of beneficiary households.
Luigi Peter is an independent expert working on social protection and livelihoods with several International Development and Humanitarian Agencies including the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and French Red Cross (CRF).
Mohammad Rahman
Mohammad's thesis is entitled: ‘Estimation of treatment effects using regression discontinuity design’.
His current research involves applications of regression discontinuity design. He has applied this method in analysing the effects of social safety net programmes on the calorie consumption of poor households in Bangladesh, the effects of education maintenance allowance on remaining in further education in the UK, the consumption-retirement puzzle in the UK, and the effects of households' political affiliation on the probability of accessing social safety net programmes in Bangladesh. He is also studying the effects of migration on poverty and inequality in Bangladesh.
His future research interests include domestic violence, corruption, political influence on social safety net programmes, migration and its implications, poverty and inequality, returns to education, and theoretical econometrics.
His research background is in micro and macro economics and advanced econometric tools. He has constructed macroeconometric models for the Asian Development Bank and the Planning Commission, Bangladesh. He has worked as a consultant with Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program, and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.
Selected publications
Rahman, M. M. (2012). Estimating the effects of social safety net programs in Bangladesh on calorie consumption of poor households. The Bangladesh Development Studies, 35(2), June.
Rahman, M. M. and Khatoon, R. (2012). Why do men earn more than women?
An analysis using British Household Panel Survey. The Bangladesh Development Studies, 35(1), March.
Khatoon, R. and Rahman, M. M. (2009). Assessing the existence of J-curve effect in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Development Studies, 32(2), June.
Co-author of three chapters in M. A. Razzaque, B. H. Khondker and S. Raihan (eds.) (2011), Poverty, Intra-Household Distribution and Gender relations in Bangladesh (Dhaka: University Press).
Farzana Ramzan
The title of Farzana's thesis is 'Food security, technology adoption and Intra-household dynamics in rural Tanzania'.
Vicente Adrian Rivera-Garcia
Vicente Rivera-Garcia’s key area of research is concerned with the dynamic analysis of poverty from an empirical microeconomics perspective. Particularly, his doctoral research is devoted to the quantitative analysis of vulnerability to poverty, risk, shocks and uncertainty, as well as poverty traps. He is also interested in assessing the impact of policies and anti-poverty programmes on individuals’ and households’ welfare. Besides, Vicente's academic interests are related to the effects of macroeconomic and social shocks on households’ wellbeing, as well as the role played by government mechanisms in order to buffer these shocks at an individual level.
Vicente received his BA in Economics (Best Student Award) in 2003 from the Universidad de Sonora (Mexico), and a Diploma in Federal Tax Audit (2004) from the Internal Revenue Service (Ministry of Public Debt) of Mexico. In 2006, he obtained the Fulbright Scholarship and the NYU-GSAS Full Tuition Award to pursue masters’ studies in the US. He earned the MA degree in Economics from New York University (NYU) in 2008. In 2011, he gained a full scholarship from the National Council for Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT) to pursue doctoral studies in economics at the University of Manchester within the Development Economics Research Area Group.
Mr Rivera-Garcia has held several positions mainly as a public servant in the Mexican State of Sonora. From 2003 to 2006, he was an advisor on economic, public finance, taxation and anti-poverty issues for the Parliamentary Group of the National Action Party (PAN) at State Congress. In 2009, he was director of economic and financial information for the office of the Secretary of Economy. In 2010, he became general director of planning and logistics for the Centre of Evaluation and Control of Trust (Secretary of Public Safety).
Laurence Roope
Laurence holds a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from the University of Durham and an MSc in Econometrics from the University of Manchester. Prior to beginning his PhD in July 2008, Laurence worked as a professional econometrician in the private sector. He is in the final year of his PhD at the University of Manchester.
Research interests
Primary fields: Income inequality and poverty, Applied microeconomics
Secondary fields: Welfare economics
Laurence’s primary research interests lie broadly in the area of income distribution. He is particularly interested in theoretical and empirical issues pertaining to the measurement of poverty. As part of his PhD thesis, he has developed and characterised a new class of poverty measures which capture the dynamic nature of poverty across different time periods. In a related paper, he has applied this methodology to analyse intertemporal poverty in the UK during 1991-2005, using data from the British Household Panel Survey.
Laurence is also interested in Welfare economics. A recent paper, also written as part of his PhD thesis, focuses on the concept of the poverty line and demonstrates a means of endogenising the poverty line within a broader social preferences framework.
Juan Miguel Villa
Juan's thesis is entitled 'Effectiveness, vulnerability and the optimal exit conditions of social protection programmes: evidence from conditional cash transfers'.
One of the main concerns of policy makers and practitioners working on social protection programmes is the duration and exit conditions of their recipients. Despite the existence of clear and sophisticated targeting tools for the selection of poor households, there is still a gap in determining the continuity of beneficiaries once they have improved their living standards.
My approach is based on two basic elements. The exit conditions of social protection programmes must consider, on one hand, their effectiveness on achieving poverty alleviation after a certain period, and, on the other hand, the vulnerability level of those households that have overcome a threshold of a given poverty measure.
The optimal exit condition of a household receiving aid from a social protection programme will entail that the marginal effect of the programme is a decreasing function of the individual poverty alleviation and, secondly, a small likelihood of the family remaining poor in the future.Recent publications
P. Ibarraran, L. Ripani, B. Taboada, B. Garcia and J. M. Villa (2012), 'Life skills, employability and training for disadvantaged youth: evidence from a randomized evaluation design'. Bonn: IZA Discussion Paper No. 6617.
D. Card, P. Ibarran and J. M. Villa (2011), 'Building in an evaluation component for active labor market projects: a practitioner’s guide'. Bonn: IZA Discussion Paper No. 6085.
J. M. Villa and R. Florez (2012), 'Minimum wages and informality: effects in Honduras' (in Spanish). Inter American Development Bank, Technical Note IDB-TN-457.
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