PhD Researchers
You-ah Chung
You-ah Chung's thesis is on 'National Systems of Foreign Aid and Developmental Consequences.'
Abdul Gafaru Abdulai
The title of Abdul's thesis is 'The State and Poverty Reduction in Northern Ghana'. In the light of rising regional inequalities amid Ghana's impressive records in economic growth and poverty reduction in recent times, the aims of his research are to: a) explain the factors that account for the persistent high levels of extreme poverty in Northern Ghana; and b) to critically examine the role of the post-colonial Ghanaian state in bridging the north-south divide that characterise Ghana's development processes. He poses the following fundamental questions in this study:
What factors account for the growing inequality between the north and south of the country in recent times?
How have successive Ghanaian governments confronted the historical and contemporary development gap between the north and south of Ghana?
To what extent has the post-independent Ghanaian state been committed in addressing the north-south developmental gap?
Why has the state been generally unsuccessful in altering the persistent underdevelopment of Northern Ghana?
Recent Publications
Abdulai, A-G., &; Crawford, G., ‘Democratic Consolidation in Ghana: Prospects and Challenges? Democratization, Volume 17, Issue 1, pp.26- 67, February 2010
Abdulai, A-G., & Crawford, G., ‘Is Ghana a Model for Africa?’, World Politics Review, January 2010.
Abdulai A.G. and R. Quantson (2009), 'The changing role of CSOs in public policy making in Ghana', Ghana Social Science Journal, Volumes 5 & 6, Numbers 1 & 2, pp 114 -151.
Crawford, G. & Abdulai, A-G., ‘The World Bank and Ghana’s Poverty Reduction Strategies: Strengthening the State or Consolidating Neo-liberalism?’ Special Issue on Poverty Reform and the World Bank, in Labour, Capital and Society, Volume 42, no. 1, & 2, pp.82-115 December, 2009
Abdulai, A-G., ‘Are Multinational Corporations Compatible with Sustainable Development? The Case of Developing Countries’, in John R. McIntyre, Silvester Ivanaj and Vera Ivanaj (eds.), Multinational Enterprises and the Challenge of Sustainable Development, pp. 50-72, Edward Elgar Publishing, October 2009.
Abdulai, A-G., ‘Political will in combating corruption in developing and transition economies: A Comparative Study of Singapore, Hong Kong and Ghana’, Journal of Financial Crime, Volume 16, No.4, pp. 387-417, September 2009.
Abdulai, A-G., ‘Ghana: A Political Context Study’, Background paper prepared for a two-year comparative research project titled ‘Human Rights, Power and Civic Action in Developing Countries’, Universities of Leeds (UK) and Oslo (Norway), Working Paper No.1, January 2009.
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.
Nathalie Gupta
The title of Nathalie's thesis is 'The impact of industrial restructuring on real wages and income inequalities for factory workers in selected industrial districts in India'.
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 publications
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 jJustice’, BRAC University Journal, 2(2), 2005.
Jabeen, H (2005) “Concept of 'Planning gain'” published in The Independent in 13 May 2005 http://www.independent-bangladesh.com/news/may/13/13052005ft.htm
Jabeen, H (2005) “Alternative housing proposal: Experience from Kingston, Jamaica’s Parade Gardens” published in The Independent in 08 July 2005 http://www.independent-bangladesh.com/news/jul/08/08072005pa.htm
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 publications
Kudebayeva 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 2010).
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.
Miranda Morgan
The title of Miranda's PhD thesis is 'Women, gender and protest: contesting oil palm plantation expansion in Sambas district, Indonesia'.
Her research aims to investigate if and how people disadvantaged by the global food system may challenge and change the social relations that determine food access. She is particularly interested in understanding, from the perspective of the hungry involved food protests, if and how they see themselves acting in or against the global food system, and their perceptions of their agency and their ability to acquire enhanced food access via political mobilisation. Miranda's research question is: 'What is the role of contentious politics in gaining entitlements for the food insecure?' and she has chosen the recent food protests in Jakarta, Indonesia as her case study. She is currently based in Jakarta, where she has been working on a multi-method qualitative research study.
Admire Nyamwanza
Admire's research topic is ‘Livelihood resilience and adaptive capacity in complex vulnerability contexts: A case study of Mbire/Dande Communal Areas in the Mid-Zambezi Valley’. The focus of his study is on the investigation of the resilience and adaptive capacity of rural households and communities in Zimbabwe to pressures and challenges in the context of the period 1990-2008 (with a special focus on Muzarabani communal area of Mashonaland Central Province in the country). A multiplicity of (political, socio-economic, natural and environmental) pressures and challenges converged to create a complex vulnerability context during the said period. The research thus seeks to analyse how conditions of hyperinflation, increased political violence, food shortages, increased droughts and floods among other challenges impacted on rural livelihoods, how the rural poor responded to such situations of strain and the implications for adaptive capacity and resilience to current and future stresses and shocks.
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).
Farzana Ramzan
The title of Farzana's thesis is 'Food security, technology adoption and Intra-household dynamics in rural Tanzania.'
Ganga Tilakaratna
Ganga Tilakaratna is examining the contribution of microfinance towards poverty reduction in Sri Lanka based on a comparative analysis of three key Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in the country: (i.) Samurdhi Savings and Credit program- the Government's largest microfinance provider, (ii) the Thrift and Credit Co-operative Movement- the pioneers of microfinance in Sri Lanka and (iii.) SEEDS -the largest Non-governmental MFI. Her study looks at the institutional features including organisational structure and financial and non-financial products of the three MFIs, their outreach (e.g. whom the MFIs have reached) and their impact on their clients (and their households) to explore whether, how and the extent to which these MFIs differ in their contribution to poverty reduction. The study takes a step further to investigate whether clients of the three MFIs access multiple institutions to fulfil their financial needs and the underlying reasons for and implications of such multiple access to both the clients and the MFIs.
Selected Publications
Tilakaratna, G. and P. Samaratunga (2006), 'Economic and Political Empowerment of the Poor: Country Studies of Sri Lanka', SACEPS Paper No 9, South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS), Kathmandu, Nepal, August 2006.
Tilakaratna, G., A. Galappattige and T. Kumara (2006), 'Annotated Bibliography on Microfinance in Sri Lanka' , Poverty and Social Welfare Series No. 8, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Tilakaratna G. (2006), 'Educational Opportunities for the Poor: Sri Lanka', Policy Brief No. 11, Inter-Regional Inequality Facility, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London, UK, February 2006.
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.
Jing You
Jing is a PhD student based in Economics in the School of Social Sciences and affiliated to BWPI. Prior to joining Manchester in September 2007, she obtained a Bachelor of Economics in China and an MSc* (with merit) in Economics at the University of Edinburgh. Jing’s doctoral research uses large survey data at the household level to examine households’ welfare and poverty in rural China since the reforms that began in 1978. Her main research interests are in the fields of development economics and applied econometrics, such as issues related to poverty, vulnerability, inequality and wellbeing, programme evaluation and the role of risk and household behaviour for reducing poverty. In addition, she also investigates climate change and sustainable development in the context of China.
Jing has presented her research at several international conferences held at Oxford University, Peking University, the Royal Economic Society, OECD Headquarters, and the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture.
Selected publications
You, J. (forthcoming), China's energy consumption and sustainable development: comparative evidence from GDP and genuine savings. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews.
You, J. (forthcoming), Evaluating poverty duration and transition: a spell-approach to rural China. Applied Economics Letters. iFirst DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2010.537625.
You, J. (2008), 'Do current energy production and consumption promote sustained growth? International empirical comparison of genuine savings under globalization', paper presented at IV Scientific Conference on Globalization, Energy and Environment. Warsaw School of Economics, Poland, 29-30 May 2008.
You, J. (2008), 'China's pattern of energy consumption and sustainable development: Comparison of empirical analyses on GDP and genuine savings', paper presented at the Postgraduate Research Workshop in Economics, University of Sheffield, UK, 15-16 September 2008, and at the 3rd China Economics Education Annual Conference, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China, 20-21 September 2008.
You, J. (2008), 'Vulnerability to poverty in post-reform rural China', paper presented at Conference on New Directions in Welfare, St. Catherine's College, University of Oxford, 30 June-1 July 2009.
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